TAP Driver 9.21.0 causing a myriad of issues.

[ptes 0]

I think I have solved this problem. I'm a network administrator so I'm used to dealing with weird problems like this. I have been running a torrent program for 12 hours now with no dropouts at all, I downloaded 3 gig of files. This went up to the maximum upload speed with no problems. Before this it would disconnect every few minutes. I went through most of these fixes with pia, I gave up on them as none seemed to work and came here then found the same problem. Here is my theory of what the problem really is, and why some of these fixes help a little.

 

One clue was how the torrent tornado program didn't cause disconnections so the issue seems to be in uploads only. Another was in a forum where they said the router can grind the traffic to a halt so it stops completely. Also the tap adapter seems to get stuck, it can be freed by disabling it and then reenabling it. It relates to the openvpn driver, a message comes on that it is still running when this happens.

 

The problem seems to be the tap adapter driver times out and closes, then when a session tries to reconnect it can't find the tap adapter. The openvpn driver still has some data so it doesn't close, it keeps trying to connect to the tap adapter. This might be caused by the router getting congested, there could be no packets going through so the tap adapter closes. Another possibility is some buffers get full, you can increase the size of the buffers in the arirvpn preferences which may help this. My guess is airvpn tries to reconnect to the old session to resend the packets it still has, this is impossible because the TAP adapter has closed that session in a timeout. This is likely because UDP packets would be lost if discarded resulting in data being corrupted, I doubt the program would act different with the UDP and TCP settings. It can't restart the TAP adapter without losing some packets so it gets caught in  a loop.

 

The reason that changing settings in an antivirus helps is that the congestion might come from packet inspections, it slows down the traffic to the point where the tap adaptor times out and shuts down. Some firewall rules might also do this, it gets hit by so many UDP packets that it gets congested causing the timeout. This would explain why TCP helps because the packets would be resent keeping the TAP adapter working. To check this theory it would be necessary to talk to someone at Microsoft that worked on coding the TAP adapter, not difficult to do.

 

This is different to the explanation I got from support, that the TAP adapter was still in use so disabling and reenabling it freed it up. Some earlier versions of the TAP adapter might have a different timeout or not shut down, that would explain why they help sometimes. But the problem seems to be in this congestion in the torrent program, the openvpn driver, or the router. 

 

The solution then is simple, make sure the TAP adapter doesn't shut down. There is a setting that is called media status in the advanced tab. This is set to application controlled, that probably means an application is closing the TAP adapter when the packets get too congested. We don't know what that application is, it might be a Microsoft driver not the openvpn driver. Just set this to always connected. Now the TAP adapter cannot shut down from congestion. Since doing this it has never once dropped out for me with torrenting. I don't see how it can drop out with this setting.

 

It may not work for you, however I have not been able to find this solution posted anywhere on vpn forums. It makes sense and seems to explain why the fixes work a bit, and it is not dropping out for me any more. My explanation is probably not completely accurate, it would be necessary to talk to someone coding these drivers to get the exact situation.

[ptes 0]

Why is the problem caused by uploads, only???

In the client, the person decides on the ratio to download and upload torrents.

The person decides the connection limits and speed for downloads and uploads.

 

Are you sure that it is not how persons have their computer system set up?

Or, they have a crappy ISP like mine?

Or, they live in an area where the telephone lines have never been upgraded?

Or, they bought software that has requirements that their computer systems can not operate effectively?

 

Sometimes if you leech to much, you get banned.

 

I use a 7 year Acer  currently; before I used a Toshiba Satellite laptop  (10 years old)

Both use WIN 7 and Tap Driver 9.21.0.

 

I seed over 130 torrents on my clients and the torrent files vary from 800 megs to 64 gigs.

 

I use an $80 router with my ISP's modem.

 

You should see my other post which solved the problem for me, the TAP adapter shutting down. However I also tried qbtorrent with uploads at 1kB/s and it didn't drop out. When I increased the speed it dropped out again. The torrent tornado program doesn't drop out for me. So that strongly implies uploads are the issue. Bandwidth control in a torrent program is also blamed, however I think that is causing timeouts as explained in my other post. The higher uploads with many different destinations could be causing congestion leading to a timeout in the TAP adapter. With UDP this is worse as packets cannot be discarded, so if there is a timeout it cannot start a new session as explained. The problem is solved for me as explained in my other post, 14 hours of torrenting now and no disconnections. 

