VPNMON VPNMON-R3 v1.3.3 -Apr 2, 2024- Monitor WAN/Dual-WAN/VPN Health & Reset Multiple OpenVPN Connections (Now available in AMTM!)

[Viktor Jaep]

I think I will leave the setting in place to automatically restart a client on reboot as it is just a second level of backup. Thanks again.

You're welcome... that's totally your call, and absolutely wouldn't hurt a thing! VPNMON will catch everything between your reboots. Enjoy!

 

[TITAN]

Small fixes in preparation for AMTM and a new command line switch for bypassing the Screen verbiage... enjoy!

What's new?
v1.11 - (January 27, 2024)
- ADDED: New commandline switch "-now" to be used in conjunction with "-screen" that will allow you to bypass the screen timer and instructions, and will launch VPNMON-R3 directly into the screen environment without having to wait. (Usage example: vpnmon-r3 -screen -now) Thanks @TITAN for the request.
- FIXED: Changed a few legacy items so it conforms with AMTM standards.

Download Link (update directly within VPNMON-R2 -> (C)onfigure/Setup -> (3) Check for latest updates):

curl --retry 3 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ViktorJp/VPNMON-R3/main/vpnmon-r3-1.11.sh" -o "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh" && chmod 755 "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh"

To quote you; Working as advertised.
Thank you @Viktor Jaep

 

[TITAN]

Another feature request from R2...pretty please The server capacity % limit and ping reset timeout?

I believe this is unrelated to the new version/update, I've noticed my connection (NordVPN) has dropped numerous times today, probably due to server capacity (this happens occasionally, and R2 took care of this really well, to the point I forgot it even happens)

  Slot | Mon |  Svrs  | Health | VPN State    | Public VPN IP   | Ping-->VPN | City Exit / Time
-------|-----|--------|--------|--------------|-----------------|------------|---------------------------------
  VPN1 | [X] | [0172] | [ OK ] | Connected    | xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx | [0051.841] | : 0d 00h:01m
  VPN2 | [X] | [0068] | [FAIL] | Connected    | 000.000.000.000 | [0000.000] | : 0d 00h:02m

INFO: Custom VPN Client Server List Query Executed for VPN Slot 1 (172 rows)
INFO: VPN1 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: Custom VPN Client Server List Query Executed for VPN Slot 2 (68 rows)
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond
INFO: VPN2 Connection Restarted - New Server: xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
INFO: VPN Director Routing Service Restarted
WARNING: VPN2 failed to respond

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Another feature request from R2...pretty please The server capacity % limit and ping reset timeout?

I believe this is unrelated to the new version/update, I've noticed my connection (NordVPN) has dropped numerous times today, probably due to server capacity (this happens occasionally, and R2 took care of this really well, to the point I forgot it even happens)

Unfortunately I will need to draw the line at determining server capacity %. This is where tight integrations with specific VPN providers would need to happen, and took a different path with R3, which is less reliant on these particular integrations, which in turn allows it to be used with any VPN provider. I can, however, work on a ping reset... that wouldn't hurt.

 

[TITAN]

Unfortunately I will need to draw the line at determining server capacity %. This is where tight integrations with specific VPN providers would need to happen, and took a different path with R3, which is less reliant on these particular integrations, which in turn allows it to be used with any VPN provider. I can, however, work on a ping reset... that wouldn't hurt.

That's fair enough, and it makes sense not to lock yourself to a particular provider who may change something at their end which breaks your script.

 

[Bogey]

Viktor, would you like to help me out?

I upgraded to R3, use AIRvpn on slot 1, slot 1 is the only VPN connection I have and this all runs on a RT-AX88U.

This morning we had a brief power outage, so this wasva perfect opportunity to see if the configuration all works.
I had my doubts because the current server that my router was connected to had an IP address not in the generated list.
Unfortunately the script was not able to setup a connection successfully, it tried on and on continuously going to the next IP address.

So I switched vpnmon-r3 off and tried it manually with a fresh .ovpn configuration file. No success!
Then I remembered that I had to switch off IPv6 (or actually only select IPv4) and voilà it worked as usual.

I don’t know if nor how I can disable the IPv6 setting for VPNMON. I don’t know why I have to turn it off when using VPN manually either, I had read it in a airvpn post somewhere a long time ago and I stuck to it because it worked.In the meantime I do have a provider now that supports IPv6, but I still have the setting off on the RT-AX88.

Any suggestions on how to get the script working?

Cheers,
Erwin

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Viktor, would you like to help me out?

I upgraded to R3, use AIRvpn on slot 1, slot 1 is the only VPN connection I have and this all runs on a RT-AX88U.

This morning we had a brief power outage, so this wasva perfect opportunity to see if the configuration all works.
I had my doubts because the current server that my router was connected to had an IP address not in the generated list.
Unfortunately the script was not able to setup a connection successfully, it tried on and on continuously going to the next IP address.

So I switched vpnmon-r3 off and tried it manually with a fresh .ovpn configuration file. No success!
Then I remembered that I had to switch off IPv6 (or actually only select IPv4) and voilà it worked as usual.

