PIA VPN Dropping Out Ater Upgrade - Solved

[handyman4848]

I am experiencing a weird problem with my PIA VPN dropping out after varying periods of time. I have been using PIA for quite a long time, since Linux Mint 13 on the Mate Desktop and had no problem until I upgraded from Linux Mint 17 Mate to Mint 17.3 Mate. After considerable time and frustration and with assistance from my ISP, PIA Tech Support and various internet searches, changing port settings and udp to tcp all to no avail, I switched to the Cinamon Desktop (for totally unrelated reasons) and suddenly the problem was solved.

All was well for over a year then I upgraded to Linux Mint 18.3 Cinamon and now the problem is back. I tried the afore mentioned suggestions but once again they have no effect on my problem. My VPN service keeps dropping connections after varying amounts of time. The problem seems to be worse at busy internet times like around noon or 5 to 6 pm but that might be my imagination.In any case I upgraded my internet service from 6Mbps to 30 Mbps and that did not help. (Speeded up my downloads though.):-)

Since the problem only occurred after upgrading from Mint 17 to Mint 17.3 on the Mate desktop, was cured by changing to the Cinamon desktop on Mint 17.3 and came back after upgrading to Mint 18.3 Cinamon, I can only conclude that the problem lies somewhere in Linux Mint 18.3 and not with PIA, my ISP or my setup.

Does anyone have an idea what the problem might be?

[handyman4848]

Problem solved! I installed and set up my PIA VPN following step by step instructions downloaded from the PIA forum, as recommended by PIA tech support when I had my previous troubles a year ago.When comparing my new set-up with my old settings I noticed that "Method" under the IPv4 tab was set to "Automatic (VPN)" instead of "Automatic (VPN) addresses only" as in my old set-up. This step was omitted in the set-up instructions I used and when I changed it to "Automatic (VPN) addresses only" the problem was resolved.