Why a VPN does not work on Wi-Fi at home: router, ISP and our log

These are the words people bring us from search: “why does my VPN not work on Wi-Fi”, “works only on Wi-Fi”, “does not work without Wi-Fi”, “will not connect on Wi-Fi but mobile is fine”, “must be the router”. Below is an answer from our own connection log rather than guesses: 7636 taps over 30 days, each recorded with the network it was made from. The log was re-measured on 10 October 2026.

Why a VPN does not work on Wi-Fi: how often it happens

Less often than on mobile data. In the 30 days to 10 October 2026 our log holds 5078 “Connect” taps made over Wi-Fi and 2558 over a cellular network. On Wi-Fi 97.6 % succeeded (4954), on mobile data 93.0 % (2379). Over a cable — mostly TV boxes and TVs — all 185 taps of 185 succeeded.

How the failures spread across people matters more than the percentages. 351 people tapped “Connect” on Wi-Fi, and only one of them did not get a single Wi-Fi connection all month. For everyone else, failures, if any, alternated with successes on the same network. On mobile data 146 people tapped, and five never connected. So “a home where it never works” barely appears in the log.

How we counted and what changed. Only taps count here: a person pressed “Connect” or picked a country. Besides these, the app retries paths by itself when the tunnel goes quiet — background attempts. The first edition of this article (September) counted them together with taps. Now we can see that background failures are mostly a phone that had no network at that moment: their reports reach us late, over Wi-Fi a median 2 hours 43 minutes later, once the network is back. Counting background attempts gives a different picture: 65.7 % of all attempts succeed on Wi-Fi, 74.2 % on mobile data. That number is about how often a phone loses its network, not about how the VPN works, so we do not lead with it.

⚠️ These are our people and our app over one month, with service accounts (test ones and the store-review one) excluded. It is an order of magnitude, not national statistics. We do not count by ISP: the log records only whether it was Wi-Fi, cellular or cable, not whose network.

Is it the router?

Almost never. To a router our tunnel is one outgoing UDP flow to one address, like a video call or an online game. The app connects outwards and nothing knocks from outside, so there is no port forwarding, no “VPN passthrough” and nothing to change in the router: Mayak has not a single setting done on a router. (Installing Mayak on the router itself works on some routers only: stock MikroTik and Keenetic firmware do not understand our config yet, OpenWrt with a fresh AmneziaWG package does — steps in “A VPN on a router”. This article is about a phone connected through a router.)

The log agrees: 92.1 % of successful Wi-Fi connections (4565 of 4954) went through on the first path — direct — and the full cycle to “connected” took a median 1.6 seconds. Another 5.2 % (259) came up through the backup channel on port 443, 2.4 % (119) through the near entry, and 11 connections through the last fallback path. What these paths are — in the paths breakdown.

The one real difference between a home network and a cellular one is IPv6. On mobile data 43 % of successful connections (1019 of 2379) went over IPv6, on Wi-Fi 3 % (145 of 4954). That is not a broken router: home networks in Russia rarely hand out IPv6 (how much of it there is and why it matters), and the app goes straight to IPv4. The handshake does not suffer: a median 254 ms on Wi-Fi and 252 ms on mobile.

What a router can do is leave the phone with no internet at all. If the router itself has lost its ISP, or the Wi-Fi wants a login page, the app simply has nowhere to connect. That is a separate picture, covered in “connected, but no internet”.

Is the ISP blocking VPN?

What an ISP does inside its network we do not know and cannot know: our log only sees whether a path came up. So we answer with what we measured. In 7.9 % of successful Wi-Fi connections (389 of 4954) the direct path did not go through and the app moved to a fallback by itself — most often the backup channel on port 443, the same port any website opens on. On mobile data it happened in 6.4 % (152 of 2379).

Why the direct path failed — ISP equipment, the router or a bad minute — the log does not say, and we will not guess. What matters to a person is that in all these cases the connection came up without them doing anything. The cost is time: over Wi-Fi the full cycle through the backup channel takes a median 10 seconds instead of 1.6, and about 22 seconds in the worst case of ten. Close the app after five seconds “because it does not work” and you may never reach the backup channel.

As for “it does not work with such-and-such ISP”: we do not count by ISP and keep no lists. Any claim that a given ISP gets in the way would be an opinion, not a measurement.

Works only on Wi-Fi, not without it — and the other way round

“The VPN works only on Wi-Fi.” The most common picture: at home on Wi-Fi everything works, without Wi-Fi, on mobile data, it does not. It is about the cellular network, not the home: there the outcome depends on the shape of the first packet, measured in the article on mobile networks; and there are places with no signal at all — a lift, the metro, a basement. With Mayak, on mobile data the app tries IPv6, IPv4, the near entry and port 443 by itself — give it half a minute.

