Asus AC68U with Client VPN - but Android devices can't access internet!

[webreaper]

I have an Asus RT-AC68U running the latest firmware, and have set up a VPN client connection on the router to give me whole-LAN VPN. It seems to work fine - I can access the internet perfectly well from my Synology NAS (wired), my two Macbooks (wifi), and my other devices (Hive Home, and LightwaveRF hub).

However, if the VPN is activated, both of my Android phones (Galaxy S6 and S7) cannot access the internet when connected to the router via wi-fi. They just wait for ages when I access a page (e.g., BBC News or Twitter) and then fail with a DNS error. If I go into the Asus firmware page and deactivate the VPN, they instantly are able to access the internet. I can't understand why the VPN would cause an issue with the Android phones, when they work fine with the VPN deactivated - particularly as the Android devices are just accessing the web via the router's wifi - they're not running VPN clients themselves. And as I mentioned before, none of the other devices on the network are seeing the same issue, just a Galaxy S6 and S7 (the former connecting on 2.4Ghz, the latter on 5Ghz).

Seems a bit of a weird one - anyone got any clue of what might be going on, and/or how I might go about debugging this?

I'm tempted to install the Asuswrt-Merlin firmware, to see if it's just a bug that gets fixed with a better VPN client implementation (it's in my to-do list anyway, as I want selective routing via the VPN anyway). But wanted to figure out if anyone else has seen this....

 

[webreaper]

Okay, quick update - setting the DNS server on the Asus router to Google (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4) seems to solve it, and now the Android devices can surf the internet okay. Anyone got a clue why this might have failed?

 

[RMerlin]

Your tunnel provider probably drops DNS queries sent to your ISP's DNS. You need to either configure the VPN client to use the tunnel provider's DNS (not sure if possible with the stock firmware), or globally use a DNS server they allow (like you did).

 

[yorgi]

Okay, quick update - setting the DNS server on the Asus router to Google (8.8.8.8/8.8.4.4) seems to solve it, and now the Android devices can surf the internet okay. Anyone got a clue why this might have failed?

That works but if you are using a VPN and showing googles DNS then you are leaking DNS.
you need to have the DNS of your VPN provider when you are on the VPN
What you need to do is put on Merlin Firmware and set a policy rule that all traffic goes via the VPN expcept the 2 android phones.
here is a guide and there is a section about policy rules
http://www.snbforums.com/threads/ho...ia-and-other-vpn-providers-10-15-fixed.30851/