How to get the WAN ip address (the one assigned by VPN, not the ISP)?

jdoe87

Running a debian router that uses openVPN client to connect to a VPN provider.

When the tun0 is established, it runs the "update-resolv-conf" script. How do I get the public WAN ip address (the VPN's WAN address, not the iSP) inside this script? This is so I can pass the IP to a DDNS provider: "curl <ddns provider".

I tried "$ifconfig_local" and "$ifconfig_remote" but they both come up with 10.x.x.x ip addresses and not the real WAN ip address.

TinCanTech

Your question does not make sense ..

jdoe87 wrote How to get the WAN ip address (the one assigned by VPN, not the ISP)?

The IPs assigned by openvpn (in your case) are 10.0.0.0/8

jdoe87

Yes but when I go to whatismyip.com, it's a different IP address. I want to know that address.

TinCanTech

Do you mean the egress IP address of the VPN service provider once connected to their VPN ?

jdoe87

Yes, actually let me explain what I'm trying to do.

I wrote a BASH script that calls "curl <ddns provider url> >> /usr/local/bin/ddns.log" that calls my DDNS provider.

I need this script to run everytime openVPN establishes a tunnel. I've tried putting it in as a "up cmd" in the config file and it didn't work (security level is already set to 2).

TinCanTech

jdoe87 wrote I wrote a BASH script that calls "curl <ddns provider url>
<..>
I've tried putting it in as a "up cmd" in the config file and it didn't work

This is because in a script called by openvpn you must specify all commands in full ..

EG: "curl" must be "/usr/bin/curl"

I would also recommend you do the same for your output file name.

jdoe87

ok, now it runs. However there is a problem.

Even though it runs "up" (which I think means the tunnel is established), the ddns provider is seeing the ISP ip address instead of the "egress vpn ip address". I think this is because even though the tunnel is "up", it's not yet "connected".

If I run the script manually after a few seconds, the ddns provider sees the "egress vpn ip address".

How do I make it "wait" or is there a separate "up" command?

TinCanTech

jdoe87 wrote However there is a problem.

Even though it runs "up" (which I think means the tunnel is established), the ddns provider is seeing the ISP ip address instead of the "egress vpn ip address". I think this is because even though the tunnel is "up", it's not yet "connected".

indeed ..

This is good security