Office 365 cloud features do not work when using a privacy VPN

Anonymous
2016-07-27T20:31:21+00:00

When I have a privacy VPN active (such as Private Internet Access - PIA) I can't access the cloud features on Office 365 (such as online templates, OneNote sync to the cloud, Excel or Word saving to OneDrive directly, etc). I have tried 3 different VPN solutions: PIA, NordVPN and VPNArea and they all exhibit the same issue. Is there a way to solve this or to tell Office to bypass the VPN?

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  1. Anonymous
    2018-12-04T21:08:23+00:00

    I fixed it by consulting Nord VPN's awesome live chat. Here's what they told me:

    1. Open the Network and Sharing Center by right-clicking the network icon in the system tray and selecting it.
    2. Go into Change adapter settings.
    3. Right-click the TAP-NordVPN Windows adapter V9, and open Properties.
    4. Highlight the Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4) and open its properties.
    5. Click Advanced
    6. Click Add under Default gateways.
    7. Type in 192.168.0.1 and click Add
    8. You should now see the 192.168.0.1 under your Default Gateways Click OK to apply changes and reconnect to the VPN.

    I'm on Win 10 Pro by the way.

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  2. Anonymous
    2018-12-02T23:28:55+00:00

    This solved the problem. Thanks!

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  3. Anonymous
    2018-12-01T07:31:56+00:00

    Well, I'm very glad so many here have resolved this. For the records, I'm still without a solution other than HotSpot Shield. I've tried most everything suggested here. The Mac Wheeler approach was also suggested to me by NordVPN tech support early on, until they eventually cited a forum thread showing many people who were never able to resolve this problem and told me it can't be done in my case.

    And, to update my earlier post here saying PIA was working okay, it is not! It was for a time, but then, sure enough, hitting New email resulted in Not Responding for a very long time and essentially hung Outlook altogether, very similar to what I had been having with NordVPN previously.

    It seems nothing using OpenVPN is working for me. I'm still running Windows 7, so maybe that's making the difference here, I don't know.

    The only one that still works like a top for me with Outlook in Office 365 is HotSpot Shield -- although for a week now it's been having massive issues with not being able to load more than 50% of all websites, regardless of the country whose servers I choose, their tech support still acknowledges as a known issue and which I just have to assume is a massive undertaking for them to resolve and that they will be resolving it soon.

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  4. Anonymous
    2018-12-01T02:36:30+00:00

    This worked for me when none of the other solutions did. Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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  5. Anonymous
    2018-11-29T17:37:53+00:00

    THANK YOU. Both for identifying the fix, and for the step-by-step instructions on your blog. I shudder to think the time and risk you are saving us, to say nothing of the strain on data plans for those of us who've been over-relying on our personal phone hotspots.

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