A Virtual Private Network (VPN) provides you with a way of ‘masking’ your online footprint, thereby significantly improving your online privacy. This is done by creating protected connections called VPN tunnels between your connection and a remote server.
To set up a VPN connection there are a couple of popular ways. You can either install a browser extension or download a dedicated VPN client. The browser extension will handle everything and all you really need to do is install it and use it. VPN clients, such as OpenVPN, require manual setup and configuration.
VPN clients offer a lot of customizability and are therefore recommended for advanced users. However, you might run into some problems when running a VPN through these clients. For this article, we’ll be focusing on the common VPN error messages that you might encounter in OpenVPN.
#1. OpenVPN Terminated with Exit Code 1 Windows
This is a common error message that will cause your OpenVPN client to not connect to the internet. This happens when you try to run the client with insufficient user privileges. This is a problem at the operating system end – your OpenVPN client is not responsible for this.
To resolve this issue, make sure that you have administrator privileges for your Windows account. To ensure this, right-click the OpenVPN executable and select “Run as Administrator”. If this does not seem to fix the issue, right-click the executable and select the “Properties” menu option. In the properties window, select the Compatibility tab and check the box that says “Run this program as an administrator”.
#2. Failed to Auto-Start in Windows 10
This problem may occur after a migration to Windows 10 from an older version of the operating system. If you’re experiencing OpenVPN startup issues, there are chances that the OpenVPN service is not loading the “openvpn.exe” executable properly.
To diagnose the issue, launch the task manager and go to the ‘Details’ tab. Look for “openvpnserv.exe” and “openvpn.exe”. If the “openvpn.exe” is missing but “openvpnserv.exe” is running, the OpenVPN service has failed to launch the application.
To rectify this, you will have to force the OpenVPN service to restart, which will cause it to load the “openvpn.exe” executable as well. You may run into this problem multiple times, and you’ll have to force-restart the OpenVPN service whenever it happens.
#3. Please Re-Install TAP Driver / OpenVPN Adaptor Error
This error may occur when you’re trying to connect to a server but a security issue on Windows prevents it. The source of the security issue can either be a security program such as an anti-virus or Windows itself.
To make sure it’s not Windows, run OpenVPN with full administrator privileges. To do this, simply right-click the OpenVPN icon and choose “Run as Administrator”.
If this does not solve the problem, it might be caused by the firewall or an anti-virus program. Try disabling your firewall or pausing your anti-virus’s real-time protection. In some cases, completely removing, installing OpenVPN and re-installing the anti-virus will remove this error.
#4. Netsh Command Failed – Returned Error Code 1
This error can occur due to a number of reasons. The first thing to ensure is that your OpenVPN client has been installed properly and you are running the client with administrator privileges.
To run the OpenVPN client with administrator privileges, right-click the OpenVPN icon and select “Run as Administrator”.
If this doesn’t solve the issue, there might be a deeper issue, caused by a naming error for the TAP-Windows adaptor. To rectify this, go the Windows Control Panel. Once in the control panel, navigate to “Networks and Internet”. From there, click on “Network and Sharing Center” and then click “Change settings for network adaptor”. In the list of adapters, find the one that says “TAP-Windows Adaptor V9”. Right-click the adaptor’s icon and click on “Change name” and rename the adaptor to “tap0”.
Once this is done, relaunch OpenVPN with administrator privileges and try connecting again.
#5. Error: “A connection failed because the connected party did not properly respond after a period of time”
If your OpenVPN client is failing to connect due to a timeout error, there can be several causes for this. Make sure to run ping tests on your internal network address to make sure there is no problem there. This problem can also occur in wireless connections, where the traffic isn’t routed properly by OpenVPN. There is an option in the client to force it to route all traffic, which usually solves this issue.