"Unstable Connection Detected"

[kanelee]

Hi! I am able to get the container up and running however, I keep getting the error message: "WARNING Unstable connection detected" which causes it to connect to another country. Can someone please recommend the steps I need to take to troubleshoot this?

Here is the docker compose:
services:
nordvpn:
image: tmknight88/nordvpn:latest
container_name: nordvpn
cap_add:
- NET_ADMIN # required
ports:
- 8888:8118
sysctls:
- net.ipv6.conf.all.disable_ipv6=1 # recommended
environment:
- TOKEN=[]
restart: always
networks:
frontend:
name: nordvpn

Here is the terminal output:
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:25+0000 INFO Waiting for nord daemon to start...
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:27+0000 INFO Waiting for nord daemon to start...
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:29+0000 INFO Firewall is up; traffic will be routed through vpn
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:29+0000 INFO Enabling connection to secure interface and docker network
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:30+0000 INFO Configuring and connecting NordVPN...
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | Daemon: NordVPN Version 3.19.2
nordvpn | Technology is already set to 'NORDLYNX'.
nordvpn | Subnet 172.19.0.2/16 is allowlisted successfully.
nordvpn | Subnet 10.0.0.0/27 is allowlisted successfully.
nordvpn | Login successful; connection now in progress...
nordvpn | The recommended server is us9766
nordvpn | Connecting to United States #9766 (us9766.nordvpn.com)
nordvpn | You are connected to United States #9766 (us9766.nordvpn.com)!
nordvpn | Firewall is set to 'enabled' successfully.
nordvpn | Kill Switch is set to 'enabled' successfully.
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:35+0000 INFO Enabling connection to IPv4 network 10.0.0.0/27
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:35+0000 INFO Startup complete
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:02:35+0000 INFO Target reconnect time is '2025-05-10 11:02:00+0000'
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:03:40+0000 WARNING Unstable connection detected
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | Status: Connected
nordvpn | Server: United States #9766
nordvpn | Hostname: us9766.nordvpn.com
nordvpn | IP: 181.215.169.4
nordvpn | Country: United States
nordvpn | City: Los Angeles
nordvpn | Current technology: NORDLYNX
nordvpn | Current protocol: UDP
nordvpn | Post-quantum VPN: Disabled
nordvpn | Transfer: 92 B received, 18.86 KiB sent
nordvpn | Uptime: 1 minute 5 seconds
nordvpn | INFO The NordVPN FIREWALL is preventing evaluation of connection filters.
nordvpn | INFO This is expected on startup before the tunnel has been established.
nordvpn | INFO Filters will be evaluated on connection refresh.
nordvpn | INFO Set FIREWALL to 'false' to allow filter evaluation at startup.
nordvpn | INFO Retrying now with default connect string.
nordvpn | Connecting to Germany #1020 (de1020.nordvpn.com)
nordvpn | You are connected to Germany #1020 (de1020.nordvpn.com)!
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:04:01+0000 INFO Target reconnect time is '2025-05-10 11:04:00+0000'
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:06+0000 WARNING Unstable connection detected
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | Status: Connected
nordvpn | Server: Germany #1020
nordvpn | Hostname: de1020.nordvpn.com
nordvpn | IP: 5.180.62.176
nordvpn | Country: Germany
nordvpn | City: Frankfurt
nordvpn | Current technology: NORDLYNX
nordvpn | Current protocol: UDP
nordvpn | Post-quantum VPN: Disabled
nordvpn | Transfer: 92 B received, 4.57 KiB sent
nordvpn | Uptime: 1 minute 5 seconds
nordvpn | INFO The NordVPN FIREWALL is preventing evaluation of connection filters.
nordvpn | INFO This is expected on startup before the tunnel has been established.
nordvpn | INFO Filters will be evaluated on connection refresh.
nordvpn | INFO Set FIREWALL to 'false' to allow filter evaluation at startup.
nordvpn | INFO Retrying now with default connect string.
nordvpn exited with code 137
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:47+0000 INFO Waiting for nord daemon to start...
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:49+0000 INFO Waiting for nord daemon to start...
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:51+0000 INFO Firewall is up; traffic will be routed through vpn
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:51+0000 INFO Enabling connection to secure interface and docker network
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:51+0000 INFO Configuring and connecting NordVPN...
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | Daemon: NordVPN Version 3.19.2
nordvpn | Technology is already set to 'NORDLYNX'.
nordvpn | Subnet 172.19.0.2/16 is allowlisted successfully.
nordvpn | Login successful; connection now in progress...
nordvpn | The recommended server is us8577
nordvpn | Connecting to United States #8577 (us8577.nordvpn.com)
nordvpn | You are connected to United States #8577 (us8577.nordvpn.com)!
nordvpn | Firewall is set to 'enabled' successfully.
nordvpn | Kill Switch is set to 'enabled' successfully.
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:56+0000 INFO Startup complete
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:05:56+0000 INFO Target reconnect time is '2025-05-10 11:05:00+0000'
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:07:01+0000 WARNING Unstable connection detected
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | Status: Connected
nordvpn | Server: United States #8577
nordvpn | Hostname: us8577.nordvpn.com
nordvpn | IP: 91.196.220.32
nordvpn | Country: United States
nordvpn | City: Los Angeles
nordvpn | Current technology: NORDLYNX
nordvpn | Current protocol: UDP
nordvpn | Post-quantum VPN: Disabled
nordvpn | Transfer: 92 B received, 8.40 KiB sent
nordvpn | Uptime: 1 minute 5 seconds
nordvpn | Connecting to Australia #772 (au772.nordvpn.com)
nordvpn | You are connected to Australia #772 (au772.nordvpn.com)!
nordvpn | ########################
nordvpn | 2025-05-10 09:07:23+0000 INFO Target reconnect time is '2025-05-10 11:07:00+0000'

