ANSWERED Can't connect airVPN on android 13 when using mobile data?

[SeUbHS 3]

I downloaded eddie v3 on the playstore and it connects just fine when connected to wifi, but it can't find any servers when using my t-mobile connection. I've tried switching from wireguard to ovpn using tcp on port 443 but that still didn't fix it. Here's my log.

Eddie_Log_created_on_14_Aug_2023_08_15_34_UTC.txt

[OpenSourcerer 1361]

Looks like T-Mobile US prevents connections to VPN services. Bootstrap servers and the servers themselves are unreachable with TCP and UDP port 443. Interesting.

[flat4 79]

Hmm

[SeUbHS 3]

Oh.... so there's no workarounds at all for getting this thing working? ; /

[OpenSourcerer 1361]

11 hours ago, SeUbHS said:

Oh.... so there's no workarounds at all for getting this thing working? ; /

 .

[Snowsuit8087 4]

I skimmed through your log file and remembered hearing about issues with T-Mobile and VPN connectivity. Could you change your Default IP version in the Eddie Android app to being IPv6 only, instead of IPv6 over IPv4? 

[SeUbHS 3]

19 hours ago, Snowsuit8087 said:

I skimmed through your log file and remembered hearing about issues with T-Mobile and VPN connectivity. Could you change your Default IP version in the Eddie Android app to being IPv6 only, instead of IPv6 over IPv4? 

Doing that just causes the "connection failed" dialogue to get spammed on my screen. Tried it with both ovpn and wireguard.
 

20 hours ago, OpenSourcerer said:

 .

Thanks, but that's a big oof. Looks like we'd have to run those commands in termux every time before connecting to the VPN. However, I was curious and I tried openvpn tls mode set to tls crypt inside the eddie app because my newbie thinking was that TLS is the newer version of SSL. Didn't work though and I just got a bunch of connection failed dialogue popups.

On a different note, I saw an option in the settings to run the VPN on mobile network only while routing all local network traffic normally. Is there a way to do the opposite of this? I want it to instead route mobile network data normally while routing all local network traffic over the VPN. Otherwise the VPN causes the phone to get confused/glitched when I leave my house to where even if I disable the VPN, I end up needing to restart my whole phone just to get access to my mobile data. If not, I might just have to get rid of the phone VPN altogether.

[Snowsuit8087 4]

7 hours ago, SeUbHS said:

Doing that just causes the "connection failed" dialogue to get spammed on my screen. Tried it with both ovpn and wireguard.

Hmm, have you opened a support request? I initially doubted that T-Mobile would IP-block AirVPN, but there are a couple of threads that seem to show semi-similar behavior.
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/21585-iphone-vpn-through-t-mobile/
https://airvpn.org/forums/topic/49677-airvpn-no-longer-works-on-new-home-wifi-t-mobile/

[Staff 9764]

Hello!

From the support team in reply to a ticket mentioning this problem with T-Mobile:

 

Quote

 

Hello and thank you for your choice!

 

We confirm that we receive reports of all sorts of troubles from T-Mobile customers. Please try a connection with Eddie Android edition but with a profile, so that the bootstrap servers are bypassed. Make sure you generate a profile (in our Configuration Generator) for OpenVPN, protocol TCP, port 443, entry-IP address three. Then, import the profile in Eddie Android edition, and perform the connection through that profile (if in doubt, re-check the instructions to connect via OpenVPN profile, chapter 5 here: https://airvpn.org/android/eddie/

 

We're looking forward to hearing from you.

Kind regards

AirVPN Support Team

 

Kind regards
 

[SeUbHS 3]

On 8/18/2023 at 5:56 AM, Staff said:

Hello!

From the support team in reply to a ticket mentioning this problem with T-Mobile:

 

Kind regards
 

Worked a treat, thanks! Just curious: why do I need to bypass connecting to the bootstrap servers? Is t-mobile blocking the connection to them specifically in addition to blocking UDP traffic or something?

[Staff 9764]

1 hour ago, SeUbHS said:

Worked a treat, thanks! Just curious: why do I need to bypass connecting to the bootstrap servers? Is t-mobile blocking the connection to them specifically in addition to blocking UDP traffic or something?

Hello!

We're very glad to hear that the suggestion by support team worked.
We don't know for sure, and we can imagine three potential, alternative explanations:

1) All the bootstrap servers IP addresses have become known and they are blocked. Unlikely explanation: if you have tested our "secret" bootstrap servers, we think that T-Mobile can not know them.

2) The specific connection used by Eddie (HTTP) is blocked when the underlying payload is encrypted. Eddie encrypts data to the bootstrap servers and then sends them over plain HTTP: in the past it was a good method to bypass certain blocks. Of course data coming back are encrypted by the servers.

3) Direct access via HTTP(S) to IP addresses (in place of domain names) is blocked (not uncommon in various filter methods). To cross-check you may enter a name as secret bootstrap server (for example airvpn.org) in Eddie's Android edition settings.

Kind regards