A VPN that drops every so often is one of the most common work-from-home complaints, and also one of the most misdiagnosed. People usually blame the VPN software itself, but the actual cause is more often the home router, the laptop's power settings, or the wifi network — not the VPN client. Here's the troubleshooting order that resolves it fastest.
1. Check if it's tied to your laptop going to sleep
This is the single most common cause. If your VPN drops specifically after a period of inactivity, your laptop's power settings are likely putting the network adapter to sleep or suspending the connection to save battery.
- Windows: go to
Control Panel > Power Options > Change plan settings > Change advanced power settings, then expand Wireless Adapter Settings > Power Saving Mode and set it to Maximum Performance. - Mac: go to
System Settings > Energy(orBatteryon older versions) and disable "Put hard disks to sleep when possible" isn't relevant here, but check "Wake for network access." Network drops on sleep are less common on Mac but worth ruling out.
2. Rule out wifi power management specifically
Separately from general sleep settings, Windows has a wifi-adapter-specific power saving feature that can disconnect idle connections even while the laptop is awake.
- Open Device Manager, expand Network adapters, right-click your wifi adapter, and select Properties.
- Go to the Power Management tab and uncheck "Allow the computer to turn off this device to save power."
3. Check split tunneling settings
Split tunneling determines which traffic goes through the VPN versus directly out to the internet. Misconfigured split tunneling — especially after a VPN client update — can cause certain types of traffic to drop the tunnel entirely, which sometimes looks like a full disconnect even when only part of the connection failed.
If your VPN client has a split tunneling option (often under Settings or Advanced), try toggling it off temporarily to see if disconnects stop. If they do, the split tunnel rules need adjusting — that's usually something your IT team configures centrally, so report the specific behavior rather than changing it yourself on a managed device.
4. Look at your home router, not just your laptop
Consumer routers often have a firewall feature called SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) or a built-in VPN passthrough setting that interferes with the VPN protocols businesses commonly use (IKEv2, OpenVPN, WireGuard).
- Log into your router's admin page (commonly
192.168.0.1or192.168.1.1— check the label on the router itself) and look for a setting called VPN Passthrough. Make sure it's enabled. - If your router has a "Smart Connect" or band-steering feature that switches devices between 2.4GHz and 5GHz automatically, that handoff can briefly interrupt the VPN tunnel. Try manually connecting to a single band instead.
- Restart the router. This sounds obvious but resolves a surprising number of "random" disconnects caused by router memory buildup over weeks of uptime.
Tip: if disconnects happen at a suspiciously consistent interval — say, every 60 minutes almost exactly — that's a strong sign of a session timeout setting on the VPN server side, not a local issue. That one needs to be adjusted by whoever manages the VPN gateway.
5. Test on a completely different network
If you have a phone with a mobile hotspot, connect your laptop to that briefly and see if the same disconnects happen. If they don't, the problem is specific to your home network (router, ISP, or wifi interference) rather than the laptop or VPN client — which tells you where to focus.
6. When to escalate to IT instead of troubleshooting further
- Disconnects happen for everyone on the team at the same time — that's a server-side issue, not a home setup problem.
- You've ruled out sleep settings, power management, and router issues, and it's still dropping randomly.
- The VPN client shows a specific error code on disconnect — that code will help IT diagnose far faster than "it just disconnects."
The bottom line
Most flaky work-from-home VPN connections trace back to power-saving settings on the laptop or wifi adapter, not the VPN software itself. Fix the sleep and power management settings first — that alone resolves the majority of cases — before assuming the VPN client or your internet provider is at fault.