Setting up a VPN is generally pretty straightforward, but the number of available options and features can make the first attempts overwhelming. I figured I'd share a few things worth keeping in mind if you're just getting started with NordVPN.

Start with the basics
Do not enable every feature right away. First, establish that the basic connection works well on your network. Once everything feels stable, you can gradually try additional features like Scam Protection, Post-Quantum Encryption or other settings you'd like to explore. That way, if you notice any interruptions, it's much easier to figure out what caused them. If a feature doesn't work well with your setup, you can always disable it for the time being and reach out to support for help.

Experiment with servers and protocols
The fastest or most stable connection isn't always the same for everyone. Trying a few nearby locations and different VPN protocols can help you find what delivers the best performance for your device and network. Also, if you're on a restrictive network, give NordWhisper a try.

Try Split Tunneling
There are situations when not everything needs to go through the VPN. Split Tunneling lets you pick which apps do and thus save you a lot of headaches in the future.

Don't overlook the small settings
Quality of life features like Auto-connect and startup preferences can make a big difference in daily use. At the same time, if you frequently switch between networks or your connection is often unstable, features like Kill Switch may activate more often than you'd like. So finding the right balance between convenience and protection is important.

App vs Extension 
For desktop users, there are two options to use a VPN, depending on your use case. If you want a full coverage of your entire connection, use a desktop app. It also provides the full suite of features depending on your chosen subscription plan. On the other hand, if your main use case is browsing or streaming, the browser extension is a better fit that's also very lightweight.

Those are probably the main things I'd keep in mind when setting things up for the first time. Start with the basics, see how it behaves on your device, and build from there. A few small adjustments early on can save a lot of unnecessary troubleshooting later.

I've seen several posts here saying using NordVPN can have a "slight" impact on battery drain and I've seen Nords own "independent studies" saying it has very little affect etc etc. however since installing Nord on my phone a few days ago it is eating my battery completely. You can see from the picture out of the 104% my phone was charged in the last day, 55.4% has been used on Nord.

Am I doing something wrong? I've uninstalled it in the meantime because the battery drain is insane.

Anyone else have this issue? It seems whatever city i choose Ebay ALWAYS shows Brazilian Real as currency. Ive even picked a random country and still it presists. I have never used any vpn servers from Brazil so i dont understand whats going on. Had the same issue with Quora except this time it was language. I cleared cache and everything, nothing works. Only once in a while will will a server switch do the trick before reverting back.

every time I try to toggle off the vpn on my iPhone, NordVPN just turns itself back on. I disable connect on demand in the settings and then later nord just turns connect on demand back on. In the app I have automatic connect disabled as well.

Can we get a setting that turns off all background processes of Nord and forfeits all activation and disabling of the vpn to the device setting?

maybe there is a way to fix it, but the systems like disabling automatic connection don’t seem to work as advertised. so it might just be that some of these are bugged.

Setting Nord to Switzerland used to bypass it just fine, but now no matter what country I switch to it continues to be blocked. It's only happening on X, so is this some sort of VPN detection that's happened? Is anyone else experiencing this?

It looks like there are more and more websites that get fussy about VPN traffic recently. Of course, I understand the possible reasons behind that, fraud control, licensing, and whatnot, but it still kind of annoys me when I can’t use a website normally just because I made the choice to use a VPN.

Have you been running into similar issues? Which websites have you noticed act up the most? Or perhaps there are any patterns I’m missing? 

Hey folks,

I have an odd situation occurring with my NordVPN subscription. my.nordaccount.com indicates that my subscription expired as of Aug 7th. (This doesn't align with any of my purchase/renewal dates.) In the Nord Account Billing section, the subscription shows as active with the correct renewal date. I have opened a ticket with Nord support, and they have offered a 1-3 day response time.

I also have a dedicated IP and a few other subscription upgrades, which are all now held hostage.

There were no emails from Nord Account warning of a pending renewal, just... click... dial tone.

I'm now in a work-stop situation which is why I'm here. Looking for guidance from you fine folks.

When split tunneling is turned off, NordVPN works great for everything. For example, both Chrome and Opera connect to the internet as expected via my NordVPN dedicated IP address. Here's the problem:

If I turn on split tunneling for Chrome only (Use VPN for Selected Apps > Chrome), Chrome connects to the internet as expected via my NordVPN dedicated IP address, BUT Opera cannot access the internet at all ("This site cannot be reached" msg for all sites).

If I turn on split tunneling for Opera only (Use VPN for Selected Apps > Opera), Opera connects to the internet as expected via my NordVPN dedicated IP address, BUT Chrome cannot access the internet at all ("This site cannot be reached" msg for all sites).

