I created an openvpn server and exported an ovpn file that I then imported into a client on my computer, everything connects without issue and the internet connection seems stable. However, when I did the same thing on pfsense I get a highly unstable connection where the server maintains a connection but I seem to have lots of Dns issues (websites won’t load).
Can anyone help me debug what’s going on? Currently looking at sys log but not seeing much.
I don’t have much to add to OpenVPN, but I recommend looking into Wireguard. It’s a fantastic option.
If you’re using WIFI, check this first.
An unrealiable WIFI connection can make your VPN disconnect.
Use ping to detect if you get lost packets or a lot of variation on times.
Use nslookup or dig to test your DNSs.
Lots of DNS issues points to a DNS issue most likely.
What DNS servers are specified for the OpenVPN clients on pfsense?
I’m very new to this and had similar issues. This might be dumb, but I was connecting from my phone and laptop at the same time using the same openvpn client file and it was causing similar issues as to yours. I created another client file for my laptop so now I use a different file for both devices and it works perfectly fine.
I had a similar problem. This helped:
In my case I had a custom DNS server for local machines, but I was pushing some other public DNS servers in the Internet from the OpenVPN server. OpenVPN was selecting a DNS ramdomly from the list, so I was unable to access local machines some times. I deleted the other DNS servers and it seems to work as expected.