Using a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a good way to bypass ISP restriction such as website or port blockages. One can easily setup a VPN through a server or purchase paid subscriptions by providers. Setting up a VPN is fairly easy and you can get it done within minutes but there are little problems that come with it.
I have seen many of the users who face problems accessing websites after setting up a PPTP/L2TP VPN, the webpages won’t load (or stuck at loading) at all but other websites would load just fine. So, I have mentioned some steps below that could fix this problem.
Websites Not Opening in VPN [Fix]
1. Correct your network adapter MTU [works 80% of time]
MTU is the packet size that helps making a connection between your Computer and the server. If it is not properly determined, you will face issues. To correct MTU size, follow steps:
Open Comment prompt (cmd) with administrator privileges.
Type the following command and press Enter.
netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces
It will show you connected LAN/WiFi network adapters, bytes sent and received including the MTU size. Now what you need to do is to adjust the MTU size using the following command.
netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface "Local Area Connection" mtu=nnnn store=persistent
Local Area Connection (red) is the name of the network connection on your computer, from the list obtained above.
nnnn (green) is the desired value for MTU.
The default MTU size is 1500 on many connections. Try lowering it down to 1472, 1450, 1380 until the websites start opening again on your PC.
Remember, you need to restart your PC for the changes to take effect.
2. If changing MTU does not work for you, change the DNS settings.
Change your DNS IP addresses to popular free service like, Google DNS.
Go to Network adapter settings, change TCP/IPv4 properties and set DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4
After doing this, go to command prompt, and type “ipconfig /flushdns” and press Enter.
If you are using Chrome or Firefox, press CTRL+Shift+DEL and remove the browsing history, cookies and cache. They sometime prevent the websites from opening.
If you have any other troubleshooting tips, or have any ideas to improve this guide, please comment below. Thanks for reading!
Thanks Alot!!!
Thank you, thank you, thank you! 1472 worked for me. I wish I had found this article 3 months ago. Much appreciated.
Thanks so much! It really works and does solve the loading problem that troubled me for months =D
Thanks, Adding DNS worked for me!
I love you guy !
MTU 1450 was enough for me !
<3 Thanks
Thx guy! Amazing solution!
Thanks. I am using a router setup with PPTP and purevpn. The default MTU was 1420 and I couldn’t load liveleak.com, speedtest.net and a few other media rich websites. I changed it first to 1400 and the internet stopped working altogether. I then changed it to 1380 and now all websites are working. I didn’t have to change the default 1500 MTU in windows I just left it. Thanks for your tutorial.
Symptoms: Could access all websites without fail when not on VPN. When on VPN, could not seem to access any websites.
I lowered the MTU to 1380 at the router and all magically works.
dns one working , thanks a lot..
Step was was successful for me! Very happy here. Thanks!
For me (using NordVPN):
Adjusting the MTU value prevented any websites from loading.
Changing the DNS has worked, but I also had to set the DNS values inside the vpn apps advanced settings.
Just an FYI.
Thanks for the post, OP.
Hi,
Thanks I tried all the above options but still my applications arent loading. I see a Green page displayed as ‘Page unable to load due to server error’. Is there any other way to make things work on a VPN connectivity? I dont use LAN but wifi.
Greatly appreciate it.
This is awesome. I’d been looking for this solution. The MTU works great.
Hello.
I’m struggling with a lot of webpages since I have VPN installed and active.
Sorry for being noob, but I don’t quite understand what exactly to do in cmd.
This is what I have done:
– Opened cmd with administrator privilege.
– Typed the following command : “netsh interface ipv4 show subinterfaces” and pressed Enter.
– At that point I get a window similar to the screenshot in the description.
But here is where I’m stuck. It’s in the next command “netsh interface ipv4 set subinterface “Local Area Connection” mtu=nnnn store=persistent” :
-I suppose I have to replace the red “Local Area Connection” to something else?? What??
-And change the green “nnnn” to either 1472, 1450 or 1380?
I tried the second solution (change DNS settings), but it didn’t work for me.
Thank you for your time and help!
Just so everyone understands, for either procedure to work, you have to reboot your computer after changing these settings.
And just FYI, DO NOT use googles DNS. Use Nords. 103.86.96.100 and or 103.86.99.100
You only specify one network connection, however I often show multiple network adapters.
MTU MediaSenseState Bytes In Bytes Out Interface
—— ————— ——— ——— ————-
1472 1 17665133 2931136 Wi-Fi
1500 5 0 0 Bluetooth Network Connection
1500 5 0 0 Ethernet
4294967295 1 0 181918 Loopback Pseudo-Interface 1
1500 5 0 0 Local Area Connection* 5
1500 5 0 0 Local Area Connection* 6
1500 1 11005531 1157316 Ethernet 2
Which one’s am I supposed to change? Thanks!
None of this worked for me. It turned out to be an annoying issue with my VPN. Instead of Automatic I chose UDP protocol and the site finally loaded.
MTU 1472 for Wi-Fi worked for me, left all others at 1500! Odd that our cell phones, Android TV box, smart TV, etc. have no issues loading web pages with wifi, only this desktop’s wifi connection had an issue. We use NordVPN but DID NOT have to use alternate DNS, either in Windows nor in NordVPN app. Thanks so much—woohoo!
I love this guy!
Thanks for the MTU hint!
Glad, I could be of help.
Thanks for reading.
Fantastic, it worked by lowering the MTU straight to 1380. Thank you so much, you’re amazing, got me out of a lot of trouble !