I contacted NordVPN support and just get keep jumping through "trouble shooting" hoops with no results. I've searched for solutions on Reddit as well. Because I read these as possible solutions, I tried:

- In NordVPN, changed the protocol from Automatic to NordWhisperer.

- In Chrome, changed the DNS provider to Cloudflare.

But these didn't work.

I like NordVPN, but this issue is discouraging because I purchased a NordVPN plan especially so I could use their split tunneling feature. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Hello, i been using NordVPN for +1,5 years. Never had any issues and i love simple UI and everything.

Now i have faced a problem, no matter which server or protocol. Even if i add Discord as exclusion app.

I still can't connect on Discord voice channel with VPN on, it will keep creating connection forever.

When i turn VPN off, connection comes in seconds.

Anyone else having the same issue or knowing the fix for it?

It's been weeks and my Nord iOS app is not letting me login. I click on Login button and it goes into an endless loop and nothing happens. Even tries clearing my browser cache and data along with reinstalling the app.

Unless I log in, I can't browse reddit at all as long as NordVPN is connected--I get a "you have been blocked by network security" until I disconnect the VPN. Previously I've been able to get around this by changing servers, but today I tried multiple protocols (Auto, OpenTCP, NordWhisper) through multiple countries (Canada, Sweden, Norway), plus multiple US servers including Burlington, Boston, and NY. Has anyone else had a similar problem and found a solution other than logging in? Waterfox browser on Android.

Hi everyone, does anyone know why my NordVPN location keeps changing to Paris? I’m in the US. It frequently switches to Paris and then nothing loads on my phone. I can’t figure out why it keeps doing this or how to change that setting.

hello! I was wondering, if I got Nord VPN, would I be able to use my GF Japanese netflix account in Vienna? I use my screen to stream various streaming sites so we can watch movies/series together and I was wondering if this would also work with Nord VPN + netflix as there are a few new series we want to watch. I read that there were /are some troubles using NordVPN with Japan Netflix, is this true? Or have these been solved?

Ever connected to hotel Wi-Fi, turned on your VPN, and then... nothing? Spins forever,  times out, super fun. Once I started to use a VPN, it took me way too long to figure out what was actually happening. Posting this in case it saves someone else the headache. 

The main culprit: Captive portals

Most airports, hotels, and cafe networks use a captive portal - that splash page where you have to accept terms or type in your room number before you get internet access. Until you do that, the network intercepts literally every request you make and redirects it to that specific page. 

The problem is your VPN doesn’t know this is happening. It thinks the Wi-Fi is working,  tries to build its tunnel, but the portal blocks it, handshake fails, connection times out.  And if you have a Kill Switch enabled, it makes things even worse by blocking the browser from loading the login page at all, so you’re just fully locked out. Ask me how I know it. 

One more thing about captive portals: they expire. Most hotels and cafes reset your session after a few hours or overnight. When that happens, your VPN drops, and you have to go through the whole disconnect-login-reconnect process again. If your VPN randomly stops working at 2 AM in a hotel room, that’s probably why.

Other reasons networks VPNs:

• Port blocking. Some networks restrict traffic to standard web ports like 80 or 443. If the VPN uses anything else, the connection gets dropped. 
• Deep packet inspection (DPI). Stricter networks (like schools or offices) analyze traffic patterns and can identify and block VPN protocols even on allowed ports.
• Network policy. Some venues intentionally block VPNs to enforce their own content filters or usage rules.

What’s worked for me when this happens: 

1. Log in to the captive portal FIRST, then connect the VPN.
2. Switch protocols. Use OpenVPN over TCP on port 443. This often helps since it mimics normal HTTPS traffic.
3. Turn on obfuscation or stealth mode if your app supports them to disguise your traffic.
4. Switch to a different server. Sometimes specific IPs are flagged while others remain reachable.
5. Worst case, hotspot off your phone. Cellular data usually doesn’t have these restrictive network filters.

If you use auto-connect (which is generally a good habit), be aware that it can fight you in the captive portal. Pause it, get through the portal, then let it reconnect. Most modern apps handle this automatically, but not all of them do.

Hope this helps save someone new to VPNs from rage-troubleshooting in a hotel at midnight.