I don’t know if nor how I can disable the IPv6 setting for VPNMON. I don’t know why I have to turn it off when using VPN manually either, I had read it in a airvpn post somewhere a long time ago and I stuck to it because it worked.In the meantime I do have a provider now that supports IPv6, but I still have the setting off on the RT-AX88.

Any suggestions on how to get the script working?

Cheers,
Erwin

Hey @Bogey! Happy to help!

You can't turn IPv6 off in VPNMON, but you would need to make these changes on your router specifically. You'd need to go into your router UI -> Advanced Settings -> IPv6 -> and set it to disabled.

You can also control a subset of IPv6-VPN specific settings within your VPN client's custom config, as there are a few entries you can make to disable IPv6 on the VPN tunnel itself. This is the custom config I used for both NordVPN and AirVPN... note the ipv6 entries near the bottom...

remote-random
resolv-retry infinite
remote-cert-tls server
ping 15
ping-restart 0
ping-timer-rem
persist-key
persist-tun
reneg-sec 0
fast-io
disable-occ
mute-replay-warnings
auth-nocache
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288
push "sndbuf 524288"
push "rcvbuf 524288"
pull-filter ignore "auth-token"
pull-filter ignore "ifconfig-ipv6"
pull-filter ignore "route-ipv6"
explicit-exit-notify 3
tun-mtu 1500
tun-mtu-extra 32
mssfix 1450

 

[Viktor Jaep]

New release to give you something to mess with over the weekend!

What's new!?
v1.12 - (February 2, 2024)
- ADDED: Another feature request coming over from R2 -- Reset VPN if ping across tunnel is > than X ms. Configurable from the Operations Menu, using hotkey "P", you are able to change this value. Example Usage: If this setting is set to 100ms, and the ping value for this tunnel exceeds 100ms, then R3 will reset the connection in favor of a new connection with a lower ping value. Settling on a server with a lower ping should help with speed, latency and performance issues. Thanks to @TITAN for the request!
- FIXED: Just realized my mistake that certain older models (like the AC68U) actually only have a max of 2 VPN client slots, not 3. Fixed the configs and menus to allow for up to 2 VPN client slots for this particular older router limitation.

Download link (or update directly within VPNMON-R3):

curl --retry 3 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ViktorJp/VPNMON-R3/main/vpnmon-r3-1.12.sh" -o "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh" && chmod 755 "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh"

Significant Screenshots:

New item (P)ing Maximum Before Reset in the operations menu to reset connections that get greater than your set amount to stick with servers that are speedier and have less latency

 

[TITAN]

New release to give you something to mess with over the weekend!

What's new!?
v1.12 - (February 2, 2024)
- ADDED: Another feature request coming over from R2 -- Reset VPN if ping across tunnel is > than X ms. Configurable from the Operations Menu, using hotkey "P", you are able to change this value. Example Usage: If this setting is set to 100ms, and the ping value for this tunnel exceeds 100ms, then R3 will reset the connection in favor of a new connection with a lower ping value. Settling on a server with a lower ping should help with speed, latency and performance issues. Thanks to @TITAN for the request!
- FIXED: Just realized my mistake that certain older models (like the AC68U) actually only have a max of 2 VPN client slots, not 3. Fixed the configs and menus to allow for up to 2 VPN client slots for this particular older router limitation.

Download link (or update directly within VPNMON-R3):

curl --retry 3 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ViktorJp/VPNMON-R3/main/vpnmon-r3-1.12.sh" -o "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh" && chmod 755 "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3.sh"

Significant Screenshots:

New item (P)ing Maximum Before Reset in the operations menu to reset connections that get greater than your set amount to stick with servers that are speedier and have less latency
View attachment 56156

Not sure if it's just me, but with the latest version the 'S' option no longer works to display the Operations Menu
I did try uninstall and reinstall, and rebooted in between for good measure...

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Not sure if it's just me, but with the latest version the 'S' option no longer works to display the Operations Menu
I did try uninstall and reinstall, and rebooted in between for good measure...

Pretty weird, @TITAN .... working on my end. Capital/lowercase S both do the trick. If you go back to v1.11... does it work for you there? I have seen this before. What SSH client are you using? Sometimes you need to create a new profile under your SSH tool, and delete the old one. Or try a different SSH tool.

 

[Ripshod]

Definitely strange that one. All fine here.

EDIT: Depending on the part of the cycle when you type the 's' sometimes you just have to wait. During the countdown it's instant.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Many thanks to @thelonelycoder for adding VPNMON-R3 to the latest version of AMTM! Very happy to add this tool to the collective!

 

[CaptainSTX]

Not sure if it's just me, but with the latest version the 'S' option no longer works to display the Operations Menu
I did try uninstall and reinstall, and rebooted in between for good measure...

Works fine on my installation.

 

[TITAN]

Pretty weird, @TITAN .... working on my end. Capital/lowercase S both do the trick. If you go back to v1.11... does it work for you there? I have seen this before. What SSH client are you using? Sometimes you need to create a new profile under your SSH tool, and delete the old one. Or try a different SSH tool.