 

Your phone line might contribute to this congestion as could your modem. Leeching is not recommended, but people need to see it as an option. They might seed more later to make up for it.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

To check this theory it would be necessary to talk to someone at Microsoft that worked on coding the TAP adapter, not difficult to do.

 

TAP is written by OpenVPN Tech. You can talk to them via GitHub, I think.

 

I'll put your second theory to the test today. Thank you very much for your input!

[ptes 0]

I think I've found another solution, to run the torrent program in a virtual box. Install virtualbox, then there are Windows 10 images available for free online, they last for 90 days and then you reinstall them. Alternatively you take an early snapshot and revert back to this over and over. When running a torrent program in this there seems to be no disconnections problems with the standard torrent settings. 

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Alternatively you take an early snapshot and revert back to this over and over.

 

.. and when the system time is synced the next minute, you will need to revert again?

[ptes 0]

 

Alternatively you take an early snapshot and revert back to this over and over.

 

.. and when the system time is synced the next minute, you will need to revert again?

 

 

 

You might go back to the snapshot say once a month. You would save the files in a separate shared folder along with the torrents. So when you restart the snapshot from a month before you move the files back into the torrent folder and restart all the torrents. It would only take say 15 minutes and it is back to where it was, then you start seeding and downloading again. It's not easy to understand if you haven't used a virtual machine before. Alternatively you can use the virtual image for 90 days and then set up a new one. Another way is to use a Linux image, install a torrent program on that, and then you never need to go back to a snapshot as the Linux images are free. It's just the Windows images would normally cost money, Microsoft gives them away with this restriction for developers.

 

It's less hassle than putting up with disconnections, it would take about half an hour to set up a virtual box.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Thank you for explaining me what a VM is. I'm talking about the activation process. A snapshot restores the date and time, a sync will void the activation, unless you rearm or don't sync the time at all.

[ptes 0]

Thank you for explaining me what a VM is. I'm talking about the activation process. A snapshot restores the date and time, a sync will void the activation, unless you rearm or don't sync the time at all.

 

It's not a problem, once activated the snapshot stays activated. You can download the Windows 10 one here.

 

https://developer.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-edge/tools/vms/

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I think I have solved this problem. I'm a network administrator so I'm used to dealing with weird problems like this. I have been running a torrent program for 12 hours now with no dropouts at all, I downloaded 3 gig of files. This went up to the maximum upload speed with no problems. Before this it would disconnect every few minutes. I went through most of these fixes with pia, I gave up on them as none seemed to work and came here then found the same problem. Here is my theory of what the problem really is, and why some of these fixes help a little.

 

One clue was how the torrent tornado program didn't cause disconnections so the issue seems to be in uploads only. Another was in a forum where they said the router can grind the traffic to a halt so it stops completely. Also the tap adapter seems to get stuck, it can be freed by disabling it and then reenabling it. It relates to the openvpn driver, a message comes on that it is still running when this happens.

 

The problem seems to be the tap adapter driver times out and closes, then when a session tries to reconnect it can't find the tap adapter. The openvpn driver still has some data so it doesn't close, it keeps trying to connect to the tap adapter. This might be caused by the router getting congested, there could be no packets going through so the tap adapter closes. Another possibility is some buffers get full, you can increase the size of the buffers in the arirvpn preferences which may help this. My guess is airvpn tries to reconnect to the old session to resend the packets it still has, this is impossible because the TAP adapter has closed that session in a timeout. This is likely because UDP packets would be lost if discarded resulting in data being corrupted, I doubt the program would act different with the UDP and TCP settings. It can't restart the TAP adapter without losing some packets so it gets caught in  a loop.

 

The reason that changing settings in an antivirus helps is that the congestion might come from packet inspections, it slows down the traffic to the point where the tap adaptor times out and shuts down. Some firewall rules might also do this, it gets hit by so many UDP packets that it gets congested causing the timeout. This would explain why TCP helps because the packets would be resent keeping the TAP adapter working. To check this theory it would be necessary to talk to someone at Microsoft that worked on coding the TAP adapter, not difficult to do.