[tmknight]

Thank you for starting a discussion (vs an issue). Be assured, this is not a global problem; I am writing this to you via a browser session proxied through Docker-Privoxy & Docker-NordVPN.

Likely you cannot get out to the internet for some reason. This is the code that would generate that message:

docker-nordvpn/scripts/nord_watch

Lines 32 to 53 in 1eee6a1

	## Evaluate connection to internet
	if [[ ! $(curl -Is -m 5 -o /dev/null -w "%{http_code}" "${CHECK_CONNECTION_URL:-https://www.google.com}") =~ ^[23] ]]
	then
	if [[ -n ${CONNECT} ]]
	then
	SERVER="${CONNECT}"
	fi
	## Show status and retry connection
	echo -e "$(date "+%F %T%z")\tWARNING\tUnstable connection detected"
	echo "########################"
	nordvpn status | grep -Eiv -f /opt/inv-grep
	if ! nord_connect "${SERVER}"
	then
	echo -e "$(date "+%F %T%z")\tCRITICAL\tUnable to connect; exiting"
	CODE=1
	break
	fi
	echo "########################"
	## Reconnection complete, reset reconnection target
	[ "${RECONNECT_INTERVAL}" -ne 0 ] && Set-Target "${RECONNECT_INTERVAL}"
	## Evaluate reconnect interval

To troubleshoot, you should follow the troubleshooting section and step through the checks.

Good luck sorting out your environment

[kanelee]

Thank you so much for the quick reply. It's odd, because I have the actual NordVPN linux app running on a bare metal Fedora and another Debian VM without issue. However, I wanted to try and run your container on an Alpine host. I did install the Alpine's recommended wireguard package. Is there anything that needs to be done with the wireguard install?

[tmknight]

It may be down to your alpine host OS and the need to manually install requisites. Have you tried a more robust docker host OS (debian, ubuntu, etc.)?

[kanelee]

Thank you for writing back and I apologize for the delayed response. I tried the same thing on ubuntu and this is the error message that I received "The VPN connection has failed. Please check your internet connection and try connecting to the VPN again. If the issue persists, contact our customer support.". As a reminder, I do have the actual NordVPN running Nordlynx on my bare metal Fedora install. I am a complete noob at this. Can you please tell me how you setup your Wireguard installation to make this work?

[tmknight]

Have you tried it with technology 'open vpn'; does that work?