proXPN users: a simpler soluton for "Connecting to proXPN has failed"
Note: This blog post is from 2014. Some content may be outdated--though not necessarily. Same with links and subsequent comments from myself or others. Corrections are welcome, in the comments. And I may revise the content as necessary.If you're a user of proXPN (a free/low-cost VPN service), and you get the error, "Connecting to proXPN has failed", here is a simple solution that you may not find offered elsewhere: just try restarting proXPN. For more information, read on.
(First, let me point out what proXPN is: it is a hosted service offering free and low-cost VPN capability, which is great if you don't already work in an organization that offers one. When you're connecting to public wireless networks (even if they require login), you're at risk of your data being compromised. Of course, if you connect to sites using SSL then the communication is encrypted--though the recent heartbleed bug has challenged that confidence. But with a solution like proXPN, all your communication is encrypted when you enable the VPN. And if one may wonder, proXPN itself was not affected by the heartbleed bug.)
Anyway, if you search for other people talking about the error "Connecting to proXPN has failed", you may find all kinds of solutions, which may well be useful solutions for some people's problems. The vendor site itself has pages (1, 2) that talk about uninstalling it, or turning off anti-virus solutions, etc.
But in my case, the day I got this error it had been working just the day before (as I'm moving between locations), so I knew that reinstalling or turning off other things should not be necessary. So I just tried closing proXPN (right-click on it in the task tray in the bottom right and choose "exit") and reopened it, and that got it working again.
I'm sure glad I thought of that! I'm putting it out here in the hopes it may help others find it.
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I quit ProXPN as you explained above then in the taskbar search box typed 'Services'. Scroll down to 'ProXPN' click on it and select 'Start or Restart' in the left column and try again.
I suppose also that my 2014 post here could have talked about using a service restart approach for proxpn as a way to restart it, versus using the tray icon.
But I no longer run proxpn (moved to vpn unlimited in the years since, when I got inexpensive lifetime access), so I can't check to confirm if that would have helped with the problem I was reporting here.
Anyway, glad you got your problem sorted.