“The VPN does not work on Wi-Fi but works on mobile.” The reverse picture is rarer, and it has three explanations we can honestly name:

1. This Wi-Fi has no internet or wants a login page. The app has nowhere to connect. Check whether any website opens in the browser on the same Wi-Fi with the VPN off; details — Wi-Fi with a login screen.
2. The direct path failed and you did not wait for the backup. Those 7.9 %: the backup channel comes up in a median 10 seconds, 22 in the worst case of ten.
3. It is the phone, not the network. If another phone connects on the same Wi-Fi, the network is not to blame. Most often it is Android's VPN slot taken by another app, or a phone that has put the app to sleep.

Works on one Wi-Fi, not on another

If everything works at home but not in a hotel, dorm, café or office, the cause is that network, not the app. A shared network is set up by its administrator, who decides which connections may go out. Such networks often ask you to sign in through a page in the browser first, and until you do, nobody has internet.

• Open any website in the browser with the VPN off. A login page appears — sign in, then connect.
• Give the app half a minute. If the direct path is closed on this network, Mayak moves to port 443 by itself — the same port websites open on.
• Why someone else's Wi-Fi is risky in itself and what a VPN does there — in “Public Wi-Fi”.

Works on the computer but not on the phone — what that means

If the computer and the phone share one home network and only one of them works, cross the network off: router and ISP are the same for both. The cause is the device. On a phone it is usually Android's VPN slot (Android gives it to one app) or battery saving, both covered by the links above. We have no app of our own for computers yet: on Windows and Mac the subscription link goes into the third-party Happ app, on Linux the file from the dashboard works — more in the help centre. We cannot compare phone and computer by our log: only the app keeps it.

What to do when the VPN will not connect on Wi-Fi

1. Check that this Wi-Fi has internet at all. Turn the VPN off and open any website. It does not open — that is a question for the router and the ISP, not the app.
2. Switch to mobile data for a minute. It comes up — the cause is this network, go to the next step. It comes up nowhere — the cause is the phone: three causes from our log.
3. Let the app reach the backup channel. The direct path takes about 1.6 seconds, the backup 10 in the median and up to 22 in the worst case of ten. Half a minute is a fair wait.
4. “Help” → “Check”, then “Check every path”. Shows which path fails for you, instead of guessing.
5. Make sure the connection is real. A “connected” icon proves nothing by itself — four checks in a minute.

Rebooting the router is not on this list on purpose: a home where it never connected appears once in 351 in our log, and a minute on mobile data answers “network or phone” faster than any reboot.

Short answers

Why does my VPN not work on Wi-Fi? Most often that Wi-Fi has no internet at all (the router is offline, a login page) or the app was closed before it reached the backup channel. In our log 97.6 % of “Connect” taps succeed on Wi-Fi — more than on mobile data.

Why does my VPN work only on Wi-Fi? Then it fails on mobile data, and the cause is the cellular network, not your home: measurements by operator.

Why does my VPN not work without Wi-Fi? The same picture from the other side: without Wi-Fi the phone goes through the cellular network, which has places with no signal and its own first-packet quirks. On mobile data 93.0 % of our taps succeed.

Can Wi-Fi interfere with a VPN? Wi-Fi itself — no. The network behind it can: a router with no internet, a login page in a hotel or dorm, the rules of a shared network's administrator. A home where it never connected appears once in 351 in our log for the month.

Is my ISP blocking VPN at home? We do not know what an ISP does. We know ours: in 7.9 % of Wi-Fi connections the direct path did not go through, the app moved to a fallback, and in every such case the connection came up without the person doing anything.

Do I need to configure anything on the router? No. The tunnel is an outgoing UDP flow, like a video call; no port forwarding, no settings. 92.1 % of Wi-Fi connections went through on the first, direct path.

The VPN got worse on Wi-Fi or stopped working — what is it? If it stopped suddenly and everywhere — “stopped working”; if it connects but pages do not open — “connected, but no internet”; if it is slow — compare the speed with and without the VPN.

Does it take longer to connect on Wi-Fi than on mobile? On the direct path, about the same: a median 1.6 seconds on both. Only the backup channel is slower — about 10 seconds, needed by roughly one Wi-Fi connection in thirteen.

Do your numbers apply everywhere? No. This is our log for the 30 days to 10 October 2026, people's taps only, service accounts excluded. Another month and other people may look different — which is why we say what we measured and when.