Any trick to keeping ExpressVPN connected and working?

Hi all, I use ExpressVPN and I have QNAP TS-653A with latest firmware. I setup ExpressVPN using .ovpn files within QVPN Manager. I have 4 profiles currently, each for a different location - i.e. NYC, DC, Chicago, New Jersey etc. The problem affects all locations that I have tried (and yes, I’ve tried more than these four). Whatever connection I’m on, will eventually exhibit the problem until I switch to a different connection.

I use this primarily for downloading torrents and I have Download Station configured under App Center to connect to the specific VPN connection. Otherwise, I do not use VPN for default gateway for NAS and have no desire to at this time.

What I have noticed is that after some days, the VPN connection says connected but nothing works. I can see small amounts of data transmitting but nothing being received, and torrents do not work. If I disconnect and reconnect the same location, it still does not work. But if I disconnect and reconnect a different location, it works again. It just takes several min to swing Download Center over to the new VPN connection as it has to stop and start the app again. This is a nuisance and generally means I have to stop VPN to location X and connect to location Y and then go to App Center and change Connect To to match before I go downloading. From there, it may work for days, as long as I am sending data. I think it is happening after it’s idle for awhile.

Is this a QNAP issue? Or an ExpressVPN issue? It’s hard to say for me. When I use ExpressVPN directly on my iPhone or Mac, I never see this issue. The fact that disconnect and reconnect to same location does not work almost leads me to think this is a problem with the connection binding in App Center.

I don’t use ExpressVPN but I’ve never had an issue with QVPN maintaining a connection with CyberGhostVPN or lately Windscribe. But I don’t use Download Station.

Try setting up qBittorent in docker then in advanced settings have it configured to use the ExpressVPN connection you setup in QVPN. The VPN will show up as tun#### in the adapters drop down. Then use torguard.net to confirm the adapter you selected in qBittorent is actually the VPN you configured.

If you continue to have issues with traffic after a few days I’d suggest trying another VPN, perhaps one with a trial period, to rule out ExpressVPN as the fault.

it is nas issue. this happened on synology as well. it lost the connection and failed to reconnected and fallback to your isp ip address. the solution is using router vpn client which can stop torrent if it detect vpn connection lost