Connecting to VPN stops UWP apps internet communication

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I am making an app which requires connecting to a specific payment gateway. This payment gateway restricts us to use its VPN for communicating with its API. The problem is as soon as I connect to this VPN, internet connectivity for UWP apps stop functioning. First I thought its problem with my app but even standard apps like Store and Edge browser even doesn't work. Please let me know a workaround to make UWP apps to function with VPN. Since other apps apart from UWP function properly like Firefox, IE, etc easily open up web pages. Skype desktop works... its just UWP apps which don't work.

Thanks in advance.

uwp windows c#
2 Answers

From answers.microsoft.com (Thanks to "Ovidiu Cimpian")

  • go to Control Panel\Network and Internet\Network Connections
  • open the adapter for the vpn.
  • Right click -> properties and go to Networking tab.
  • Select internet protocol version 4 (and/or 6) -> properties -> advanced
  • deselect Use default gateway on remote network.
user_29679650

This will depend on how you are creating the VPN Interface and what the expectation for routing as well as the Interface classification is.

Classification : Network classification such as Private, Public, Domain. You can check the interface classification by running the Powershell Commadlet : 

Get-NetConnectionProfile

This will impact the UWP traffic since, if the traffic is trying to go through the VPN, it will require the Private Networking Capability to be able to go through an Interface marked as Private (and there are no other Network Isolation rules set) More details for at : https://msdn.microsoft.com/library/windows/apps/hh770532.aspx

To check if this is the issue one quick way would be to try using an inbox tool from an admin command prompt as follows

checknetisolation Debug -n=<Package Family Name>

You can get the for an app by running the Get-AppxPackage commandlet in Powershell. With the above command, you will be prompted to use the app and reproduce the issue. Once it has been reproduced you will come back to the app and hit Ctrl + C and it will display if it detected any Drops due to incorrect Capabilities.

Routing Now in general when a VPN connection is made and no routes are set it is marked as a Force Tunnel VPN. What that means is that the Default route for other interfaces gets disabled and the VPN interface's default route gets prioritized. I am not sure if this is your intention. If you only need to use the VPN to communicate with the Payment Gateway, you should consider making the VPN split tunneled after which apps like Edge and Store should continue working going over the physical interface and your App will work as long as it has the Private Networking capability.

user_88409260
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