VPN using hotspot with ios 10 not working

Hi MattyBH, do you have more details about how to implement this? (e.g. a guide with PureVPN etc), I really would want my iPhone data to be used for my VPN connection and would like to implement this solution as well.

My feedback/experience to throw in to the mix...

My two systems are: Mac OS X 10.10.5 & MacOS 10.12.1 . They are connecting via iPhone running iOS 10.2.1 (via WiFi or bluetooth hotspot). VPN: L2TP IPSEC.

This setup, which works flawlessly using regular WiFi, simply will not get a response from the VPN server on this hotspot. The VPN server doesn't even acknowledge any form of connection attempt. Switch to regular WiFi - perfect! I have never used PPTP so that does not factor in to my equation.

Have yet to try Mac OS 'under the bonnet' mods suggested above i.e. disabling IPSEC. When I have enough time to spare I will try that out of curiosity.

VPN through iPhone hotspot will be a very critical requirement for me soon. Fingers crossed!

It amazes me that this is still an issue that is basically being ignored by Apple. It would seem like not many people actually connect to VPN using hotspot....or this would have a lot more interest.

I tried updating the driver manually to netdrivers but didn't allow it, it said that the current driver was the best and more current available....

I feel like Apple just gave the finger to some of their users.....

Apple product itself useless, doesn't support for most of things. They are trying to project all the drawbacks as security issues. With out having features, what does it mean security!! Most of the time, spending time to investigate the Apple product related problems and the solutions, but no luck

I've read in another forum that is possible (but a bit complicated) to set up a virtual server in the cloud with L2TP to your client, and PPTP to the actual server, so that you can connect that way with the hotspot in L2TP without issues, and still have PPTP in the server. I can't find it anymore, but it seems like the only solution at the moment, does anyone know how to implement this? any examples or suggestions will be helpful.

Shame on Apple for having us to go into considering this complicated solutions, for something that could be as simple as not blocking the passthrough of PPTP...

Has anyone got any progress on setting up their own networks to overcome this? I did this nice tutorial to set up my ubuntu VM as IKEv2 VPN server (which seemed easier than L2TP): https://www.digitalocean.com/community/tutorials/how-to-set-up-an-ikev2-vpn-serv er-with-strongswan-on-ubuntu-16-04

But had to create a separate VM to connect to PPTP, and having trouble linking both networks now... I think something needs to be done in the ip routing tables, but not sure how it works 😟

The final ideal would be that the iPhone / Mac connect to ubuntu VM IKEv2 VPN server... then the ubuntu IKEV2 VPN server redirects all traffic to another ubuntu VM, which redirects all traffic to it's PPTP connection... It sounds fairly simple, I'm sure ip routing tables is the solution, but not sure what to do 😟

Thanks for the details, pulling my hair over this issue. And... thanks again apple for wasting more of my time.

Well, that's it. It's official, last straw. My slowly dying 5s will be the last iphone I own and probably the Apple device I buy--I've a new MacPro for work with touchbar and not only do I feel they've failed to move forward, but actually have started a downward spiral in general.

It would be a problem for someone who cannot or is not being able to connect through VPN from a certain device.

For instance, today, I could not connect to my VPN from my computer today and needed it to access my server.

It would just have been easier if I could just use the VPN from the hotspot of my phone.

Hi Yannhaur

I was having same issue just until few days back. We were having PPTP VPN which never worked when I connected my laptop to iPhone hotspot.

We recently move across to using L2TP VPN connection on all external users out of security concerns. Using L2TP on windows is just not easy. I followed this guide to configure that:

https://www.giganews.com/support/vyprvpn/vpn-setup/windows-10/l2tp.html

Surprisingly, now I can also connect to L2tp windows VPN while connected to iPhone hotspot.

Maybe this can work for you as well.

MattyBH,

Please keep us posted if you were able to resolve this issue. I too am having the same problem since the iOS10 update. I think this has to do with Apple removing PPTP protocol from the IOS10... I was able to confirm the finding by downgrading to earlier IOS 9.3 and my VPN works fine, unfortunately my users with iPHONE7 cannot downgrade their IOS and now cannot access VPN through iOS10 hotspots 😟

I'm having the same issue on IOS10 and Win10. Please let me know if you find a fix. Cheers

The latest version of the iPhone/iPad/Mac operating system, released ahead of the iPhone 7 launch, removes support for point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) connections. This means that VPN setups using PPTP will no longer work with devices and computers running iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

While PPTP is by and large considered outdated, the protocol is still being used by some companies and VPN providers, mine being one of them.

I have asked my Network guys to figure out how to rebuild our VPN setup with a different and more secure protocol. I'll let you know what they come up with.

What I dont understand is why it would affect HotSpot users? I understand Apple removed PPTP from the iOS10 VPN settings, but I would think if you're using your phone as a middleman (hotspot) the iOS10 shouldn't dictate what protocol a user can or cannot use for VPN on their Windows OS.

Hi MattyBH,

I do the same, I use Windows 10 in my work notebook and connect to internet using my mobile hotspot (iPhone) and often require connecting to office via PPTP VPN. It also stopped woking after I upgraded to iOS10.

I searched in google and found your question but no descent answer. I had an idea, tested and it worked.

What I'm doing is using another VPN first. I have an account with PureVPN (could be any other) and I connected locally to a server in my country (speed still OK) using L2PT. After connected, I was able connecting via my normal Windows 10 PPTP VPN to our Office.

Hope this workaround helps