Sign-in pages, hotspots and blocked networks

ForestVPN can name the stage where a connection stopped, but it cannot see or change what a network or an internet provider does. This page matches what you see to the message the app shows.

Symptoms

• The app will not connect on a hotel, airport, café or school Wi-Fi.
• The Wi-Fi shows connected but no page loads until you sign in somewhere.
• ForestVPN does not work while you share your phone's connection to a laptop.
• Everything is slow, or only some things are slow.
• The app says "Your network appears to be blocking VPNs", "This network is blocking ForestVPN" or "Name lookup is being blocked".

Likely causes

• A sign-in page. Some networks show a sign-in page before they allow anything, and hold traffic until you finish it. The tunnel cannot connect until the page is done.
• A shared connection. ForestVPN publishes no guidance specific to hotspots. The message in the app names the stage that failed, and that stage decides what to try.
• A slow network, not the tunnel. When the app shows Degraded, traffic is getting through but worse than it should be. That is usually the network you are on. ForestVPN publishes no claim that it prevents an internet provider from slowing traffic down.
• A network that refuses VPN traffic. The app says so in its own words: "Your network appears to be blocking VPNs." or "This network is blocking ForestVPN. The block is on this network, not on your account."
• A network that will not resolve ForestVPN's server names. The app says "Name lookup is being blocked."

Fix each cause

A sign-in page. Turn ForestVPN off, finish the network's sign-in page in your browser, then turn it on again.

A shared connection. Read the state or message the app shows and follow its action.

Slow. Pick another location, and compare with the same location on another network. If only one network is slow, the problem is that network. See the connection states table on the help page.

A network that refuses VPN traffic. Try a different network or mobile data. ForestVPN can also switch to the backup route on its own, a second road made of ordinary web traffic through a content delivery network. It includes 1 GB each month on Free and 15 GB on Premium. When the allowance is used up the direct route keeps working, and the backup route comes back next month. It cannot help when the whole network is down.

Name lookup blocked. A different network is the action the app gives for this message.

Still stuck

Write to support with a support code from Account → Get help. Never send your account number. Say which kind of network it is and what the app showed.