VPN - Undocking (the proper way)

If you don’t “gracefully” disconnect from the VPN it can take up to 5 minutes before you will be able to connect to it again.  This can happen if you undock from a network connected docking station simply by pulling the USB cable out.  When this happens, the VPN server does not get any notification that the VPN connection should get disconnected and has to “time-out”.  When switching from hard-wired to WiFi you have to re-establish the VPN connection. 

The proper way to undock and gracefully disconnect from the VPN is to simply close the laptop lid first, wait a few seconds, and then pull out the USB cord.  If you would prefer to not put your laptop into sleep mode then you can simply disconnect the VPN manually by clicking the network icon as shown below. 

Then clicking TCC-VPN and the [Disconnect] button.  

At this point, quickly disconnect the USB cable.  If you don’t do it quickly the VPN may actually reconnect on you if you are setup in Automatic Mode.  Once undocked, the VPN can be reconnected via the WiFi connection. 

If your dock does not have a hard-wired network connection and you are always on WiFi, then this does not matter as much since the network “path” won’t change when you undock.