Reverted back to 1.11 and it works fine. Re-upgraded to v1.12 and it stopped working.
Tried with -screen -now and just -screen. Tried with s and S (lower and Caps).
I'm using PuTTY. I tried creating a new session (even tried from a different pc which has never connected to the router before)
I can still access all the options without the menu shows (I just have to remember what they are)

weird indeed....

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Reverted back to 1.11 and it works fine. Re-upgraded to v1.12 and it stopped working.
Tried with -screen -now and just -screen. Tried with s and S (lower and Caps).
I'm using PuTTY. I tried creating a new session (even tried from a different pc which has never connected to the router before)
I can still access all the options without the menu shows (I just have to remember what they are)

weird indeed....

Try using a different SSH tool... see if that makes any difference? This one is pretty decent: https://termius.com/

Also... try just running it outside of screen for troubleshooting? Just execute vpnmon-r3 from the prompt? Does it work then?

Also part 2... when you press the "S" key during the timer cycle... do you see anything happen on screen? Does it refresh, do anything at all? Or just nothing?

Also part 3... try uninstalling/reinstalling PuTTY?

 

[Ripshod]

PuTTY is pretty solid. As long as it's not mis-configured it works fine for windows or ubuntu.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

PuTTY is pretty solid. As long as it's not mis-configured it works fine for windows or ubuntu.

Agreed... I use both PuTTY and Termius. Just trying to determine if it's a SSH emulator problem or something else, as it seems only to be a problem on his end.

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Try using a different SSH tool... see if that makes any difference? This one is pretty decent: https://termius.com/

Also... try just running it outside of screen for troubleshooting? Just execute vpnmon-r3 from the prompt? Does it work then?

Also part 2... when you press the "S" key during the timer cycle... do you see anything happen on screen? Does it refresh, do anything at all? Or just nothing?

Also part 3... try uninstalling/reinstalling PuTTY?

@TITAN... I'm dying to find out if you've been able to solve this issue... and what it ended up being. I've been reading up that it could be a TTY emulator issue within PuTTY, like getting assigned wrong keys, different languages/regions, etc... or it could be something to do with the "./tmp/mnt/<USBDRIVELABEL>/entware/root/.inputrc" file? There's not much meat in that file for me... anyways, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight not knowing! LOL

Here's another potential keyboard mapping file that may need to be looked at? "./tmp/mnt/<USBDRIVELABEL>/entware/etc/screenrc"

 

[TITAN]

Try using a different SSH tool... see if that makes any difference? This one is pretty decent: https://termius.com/

Also... try just running it outside of screen for troubleshooting? Just execute vpnmon-r3 from the prompt? Does it work then?

Also part 2... when you press the "S" key during the timer cycle... do you see anything happen on screen? Does it refresh, do anything at all? Or just nothing?

Also part 3... try uninstalling/reinstalling PuTTY?

Different SSH tool (termius) -> same result
Running without screen -> same result
Pressing S key -> yes, the screen refreshes/reloads but the Operations Menu doesn't display
Updated PuTTY -> same result
I even did a reboot for good measure after each test. Downgraded back to 1.11, and the S option is working fine on both SSH apps, using -screen as well as not using screen

The only last resort (which I'm not willing to try just yet, but given I'm the only one with this issue, it's looking more likely) is a full factory reset and start from scratch....

@TITAN... I'm dying to find out if you've been able to solve this issue... and what it ended up being. I've been reading up that it could be a TTY emulator issue within PuTTY, like getting assigned wrong keys, different languages/regions, etc... or it could be something to do with the "./tmp/mnt/<USBDRIVELABEL>/entware/root/.inputrc" file? There's not much meat in that file for me... anyways, I'm not sure if I'm going to be able to sleep tonight not knowing! LOL

Here's another potential keyboard mapping file that may need to be looked at? "./tmp/mnt/<USBDRIVELABEL>/entware/etc/screenrc"

Sorry to keep you waiting - I hope you were able to get some rest!!

here is the contents of the .inputrc

set meta-flag on
set convert-meta off
set output-meta on

and screerc

startup_message off

 

[Viktor Jaep]

Pressing S key -> yes, the screen refreshes/reloads but the Operations Menu doesn't display

Do you see any errors on screen during this time, or when you scroll up in PuTTY?

The only last resort (which I'm not willing to try just yet, but given I'm the only one with this issue, it's looking more likely) is a full factory reset and start from scratch....

Before we go that far... how about let's do a debug... here's a version of 1.12 that has debug enabled. Don't use screen, so just start it like "sh vpnmon-r3t.sh" in a new SSH window...

Wait until it gets to the timer... hit "s", and after a few, just CTRL-C out of it... then If you could copy and paste the results from this into a text file, and please send it over to me? Then I'll look and see if there's anything weird about how your router is interpreting this vs. everyone else. It's not unheard of that certain routers have more issues with certain things that other routers don't seem to care about. It could be just that.

curl --retry 3 "https://raw.githubusercontent.com/ViktorJp/VPNMON-R3/main/vpnmon-r3t.sh" -o "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3t.sh" && chmod 755 "/jffs/scripts/vpnmon-r3t.sh"