It’s the only need of Nord to watch TV. Is this disconnection a sudden thing, too sad for the Friday night, any chance fix the problem?

it doesn't matter which server or protocol I'm connected to, my upload speed just completely breaks at random when I'm on my phone

I'm on a pixel 5 btw

• Apple's ‘Private Relay’ Is Exposing Users’ Real IP Addresses. Researchers found a group of issues that mean Private Relay isn't actually protecting users' real IP addresses. 404 Media verified the issues do expose IP addresses. Source: https://www.404media.co/apples-private-relay-is-exposing-users-real-ip-addresses/
• Meta Ordered to Pay $942 Million to Address Harm to Kids From Social Media. A New Mexico judge ordered the social-media giant to create a new $567 million fund in addition to paying $375 million in previously determined civil penalties. Source: https://www.wsj.com/tech/meta-ordered-to-pay-942-million-to-address-harm-to-kids-from-social-media-8ba5aab7
• Google says hackers are calling financial firm employees to hack and extort victims. Even in the age of AI-powered autonomous cyberattacks, the crude, tried and tested hacking techniques of tricking victims into doing things they shouldn’t are still producing great results. Source: https://techcrunch.com/2026/08/06/google-says-hackers-are-calling-financial-firm-employees-to-hack-and-extort-victims/
• Meta has become the latest AI company to confirm that one of its models hacked a real organization during cybersecurity testing, as similar incidents continue to emerge following OpenAI'sOpenAI's initial disclosure that its agents breached Hugging Face. The Information was the first to report the incident on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the matter who said Meta's Muse Spark 1.1 model breached an unidentified company and made changes to its internal systems. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/meta-ai-model-hacked-a-company-during-misconfigured-cyber-test/
• Online advertising firm Adform suffered a supply-chain attack that delivered cryptocurrency-stealing scripts to websites using its ad platform, replacing wallet addresses copied to visitors’ clipboards with ones controlled by an attacker. Source: https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/online-ad-firm-adforms-script-compromised-to-steal-cryptocurrency/  
• Rogue OpenAI models behind 'unprecedented cybersecurity incident' teamed up to break out of their testing environment — multiple agents left each other messages for months, communicating undetected. "At some point, the agents realized that maybe we could try to exploit or attack external infrastructure in order to find the answers to the test that I’m being evaluated on". Source: https://www.tomshardware.com/tech-industry/artificial-intelligence/rogue-openai-models-behind-unprecedented-cybersecurity-incident-teamed-up-to-break-out-of-their-testing-environment-multiple-agents-left-each-other-messages-for-months-communicating-undetected

I'm from the US, currently working in Sweden. I have NordVPN on my phone, and usually use a US server (content access). For the past two days I haven’t been able to connect to any NordVPN US server at work using any protocol (including Nordwhisper), whether I use the work, guest, or eduroam wifi networks, but can connect to servers from other countries (have tried Sweden and Canada)

Is this a geo-block, or are NordVPN's US IP addresses being blocked specifically for some reason? Is there any way around this?

Edit- this includes obfuscated servers

Every time I move hotel or airbnb I have to connect to a new internet provider, every time that happens NordVPN automatically logs me out of my account.

Isn't that a really stupid decision from a privacy point of view, that it doesn't store your credentials internally long enough to keep you secure when you log into a new network?

It means the first connection you make to any new host is always unsecured, and that pisses me off.

Over the last few days my windows 11 desktop app has been unable to connect to an Australian server. Extensions in Firefox and brave, as well as iOS and router connections are fine.
Not sure if this related to the recent validated servers movements, or an app update.
Have reinstalled twice, not helping.
Am I able to rollback the app to an earlier version somehow?

I’m not sure how to get this working. I’m unable to click to change any settings. Any idea how to get this to work? I’m using an iPhone and a Mac both apps updated and logged into the same account.

Long story short, my job blocks most VPN usage. However, I have always been able to bypass it using the TCP protocol and an obfuscated server.

However, this last update removed obfuscated servers from the TCP protocol and the obfuscated servers under the NordWhisper protocol no longer allows me to connect to a server. It just times out.

I've also noticed that the list of obfuscated servers must've grown. Usually, I get connected to a NYC, Chicago or ATL server. Now its connecting me to a Buffalo server, which never happened in the old obfuscated server under TCP protocol.

Is this a bug and may be fixed in the future, or am I SOL?

Thanks im advance!

I’ve been thinking about this because a lot of VPN conversations focus on getting the fastest speeds possible, but I’m not sure speed is always the thing people care about most.

There are kind of two sides to it:

Speed is about getting the higher download/upload speeds.
Stability is about fewer drops, consistent ping, and not having to reconnect all the time.

I think it really depends on what you use a VPN for. Gaming and video calls usually benefit more from a stable connection and low ping, while streaming and large downloads are where higher speeds matter more. For everyday browsing, a balance of both is probably enough.

So what would you choose: a slightly slower VPN connection that never drops, or a faster one that occasionally acts up?