Windows 11 Pulse Secure Constant Reconnecting and Disconnect

[notaboutmeanymo[email protected]]

Windows 11 build, using pulse secure v9.1.8 connecting to the arise network, will connect then will re-establish connection until it disconnects

[mg]

Hello,

It sounds like I am having the same issues with Pulse Secure 9.1.11 (8575) on Windows 11 Pro (22000.51). I am able to connect, but the connection drops and reconnects so frequently it is unusable.

Before updating from Windows 10 Pro (21390) I was able to connect without interruption on the same hardware. I have tested wifi or ethernet, and Pulse secure on other machines at my location so I don't believe it to be a local network issue.

Does anyone know of a fix for this?

Thanks,

[notaboutmeanymo[email protected] · Accepted solution]

Go into your network settings and into advance settings till you get on the original network connections view, wait for pulse secure to show up as a Juniper Networks Virtual Adapter and go into the Properties for that connection and enable the "Juniper Network Service" and this allows my connection to stabilize

[francovp]

Hello,

I don't know why, but I had the "Juniper Network Service" turned on by default, I didn't do anything before. I don't have a lot of problems, just random disconnects after a while or something, that's the only problem I have right now. My connection to the VPN stops working, but it never disconnects from the VPN, and I just need to reconnect to get it working again. Very strange.

[NicolasRouquette]

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[email protected] wrote:

Go into your network settings and into advance settings till you get on the original network connections view, wait for pulse secure to show up as a Juniper Networks Virtual Adapter and go into the Properties for that connection and enable the "Juniper Network Service" and this allows my connection to stabilize

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With Windows 11 Pro 21H2 (OS Build 22000.318) and Pulse Secure 9.1.12, something is disabling the "Juniper Network Service" for my ethernet adapter and for the "Pulse Secure" adapter (as long as the VPN is up). The VPN disconnects after about 25 seconds.

I tried rebooting after enabling "Juniper Network Service" for my ethernet adapter; same behavior.

I wonder if we need to force enabling the "Juniper Network Service" with a task triggered by a network change like this: https://github.com/microsoft/WSL/issues/4277#issuecomment-738839732

[[email protected]]

@NicolasRouquette Pulse Client version 9.1R10 and above will automatically disable Juniper network service to resolve the slowness issue and it'll not cause any disconnections.

BTW, are you using full tunnel or split tunnel in Windows 11? If you're split tunnel, then it's expected to see disconnection issues and it'll be resolved in 9.1R13.1 version of Pulse Client.

[NicolasRouquette]

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[email protected] wrote:

@NicolasRouquette Pulse Client version 9.1R10 and above will automatically disable Juniper network service to resolve the slowness issue and it'll not cause any disconnections.

BTW, are you using full tunnel or split tunnel in Windows 11? If you're split tunnel, then it's expected to see disconnection issues and it'll be resolved in 9.1R13.1 version of Pulse Client.

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Ah, so the above recommendation, i.e., enable the Juniper Network Service is no longer relevant for the client 9.1R10 and above. 

This re-opens the original question about what is causing the client (9.1.R12 in my case) to disconnect after about 25 seconds on Windows 11 (full tunnel).

[[email protected]]

@NicolasRouquette Before the disconnect happens, are you able to send any data through the VPN tunnel like ping/traceroute to an internal server?

I'd confirm if the tunnel is working by passing traffic and then get disconnected after 25 seconds.

Under the advanced connection details (right click on the connection in Pulse Client), what VPN type value do you see right before the connection gets disconnected? ESL or SSL?

[NicolasRouquette]

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[email protected] wrote:

@NicolasRouquette Before the disconnect happens, are you able to send any data through the VPN tunnel like ping/traceroute to an internal server?

I'd confirm if the tunnel is working by passing traffic and then get disconnected after 25 seconds.

Under the advanced connection details (right click on the connection in Pulse Client), what VPN type value do you see right before the connection gets disconnected? ESL or SSL?

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After the connection is established, the VPN type is ESP for about 25 seconds or so.

Then it switches to SSL/tunnel for a couple of seconds before disconnecting.

While it is in ESP, the name resolver has been updated but the network routes do not work.

ssh, ping, etc.. fail.

I tried to ping our github enterprise by its IP address and the request times out.

I think it is time to configure a custom event viewer query to record some data and compare what is going on between Windows 10 and 11.

For example, on Windows 11, the transition from ESP to SSL/tunnel is associated with these events in chronological order:

Source = IVE

• The connection JPL VPN (ID ad5573ee-33b4-49da-b48f-186308a86acc) was established successfully to https://.... address ...

Source = NetworkProfile

• NSI Set Category Result
  Profile GUID: {fdf10865-4dfe-4b7a-96d1-84998ae22ac5}
  Interface GUID: {97259dcb-7db4-4bbf-b599-4f75cc087065}
  Network Category: Public
  IPv4 Error Code: 0
  IPv6 Error Code: 0
  Context: 3134

• Entered State: Identifying Network Interface Guid: {97259dcb-7db4-4bbf-b599-4f75cc087065}

• Network Connected
  Name: Identifying...
  Desc: Identifying...
  Type: Unmanaged
  State: Connected
  Category: Public

• Network State Change Fired
  New Internet Connection Profile: true
  Connection Cost Changed: false
  Domain Connectivity Level Changed: false
  Network Connectivity Level Changed: true
  Host Name Changed: true
  Wwan Registration State Changed: false
  Tethering Operational State Changed: false
  Tethering Client Count Changed: false

Source = IVE

• VPN tunnel for connection JPL VPN (ID ad5573ee-33b4-49da-b48f-186308a86acc) is switched to ESP mode

• The server disconnected connection JPL VPN (ID ad5573ee-33b4-49da-b48f-186308a86acc)
  Reason (6): Unable to send data traffic
  Server detected error.
  Peer address: ...

Does this help shed light into what is going on?

[NicolasRouquette]

And FYI, on Windows 10, our connection stays with VPN type = ESP; it never transitions to SSL/tunnel.