 

This is different to the explanation I got from support, that the TAP adapter was still in use so disabling and reenabling it freed it up. Some earlier versions of the TAP adapter might have a different timeout or not shut down, that would explain why they help sometimes. But the problem seems to be in this congestion in the torrent program, the openvpn driver, or the router. 

 

The solution then is simple, make sure the TAP adapter doesn't shut down. There is a setting that is called media status in the advanced tab. This is set to application controlled, that probably means an application is closing the TAP adapter when the packets get too congested. We don't know what that application is, it might be a Microsoft driver not the openvpn driver. Just set this to always connected. Now the TAP adapter cannot shut down from congestion. Since doing this it has never once dropped out for me with torrenting. I don't see how it can drop out with this setting.

 

It may not work for you, however I have not been able to find this solution posted anywhere on vpn forums. It makes sense and seems to explain why the fixes work a bit, and it is not dropping out for me any more. My explanation is probably not completely accurate, it would be necessary to talk to someone coding these drivers to get the exact situation.

 

I herewith confirm: This solution works with TAP 9.21.2 on Windows 8.1 - partly!

The driver is stable and works even in heavy use (torrenting, video stream, online gaming at the same time). Just like 9.9. My new personal recommendation would be to upgrade to TAP 9.21.2 and apply this fix.

 

... aaaand it's gone. Still crashing although not as often as before.

Personal recommendation: If you torrent and use the internet on the torrenting computer at the same time, it's still best to keep 9.9.2. Otherwise, upgrade and apply the fix.

Edited ... by giganerd

[ptes 0]

 

I think I have solved this problem. I'm a network administrator so I'm used to dealing with weird problems like this. I have been running a torrent program for 12 hours now with no dropouts at all, I downloaded 3 gig of files. This went up to the maximum upload speed with no problems. Before this it would disconnect every few minutes. I went through most of these fixes with pia, I gave up on them as none seemed to work and came here then found the same problem. Here is my theory of what the problem really is, and why some of these fixes help a little.

 

One clue was how the torrent tornado program didn't cause disconnections so the issue seems to be in uploads only. Another was in a forum where they said the router can grind the traffic to a halt so it stops completely. Also the tap adapter seems to get stuck, it can be freed by disabling it and then reenabling it. It relates to the openvpn driver, a message comes on that it is still running when this happens.

 

The problem seems to be the tap adapter driver times out and closes, then when a session tries to reconnect it can't find the tap adapter. The openvpn driver still has some data so it doesn't close, it keeps trying to connect to the tap adapter. This might be caused by the router getting congested, there could be no packets going through so the tap adapter closes. Another possibility is some buffers get full, you can increase the size of the buffers in the arirvpn preferences which may help this. My guess is airvpn tries to reconnect to the old session to resend the packets it still has, this is impossible because the TAP adapter has closed that session in a timeout. This is likely because UDP packets would be lost if discarded resulting in data being corrupted, I doubt the program would act different with the UDP and TCP settings. It can't restart the TAP adapter without losing some packets so it gets caught in  a loop.

 

The reason that changing settings in an antivirus helps is that the congestion might come from packet inspections, it slows down the traffic to the point where the tap adaptor times out and shuts down. Some firewall rules might also do this, it gets hit by so many UDP packets that it gets congested causing the timeout. This would explain why TCP helps because the packets would be resent keeping the TAP adapter working. To check this theory it would be necessary to talk to someone at Microsoft that worked on coding the TAP adapter, not difficult to do.

 

This is different to the explanation I got from support, that the TAP adapter was still in use so disabling and reenabling it freed it up. Some earlier versions of the TAP adapter might have a different timeout or not shut down, that would explain why they help sometimes. But the problem seems to be in this congestion in the torrent program, the openvpn driver, or the router. 

 

The solution then is simple, make sure the TAP adapter doesn't shut down. There is a setting that is called media status in the advanced tab. This is set to application controlled, that probably means an application is closing the TAP adapter when the packets get too congested. We don't know what that application is, it might be a Microsoft driver not the openvpn driver. Just set this to always connected. Now the TAP adapter cannot shut down from congestion. Since doing this it has never once dropped out for me with torrenting. I don't see how it can drop out with this setting.

