Trouble with OpenVPN client on some networks

hazzlewis

Hi there,

Sorry if i'm posting in the wrong place, but I wonder if anybody would be able to share their experiences of working with 'difficult' routers or isps with respect to the OpenVPN client or VPNs in general.

I was at my friend's house recently and wanted to catch up on some work, but their router seemed to be blocking all inward and outward packets. This was a BT Home Hub router (we're in the UK) which has a private wifi connection for the broadband customer, and another open connection which other BT customers can access by logging in through a web portal.

On the private connection, I tried every trick in the book including disabling BT's 'DNS assist', popping my device in the DMZ, disabling the router firewall completely. All fruitless efforts!

On the public connection, logging in with his BT account credentials however, it works absolutely fine (albeit annoying to sign in to the web portal again every ~30 mins or so).

I can't for the life of me work out why the router behaves like this. Any ideas???

Any thoughts/suggestions?

Traffic

hazzlewis wrotetheir router seemed to be blocking all inward and outward packets

You mean the internet was down .. :lol:

hazzlewis

Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wrotetheir router seemed to be blocking all inward and outward packets
You mean the internet was down .. :lol:

Haha, sorry yes I should have mentioned. When not connected to the VPN the internet was working fine. And the VPN itself was also fine at the time.

Traffic

hazzlewis wroteWhen not connected to the VPN the internet was working fine. And the VPN itself was also fine at the time.

.. did I skip a page .. or did you ? ..

hazzlewis

Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wroteWhen not connected to the VPN the internet was working fine. And the VPN itself was also fine at the time.
.. did I skip a page .. or did you ? ..

Hmm, I don't know what you mean. So it was probably me..?!

Traffic

With the details you have provided it is absolutely impossible to say ..

No Openvpn Configs ..
No Openvpn Logs ..
No indication of server or client issue ..

And as my highlights of what you have said point out is: What you say makes no particular sense ..

EG:

Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wrotetheir router seemed to be blocking all inward and outward packets
You mean the internet was down .. :lol:

I highly doubt the router was blocking all inward and outward packets .. otherwise how would you use the internet at all ?

Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wroteWhen not connected to the VPN the internet was working fine. And the VPN itself was also fine at the time.
.. did I skip a page .. or did you ? ..

this is just meaningless ..

hazzlewis

Traffic wroteWith the details you have provided it is absolutely impossible to say ..

No Openvpn Configs ..
No Openvpn Logs ..
No indication of server or client issue ..

And as my highlights of what you have said point out is: What you say makes no particular sense ..

EG:
Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wrotetheir router seemed to be blocking all inward and outward packets
You mean the internet was down .. :lol:
I highly doubt the router was blocking all inward and outward packets .. otherwise how would you use the internet at all ?

Traffic wrote
hazzlewis wroteWhen not connected to the VPN the internet was working fine. And the VPN itself was also fine at the time.
.. did I skip a page .. or did you ? ..
this is just meaningless ..

Right okay, terribly sorry. I'm a new poster here, so I guess my etiquette is not up to scratch. Allow me to clarify!

Yes, as soon as i connected to the VPN, the router began to block all inward and outward packets so yes- the internet was 'down' as far as my laptop was concerned. When i disconnected from the VPN, I was able to browse the internet absolutely fine. The private network I was attempting to use was also not down itself.

My openvpn terminal output indicated that eventually my connection to the VPN would timeout due to inactivity, and then reconnect again and so on.

I was able to narrow down the issue to either the router or ISP, hence why ive not included any configs or logs pertaining to openvpn itself. Moreover, I had no problems whatsoever with my vpn configuration or connection until trying to use it from my friend's house.

So this post was more to ask about people's experiences with difficult routers or ISPs, rather than looking for help with openvpn.

I do however have the router log if you'd like to look at that?

Traffic

hazzlewis wroteI was able to narrow down the issue to either the router or ISP, hence why ive not included any configs or logs

Your client log (at --verb 4) would be useful ..

However, to my knowledge BT do not specifically block any packets .. but you will have to verify that yourself.

hazzlewis wrotethis post was more to ask about people's experiences with difficult routers or ISPs, rather than looking for help with openvpn.

OK ..

What you describe could be a hardware fault .. possibly the router ..

hazzlewis wroteI do however have the router log if you'd like to look at that?

it may help .. 😐