[Help] VPN Kill Switch Killed My Internet

I’m not sure if this is where I’m supposed to ask, but any help would be greatly appreciated.

After trying out the service with Private Internet Access (PIA) and it working out well, I tried using the VPN Kill Switch feature. It works well! However, ever since I’ve disconnected from the VPN (Yes, I did choose disconnect in the options)… I’ve been unable to connect to any internet services whatsoever. I’m running Win7.

I’ve tried:

  • Rebooting the computer
  • Closing out of the PIA manager software
  • Reconnecting to the PIA VPN (Unable to succeed)
  • Turning off the option for VPN Internet Kill Switch (And saving it)
  • Forgetting the internet network and putting all of the details back in again
  • Reconnecting to a different internet network
  • Uninstalling and reinstalling the PIA manager

Any help is appreciated! Thank You!

I’ve posted this in the PIA forums as well with no reply yet. Link

EDIT:
I’ve also tried performing a system restore

EDIT2: I Fixed the problem by performing another system restore. I didn’t get to try out some of the ideas below, such as /u/7trXMk6Z suggestion. However, I’d still like to thank you all for helping me out. Hopefully, this can help anyone else out have problems in the future. You guys are great.

Go to your system tray in the bottom right, right click the “network” icon and click “troubleshoot problems.” It’ll say something like “DHCP” something or the other, just click fix and it’ll fix everything.

go into network and sharing center, click on “change adapter settings” on the left side, find your main internet connection that should be working, right click it and hit properties, click on “Internet Protocol Verison 4 (TCP/IPv4)”, leave it checked but hit the properties button that becomes visible when you selected it, and hit the radio button “Obtain an IP address automatically” and then also hit the other one “Obtain DNS server address automatically”. Click OK. Your internet should work now. feel free to give me gold for this comment by the way. im almost out and need more.

I just spent the last 2 hours trying to get my internet going again. Not happy with PureVPN.

i usually fix this by typing
“netsh interface ip set dns “Local Area Connection” dhcp” in the command prompt. make sure you run it as administrator.

The internet kill switch clears your gateway ip address. I hate it with a passion. Exit PIA then manually re-enter your ip address, gateway, dns etc…

It’s because it removes your gateway IP in your network adapter settings, you need to set it back to DHCP

I had the same problem and there was a bug with the dns-leak-protection.
The automatic dhcp gets messed up when the computer hibernates while PIA is active. Just set your IPv4 settings to automatic. Ill try to find the thread on the PIA forums.

  1. PIA’s Forums > https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/
  2. PIA’s Support/Live Chat (bottom right) > PIA Support Portal
  3. PIA’s Official Contact Info > https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/contact-us
  4. PIA’s (unofficial) IRC Channel > #privateinternetaccess @ irc.freenode.net

BobPope, just for information so it may help you in future. The internet Kill switch also comes with an option called “Manual Disconnection”. If you enable that option in your dialer of which ever VPN you are using, it disconnects or you can say kill internet connection if you disconnect VPN manually.

So, it pretty techy to understand that no untill your VPN is not connected you cannot connect back your Internet and when you have no Internet how can you connect VPN. Isn’t It?

I am not exactly sure, but this could be the problem that you were facing with PIA. It is the responsibility of VPN providers to let you know about these kinds of technical aspects. The simplest solution is to reset manually the default settings of the VPN dialer. By just unchecking the options.

You don’t need to restore your system. Just go to your TCP/IPv4 DNS settings and change to automatic and it will work. Just had to do the same now for mine that crashed.

How to tell if my internet is being hacked

Note, this disables the kill-switch, which kind of defeats the purpose, but you will be able to connect to the internet again.

That has to be the first time an automated system repair feature has fixed anything. You’re the man!

Had same problem as OP and this worked, thank you!

I am forced to do this a couple of times a day, and I don’t have the kill switch enabled. Any suggestions?

Thank you for your help. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try it out as I attempted one more system restore and resolved my problem. Although, I don’t think that I’ll be trying out the VPN Kill Switch anymore. If I get bored, maybe I’ll try recreating the problem and seeing how far this gets me.

Fixed my problem too - legend!

Fixed my issue too. Thanks!

Thanks, that worked. I just don’t understand why the automatic trouble shooting cannot fix that.