 

It may not work for you, however I have not been able to find this solution posted anywhere on vpn forums. It makes sense and seems to explain why the fixes work a bit, and it is not dropping out for me any more. My explanation is probably not completely accurate, it would be necessary to talk to someone coding these drivers to get the exact situation.

 

I herewith confirm: This solution works with TAP 9.21.2 on Windows 8.1!

The driver is stable and works even in heavy use (torrenting, video stream, online gaming at the same time). Just like 9.9. My new personal recommendation would be to upgrade to TAP 9.21.2 and apply this fix.

 

I'm glad it worked for you. I'm assuming the reason the virtual box also works is how its adapter connects to the openVPN adapter. It probably buffers all its internet traffic more efficiently and so the TAP adapter doesn't time out or is closed by an application.

[lordbeau 8]

When you say: <<There is a setting that is called media status in the advanced tab. >>

 

In the advanced tab of what....? Where...?

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Device Manager. Or enter devmgmt.msc in search/Run.

Then look for TAP in Network Interfaces. Double click > Advanced tab.

[boyinacoma 0]

I'm a brand-new AirVPN user. I've never used VPN's before so I have no experience at all. 

 

I noticed my qBitorrent download was slower. I usually hit a max of 500KiB/s (4Mb/s), but with the AirVPN client installed and connected to a VPN, I was hitting a max of 350KiB/s (2.8Mb/s). I was reading up on this and found that increasing my buffer size within the client to 256KB improved my speed, but it was still throttling to 400KiB/s (3.2Mb/s). TAP driver was 9.21.0, if I remember correctly (it's uninstalled now). I found this thread and reverted back to driver 9.9.2, but speeds still hover around 350-420KiB/s. 

 

Is it worth trying the newest 9.21.2 driver and changing the settings as per the most recent recommendations? 

[goduke 0]

With old/new tap driver test your speed with http://www.speedtest.net, torrent speed can vary a lot.

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

I'm a brand-new AirVPN user. I've never used VPN's before so I have no experience at all. 

 

I noticed my qBitorrent download was slower. I usually hit a max of 500KiB/s (4Mb/s), but with the AirVPN client installed and connected to a VPN, I was hitting a max of 350KiB/s (2.8Mb/s). I was reading up on this and found that increasing my buffer size within the client to 256KB improved my speed, but it was still throttling to 400KiB/s (3.2Mb/s). TAP driver was 9.21.0, if I remember correctly (it's uninstalled now). I found this thread and reverted back to driver 9.9.2, but speeds still hover around 350-420KiB/s. 

 

Is it worth trying the newest 9.21.2 driver and changing the settings as per the most recent recommendations? 

 

I think you should focus on your connection: Server choice, used protocol, port,...

[soupy 7]

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

 

Yes, always try out the newest version. If it doesn't work as intended, apply the fix. If it still does not work for you, downgrade to 9.9.

If you're already using 9.9, consider doing nothing at all.

[Staff 9973]

 

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

 

Yes, always try out the newest version. If it doesn't work as intended, apply the fix. If it still does not work for you, downgrade to 9.9.

If you're already using 9.9, consider doing nothing at all.

 

 

 

 

We remind the casual readers that versions 9.9.2 and older ones are in many cases unusable in Windows 10.

 

Kind regards

[OpenSourcerer 1435]

 

 

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

 

Yes, always try out the newest version. If it doesn't work as intended, apply the fix. If it still does not work for you, downgrade to 9.9.

If you're already using 9.9, consider doing nothing at all.

 

 

We remind the casual readers that versions 9.9.2 and older are in many cases unusable in Windows 10.

 

Kind regards

 

I agree with the "older", but! One specific version, 9.9.2_3, works as intended.

[Staff 9973]

 

 

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

 

Yes, always try out the newest version. If it doesn't work as intended, apply the fix. If it still does not work for you, downgrade to 9.9.

If you're already using 9.9, consider doing nothing at all.

