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Stephen Boston
Asked: 2019-05-13 07:12:10 +0800 CST

expressvpn on disconnect does not restore previous resolv.conf

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When I disconnect from expressvpn, the resolv.conf file contains expressvpn references that were not there when I connected.

Specifically it sets a nameserver to a non-existent IP address and adds expressvpn to the search domain.

What is the best way to have the expressvpn disconnect restore my previous resolv.conf. I could wrap the disconnect in a script that restores from a backup, but that requires root -- and there may be a standard way. I don't see anything on the expressvpn site.

vpn dns openvpn

3 Answers

  1. As other people have said, it looks like a bug in expressvpn. I've used this workaround to make it work: I have made a backup of my resolv.conf file once, using:

    sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf /etc/resolv.conf.bak

    And after that when I want to disconnect, I don't run the usual command:

    expressvpn disconnect

    Instead I run:

    expressvpn disconnect && sudo cp /etc/resolv.conf.bak /etc/resolv.conf

    I don't type it in full, I use Ctrl+R to find it quickly in my bash history. I hope it helps!

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  2. Best Answer

    ExpressVPN responded that they consider this a feature. So I have done this:

     sudo systemctl disable systemd-resolved
 sudo systemctl stop systemd-resolved

    I then hardcode /etc/resolv.conf as at least:

     nameserver 1.1.1.1
 nameserver 1.0.0.1

    On ExpressVPN connect, this file is replaced with the VPN DNS IPs and on disconnect this resolv.conf is restored.

    This has been working through 19.04 to 19.10 without fewer problems than I used to have when systemd-resolved was managing the DNS.

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  3. This worked for me. Exactly the same problem, where ExpressVPN was modifying resolv.conf, but not replacing it when I disconnected from VPN. Now it's working flawlessly.

    sudo apt-get install resolvconf

    sudo vi /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base

    Add your name servers to base and save, for example:

    nameserver 8.8.8.8

    nameserver 8.8.4.4

    Copy base to resolv.conf

    cp /etc/resolvconf/resolv.conf.d/base /etc/resolv.conf

    ExpressVPN Support: Set DNS Servers for Linux

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