macOS 26.2 VLESS/V2Ray VPN connects, no internet

sergeyfrommontchanin wrote:

…As for troubleshooting I was hoping some would suggest to capture traffic with Wireshark and will help me to understand what’s in it. Logs in the apps are present but not very useful I’m afraid.

Here are some tools that will allow you to set up a TLS or XTOS proxy to capture traffic: https://www.kali.org/

The particular VPN you are referencing uses TLS or (more likely) XTLS, so you’ll set up interception of that.

Here is the protocol: https://deepwiki.com/v2ray/v2ray-core/3.2-vless-protocol

info and resources around the protocol and XTLS: https://xtls.github.io/en/

Wireshark and TLS (donno about XTLS): https://wiki.wireshark.org/TLS

You’ll probably need port mirroring on your switch, or a server you can use as a proxy.

Or you can perform a clean install, test again, and then check with the app developers. The developers will also know if they have been affected by any changes in iOS 26 or macOS 26, too.

Given Little Snitch and a VPN app and quite possibly also other add-on security- or privacy-related apps installed, wipe the Mac, and in the new macOS installation avoid installing add-on anti-malware, add-on firewall apps, add-on cleaner apps, and see if things work better with just the one VPN app. If the VPN app doesn’t work, contact the app vendor.

Any app fails in this Mac, or this VPN app fails?

If the VPN app is the only app that is failing, again, ask the folks that know the app best, the app developers. They should already know where the existing issues are, and would want to know about new or different or unexpected failures. This because macOS is quite different from iOS.

if any app is failing, then you’re headed for removing any add-on security apps and such and performing a safe mode boot, and failing that then performing a macOS reinstallation or a hardware repair.

sergeyfrommontchanin wrote:

Questions

1. Are there known compatibility issues between macOS 26.2 and VLESS/V2Ray clients?

That would be a question from the developer since it's not up to Apple to maintain compatibility with 3rd party software.

2. What diagnostic steps can I take to identify where the traffic is being blocked?

See above

3. Are there macOS-specific firewall, network extension, or security settings that might interfere with VPN traffic in 26.2?

Nothing macOS specific that I can think of. You could, of course, try turning the native firewall off if it's been turned on.

4. What logs or debugging tools should I examine to troubleshoot this?

Any guidance on troubleshooting methodology or known solutions would be greatly appreciated.

That's really beyond the scope of these forums since the log entries you're looking for would undoubtedly be specific to the 3rd party VPN you've installed.

If it's possible to use the macOS native vpn client, I'd say uninstall the 3rd party client and set up the native client instead.

There's definitely no general problems with VPNs on the Mac. VPNs are probably the #1 scam on the internet right now. If they didn't work, a lot of scammers would be out a lot of money. And scammers run the internet, so that's not going to happen.

I have no idea what that V2Ray system is. It's all Chinese to me - literally. Translation didn't help. What's wall climbing and what does it have to do with airports?

But I did find the V2Ray GitHub page. That's in Chinese too. The only English I could find said "Homebrew". That's a really bad sign.

I think this is just a side effect of Apple's due diligence. iOS is much more locked down and iOS VPNs have to be approved by Apple. So if it didn't work, then Apple wouldn't have approved it. But there's no Apple approval required for Github. Homebrew proves that. There are plenty of V2Ray clients in the App Store. Maybe one of them isn't a scam? But I doubt it. 😄

Basically, you're probably just looking the wrong place. That software probably just doesn't work. It's possible you have some other conflicting software running and some configuration problem. No way to tell about that kind of thing.

You mentioned that Little Snitch wasn't working either. If that app ever stopped working for most users, there would be some serious wailing and gnashing of teeth across the Apple world. The fact that it wasn't working for you suggests you already had some very serious problem before.

For assistance with third-party VPN apps, check first for app updates, and then contact the VPN support organization.