 

 

We remind the casual readers that versions 9.9.2 and older are in many cases unusable in Windows 10.

 

Kind regards

I agree with the "older", but! One specific version, 9.9.2_3, works as intended.

 

 

Yes, we consider 9.9.2_3 newer than 9.9.2.

 

Kind regards

[soupy 7]

 

 

 

 

Do you recommend TAP 9.21.2 ?

 

Yes, always try out the newest version. If it doesn't work as intended, apply the fix. If it still does not work for you, downgrade to 9.9.

If you're already using 9.9, consider doing nothing at all.

 

 

We remind the casual readers that versions 9.9.2 and older are in many cases unusable in Windows 10.

 

Kind regards

I agree with the "older", but! One specific version, 9.9.2_3, works as intended.

 

Yes, we consider 9.9.2_3 newer than 9.9.2.

 

Kind regards

 

k thanks I am using  9.21.1 no issues on windows 10, is 9.21.2 the newest version ? 

 

Never mind checked the websites shows it at the newest, testing now on windows 10 seems fine. 

Edited ... by soupy

[blackmatt 0]

The solution then is simple, make sure the TAP adapter doesn't shut down. There is a setting that is called media status in the advanced tab. This is set to application controlled, that probably means an application is closing the TAP adapter when the packets get too congested. We don't know what that application is, it might be a Microsoft driver not the openvpn driver. Just set this to always connected. Now the TAP adapter cannot shut down from congestion. Since doing this it has never once dropped out for me with torrenting. I don't see how it can drop out with this setting.

 

It may not work for you, however I have not been able to find this solution posted anywhere on vpn forums. It makes sense and seems to explain why the fixes work a bit, and it is not dropping out for me any more. My explanation is probably not completely accurate, it would be necessary to talk to someone coding these drivers to get the exact situation.

 

Just to say that this solution worked for me with Windows 10 .. I had made a post over in the thread 'Latest Windows 10 Build breaks OpenVPN TAP Driver?':

 

https://airvpn.org/topic/16052-latest-windows-10-build-breaks-openvpn-tap-driver/?p=46963

 

.. where I was getting disconnects and network freezes whenever I tried using p2p software.  Tried out your fix this evening and all seems to be working fine so far.  Thanks.

[Trial1986 0]

Downgraded from TAP 9.21.2 to 9.9.2_3 to see what the effect would be - huge improvement in both overall torrent speeds and simultaneous downloads. Big kudos to the OP for troubleshooting this!

[3vSIMdRVv6Q1TmbFsIiP8QV8 1]

I'm pretty sure this belongs on this thread, but please let me know if I need to start a new thread. 

So far, everything here has worked for me... I went ahead and installed the beta 2.11.3... and so far so good, except....

I have the client set to start at each reboot, and then I've set a server and a deluge client on a delayed startup so they will use the tunnel.... the problem seems to be that it won't reconnect automatically upon startup. (Log below)

If I go into the Prefs -> Advanced and 'uninstall driver' and then reconnect, it auto-reinstalls the tunnel driver and connects correctly. 

Ideally, it would bootup.... AirVPN client would run and connect... and then the server and torrent client would run and establish through the tunnel. 
Right now, at bootup... AirVPN client runs and tries to connect, disconnects, and tries again over and over.... server & torrent client run and won't connect.... 
...so once I uninstall/reinstall the driver, I have to stop the server and client, re-open them, and then they connect over the tunnel. 

 

[midrankoram69 1]

Many thanks for this thread, as I too am having serious issues regarding torrent download speeds. This is my 2nd day into using AirVPN.

giganerd, I've taken your recommended steps from your post at 08 March 2016 - 01:19 AM and numbered them for ease of explanation. I think I'm OK with all but step #3. Am I supposed to uninstall Eddie before step 3?
If not, what does "Let Eddie upgrade again" mean?
Thanks, in anticipation.

1. download TAP 9.9.2 3.exe

2. Then download and install Revo Uninstaller

3. Let Eddie upgrade again

4. Then disable driver update.

5. Reboot.

6. Use Revo to uninstall the driver.

7. Reboot.

8. Install TAP 9.9.

9. Reboot.

10. Start Eddie