iPad VPN connection problems

[Ratty]

I came across BlackVPN yesterday who have a iPad offering (UK connection to US servers):

https://www.blackvpn.com/

I signed up for a month and set up the iPad accordingly and the VPN connected immediately. OK I thought now lets try some apps ie. ABC player etc. Now the problems occur, as soon as you start an app the connection drops with an error message saying "connection dropped by communications device, check your settings etc". The settings are OK (PPTP) and as I said the VPN does connect and stays connected until you start an app. BlackVPN support have so far not provided an answer, their last comments was "thats weird!".

Has anyone had experiences with BlackVPN with an iPad or anything else? Can anyone suggest an alternative VPN source (access to US server from UK). I do not want to spend alot more money on this if there are issues with my local network so I'm looking for an alternative to try (short term subscription perhaps).

Any ideas or suggestions??

 

[avaloncourt]

I use ukivpn and have never had a problem with the iPhone/iPad.

 

[patrikr]

Same here, I have used UKVPN for over a year on the PC/Mac to stream Netflix movies and it works fine on the iPhone/iPad as well.

 

[Jonadei]

Hey ratty! Got the same problem here. Also blackvpn and iPad. With the laptop it works pretty well but since two days I receive the same error message then you. But at first it also worked with the iPad.
Wrote them an email, hopefully I get a proper reply.
Thats really annoying...

/edit

Found out something strange. If you go to the settings and change the VPN type of your blackvpn account to L2TP (which is not supported by blackvpn) for example and enter some random numbers for the 'Shared Secret' and try to connect and cancel the connection procedure afterwards, it will start to dial with the old settings again. But then the connection will be disconnected by itself, why I think its an iOS problem maybe.

/edit no 2

Now I got it work again. After this step above I changed my enryption level from automatic to none and back again. Its definitely an iOS issue.

 

[sabauda]

blackvpn ipad issues

I have the same issue as Ratty, and so far no solution. Just checking in here to see if anyone has resolved it. Thanks

 

[Ratty]

I have the same issue as Ratty, and so far no solution. Just checking in here to see if anyone has resolved it. Thanks

My problem with BlackVPN was in fact due to the router I was using I found after much investigation. I was previously using a Netgear router, the VPN session would start OK but the drop when I tried using an app (ABC viewer for instance). I switched to a Linksys / Ciso router and this fixed the VPN drop out problem. Apparently with the Netgear router I was using (834G or something) VPN pass through was not implemented properly. According my son who's a Cisco CCIE network engineer this is not uncommon with some of the earlier routers, most up to date one's appear to implement VPN pass through better.