Worth knowing before it happens, because the symptom does not point at the cause: every application loses network, and the VPN client is no longer running to explain why.
What causes it
Proxy mode points your operating system's system-wide proxy settings at a
local listener. That setting outlives the process. If the app is force-quit —
Task Manager, Force Quit, kill -9 — rather than disconnected, the setting is
left pointing at a port with nothing behind it.
Getting it back
- Windows — Settings → Network & Internet → Proxy → turn off the manual proxy.
- macOS — System Settings → Network → your interface → Details… → Proxies →
turn the entries off.
- Linux — the client writes your previous settings to
$XDG_STATE_HOME/aibooster/system-proxy-restore.json before changing anything
and replays them on next launch, so simply starting the app again fixes it.
To do it by hand:
```bash # GNOME, Cinnamon, MATE gsettings set org.gnome.system.proxy mode none
# KDE Plasma kwriteconfig6 --file kioslaverc --group 'Proxy Settings' --key ProxyType 0 ```
Avoiding it
Disconnect from inside the app rather than killing the process. On Linux an
orderly shutdown — closing the window, logging out, rebooting — reverts the proxy
immediately, because SIGINT/SIGTERM/SIGHUP are handled. SIGKILL cannot be
handled by any program, which is the one case that leaves it stale.