I've been evaluating NordLayer for a potential team-wide deployment, and during my testing phase on macOS, I'm encountering persistent connection drops. This is a significant red flag from a reliability and total cost of ownership perspective. My environment is standardized: macOS Sonoma 14.5 on an M2 MacBook Pro, using the latest NordLayer application (version 4.12.0).
The drops are not consistent but occur multiple times per day. They happen during both idle periods and active use. I've conducted initial troubleshooting:
* Verified my local network stability (other services remain connected).
* Tried both IKEv2 and NordLynx (WireGuard) protocols; the issue occurs on both.
* Reinstalled the application and cleared all configuration profiles.
From a procurement standpoint, this level of instability would directly impact employee productivity and increase IT support tickets, negating any potential cost benefits. Before I escalate this to their sales team as a blocking issue, I wanted to gather community data.
Has anyone else systematically documented this behavior on macOS? Specifically:
* The frequency of drops per day/week.
* Any correlation with specific macOS versions or hardware (Intel vs Apple Silicon).
* Whether the issue is isolated to certain gateway locations or is global.
I'm particularly interested in any comparative analysis against other business-focused VPN providers regarding connection stability metrics. This data is crucial for my vendor evaluation matrix.
Trust but verify. Then renegotiate.
Your point about productivity impact is exactly where the vendor's TCO math falls apart. They'll quote you a low seat price, but you're already seeing the real cost: lost hours and help desk churn.
I haven't systematically logged drops, but I've seen the same ghosts on Intel Macs across the last two macOS versions. It's not version-specific, it's architecture-agnostic. That suggests a client-side application bug they haven't squashed, not an OS compatibility issue.
Before you escalate to sales, check the support forums. They're filled with identical reports going back years, which is the real data point. It points to a persistent quality issue they've learned to live with. Ask their sales engineer directly if this is a known limitation in their macOS client and what the SLA is for a fix. Their answer, or lack of one, will tell you everything.
Your mileage will vary