VPN (SonicWall) will not connect over T-mobile 5G Hotspot

bchandler02 wrote:

Yeah, this worked on my P5. I am wondering if only newer phones are able to filter out this IPSEC based traffic? 

 

Either way, T-Mo needs to step up and at least answer why they are doing this, if not stop all together. It's insane that they would block a corporate user trying to VPN back to their corporate network to do some work, while allowing hotspot video streaming. Not sure what they are trying to accomplish here. 

That’s my guess. It was never an issue on my P3, only my P5 (and I assume my P7Pro, but have not tested it yet). 

@T-Mobile - why can we not get an answer here? 

Experiencing the same issue receiving numerous calls from our employees working from home using T-mobile's new 5g home internet.  My IPSEC VPN (Global Protect) will not work over the other T-mobile hotspots either. Spent half the day with Sonicwall's engineering to find T-mobile's service was not passing the VPN traffic on ports 500 & 4500.  Hot spots on Verizon and ATT work with no issues. 

Yeah, this worked on my P5. I am wondering if only newer phones are able to filter out this IPSEC based traffic? 

Either way, T-Mo needs to step up and at least answer why they are doing this, if not stop all together. It's insane that they would block a corporate user trying to VPN back to their corporate network to do some work, while allowing hotspot video streaming. Not sure what they are trying to accomplish here. 

I just found this thread because I'm having the same problem. Hotspot on a Google Pixel 5a. The Sonicwall VPN client on my laptop appears to be having its connection attempts blocked. Everything else works. Fortunately, I'm just testing a new laptop, and it won't actually be used this way. But it would have been nice to know so I didn't spend an hour troubleshooting.

I'm having this issue now too. Used to work fine on my Pixel 5.. not sure I ever used it on the P6, and now have a P7Pro. 

My IPSEC VPN (Global Protect) will not work over the hotspot. It shows connected, but attempts to access anything internal behind the VPN go nowhere. External access to CNN, Google, etc. work fine. 

If I set the VPN client to use SSL only, it works. And of course everything works fine from a land-based OSP. 

Tmobile - really need an answer here. My phone is on a business account and I need to be able to access my corporate VPN via hotspot. This is ridiculous. 

I am supporting a user with a new S21, Can't connect with Global VPN client on a laptop tethered to the phone.  The sim card in another device works this way, and their previous phone, an S10 worked this way.  
I have tried all the methods mentioned.  But through testing I have determined for sure that the packets are not arriving to the Sonicwall at all.   The other interesting thing is that on the phone, if you download the GVPN app, it connects on the phone no problem.  But when a laptop is tethered, it goes around that VPN client on the phone and doesn't work.  It appears that the phone itself is blocking or somehow that phone on the T-Mobile network is blocking ports 500/4500 only on the hotspot connection. 
This user needs to use their phone as a hotspot and connect their business laptop to their office VPN connection. 
I have not found a solution yet.  

I found a post about turning off IPv6 on my WiFi connection on my Windows laptop that resolved this issue for me.

The issue I was having was that from my Windows laptop, I was NOT able to VPN into my workplace using my personal hot-spot thru my iphone 12 (I’m running iOS 15.1.1) using TMOBILE.

To resolve the issue, I had to disable IPv6 on my Wireless connection on my laptop.

Do disable IPv6 on my Wireless connection on my Windows laptop I did these steps:

1. Open “Network and Internet Settings”
2. Under “Advanced Network Settings”, Click on “Change adapter options”
3. It will bring up a list of Network connections, double click on the one that says “Wi-Fi”
4. In the new dialog box, click on “Properties” bottom left, do NOT click on “Wireless Properties”
5. The next dialog box will have a list of "This connection uses the following items”
6. Scroll down in that list to find “Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)”, this will be in the list after the “Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)”.
7. Uncheck the box in front of "Internet Protocol Version 6 (TCP/IPv6)". Leave the IPv4 checked.
8. Hit “OK”

After I did these steps I was able to use the VPN client (in my case it is the FortiClient VPN) and I was able to successfully VPN thru my hot-spot thru my TMOBILE service.

I also went back and retested using a normal WiFi connection (thru my home network) and everything still worked in that case too.

Back in 2020, I was able to work remotely through VPN using the t-mobile hotspot without issue. Now the reliability of the connection seems iffy, and I am not able to access certain things as I could before. In addition, previously I could connect to Udacity's coding modules without issue (while not connected to VPN), but now they seem to be blocked while on hotspot.

I am not sure what has changed, using the same phone as before, but this really has put a major damper on my ability to use my laptop remotely.

I have had the same problem with my Samsung A32 5G for the last 3 months, giving up. All devices connected to its Hotspot go to "connected without internet" any time after connection, rendering Hotspot virtually useless. Two more warranty replacement units failed in the same way.  The same A32 of my wife's works fine though, even VPN connection too.  Oneplus N200 5G and older Samsung J7 Star work flawlessly.  5G related? What is going on, T Mobile?  I have been left in the lurch with your nonchalance.

BenF12345 wrote:

Hopefully this helps someone else.  I had this same problem with my s21 5g phone.  I saw a suggestion to switch to 3G.  Poof.  I immediately connected to my work VPN.  I was then able to switch my phone back to 5G and stay connected.  The next time I tried I left it on 5G and it worked.  I don't know the technical reason, but it seemed like it somehow couldn't pass the VPN security while on 5G, but after connecting once, it's all good.  Maybe someone else can explain better, but worked for me. 

Thank you for the information.   Please clarify whether you were making the VPN connection from your phone itself or if you were making a VPN connection from your laptop and using the phone as a hotspot.   Also, do you know what type of VPN you are using (SSL, IPSEC, IKEv2, etc.)?

At least some of the folks in this thread are trying to do the latter (connecting from a laptop)