ZT network adapter says connected event when wifi is disconnected

Community Support Windows
#1

I ran into a problem where a laptop takes several minutes to login and I narrowed it down to the ZT network adapter. Even when the PC is offline (wifi is disconnected) the ZT network adapter tells Windows that it’s connected and so Windows tries to send traffic out the ZT adapter (sent packet count keeps going up). This also makes apps think that there is an available network connection and so they often time out waiting for network traffic that never comes.

Airplane mode is inconsistent with this behavior, but simply being disconnected from wifi always does this.

I removed ZT, deleted all the ZT folders and registry keys, and reinstalled the latest build and the same thing happens.

I appreciate any fixes anybody has for this problem.

#2

Hello,
thanks for writing. That’s… fun.

As an experiment, please try to leave/disconnect from all zerotier networks (uncheck the box in the tray app) and then try to logout and back in without internet access. Leaving the network removes the adapter.

#3

Leaving the network works, however this is not a fix. I can’t rely on tech challenged end users to toggle that with any reliability. I use ZT because it’s “always on” and if people have to manually connect/disconnect then I’ll just use a different VPN solution.

ZT should report the interface to Windows as “not connected” when there’s no connection (duh!).

#4

Wasn’t suggesting that as a fix.

Are these domain joined computers? It’ll be a little trickier to reproduce and work on if so.
Are users using the airplane more button, or just turning off wifi, or?

#5

The issue occurs if the PC doesn’t have internet connectivity for any reason (airplane mode, no ethernet, no wifi, etc) and the ZT network is “joined”.

Domain joined computers will have the slow login problem, but that’s not really why I started this thread. The problem is that the ZT network adapter lies to Windows that it has a network connection when it doesn’t, and this is not correct behavior by any measure. I don’t expect ZT support to fix Windows problems, but I do expect (hope) ZT to not cause problems buy misreporting its status. Any application or Windows service that relies on network adapters to correctly report their connection status is going to be broken by this. Domain joined login delays just happen to be the one issue that made me notice this.

If ZT isn’t fully connected to the VPN then it should report to Windows “disconnected” or “network cable unplugged” like any other NIC or VPN adapter.

#6

So (setting zerotier aside) if your ethernet or wifi is connected, and your cable modem is out, it takes several minutes to log in to Windows?

#7

I tested this and I didn’t have any abnormal login behavior with the laptop connected to a disconnected wifi router, and ZT disconnected.

#8

Still having the problem, no solution yet found.

#9

Very similar issue with windows, login isn’t a problem because it uses local login.

But the issue is whenever there is a network change, change wifi network, plug in/out ethernet or even connect/disconnet from VPN, majority of the time you need to click disconnect, wait 10 seconds, click connect then watch patiently for the reload of the peer to re-establish connection, and that only works about 40% of the time, reboot is usually only solution.

@zt-travis Not to jack OPs thread, but the underlying problem seems to be the ZT adapter not releasing or reconnecting, etc. The long login is a symptom of the network issue.