Frustrating VPN Double NAT Issues

[Paul Short]

I recently purchased a NordVPN basic plan, which I intended to use on my Asus RT-AX88U router with configuring OpenVPN using the routers VPN Fusion setting. The reason for this was to ensure the gaming consoles and PCs in my home had VPN protection, at this point I would mention that I am subscribed to Sky UK Full Fibre broadband, which has native IPv6 access. So my broadband connection is Openreach ONT to RT-AX88U to devices.

The configuration of OpenVPN on the router went fine, all devices connected to it were showing no DNS leaks and different IP addresses to the WAN IP of my router, Great! However, when I started playing on my Xbox Series S, I noticed some games were not loading properly. Upon check the Xbox internet settings I saw that my NAT type status was 'Strict' due to a double NAT issue. If I disconnect the VPN service my NAT type reverts to 'Open', which is what it should be, and I am able to play games properly again. However, if I enable native IPv6 on my router with the VPN service running, I get Open NAT as well, unfortunately doing this then makes the VPN service show as not connected on other devices around the home. I can install NordVPN apps on these other devices, which will eliminate this problem, but that doesn't fix the fact that I am unable to have a secure connection through my gaming consoles and PC, which will allow Open NAT.

In all it's a pretty frustrating scenario that I've been trying to sort out for last couple of days. I've also tried Port Forwarding for the Xbox, but not even that removes the double NAT issue.

Does anyone have any suggestions to give me to help sort this issue out, or may know of something that I might have missed that can be easily forgotten about during the setup process. Any comments would be greatly appreciated.

 

[Tech9]

Exclude the gaming consoles from VPN. They are protected enough. With this VPN you are getting not only NAT issues, but also increased latency. For the rest of your clients - there will be issues going through VPN you are about to discover later. Your router will be limiting the speed to about 200Mbps, the latency will be higher, some services will refuse to work with known VPN servers, you will have to authenticate yourself more often or be forced to use 2-factor authentication (streaming services, banks, government services, online shopping, etc), you'll be getting IPv6 leaks with IPv6 enabled (on-device VPN clients disable IPv6 for this reason). I know what commercial VPN services advertise, but not all of it is true. The level of protection you expect is not there, the level of inconvenience will increase. It's like paying for second ISP on top of your existing one. Paying extra is the only guaranteed to work feature.

 

[Paul Short]

Exclude the gaming consoles from VPN. They are protected enough. With this VPN you are getting not only NAT issues, but also increased latency. For the rest of your clients - there will be issues going through VPN you are about to discover later. Your router will be limiting the speed to about 200Mbps, the latency will be higher, some services will refuse to work with known VPN servers, you will have to authenticate yourself more often or be forced to use 2-factor authentication (streaming services, banks, government services, online shopping, etc), you'll be getting IPv6 leaks with IPv6 enabled (on-device VPN clients disable IPv6 for this reason). I know what commercial VPN services advertise, but not all of it is true. The level of protection you expect is not there, the level of inconvenience will increase. It's like paying for second ISP on top of your existing one. Paying extra is the only guaranteed to work feature.

Thank you so much for your comments, very interesting reading and I'm sort of getting a feel for the inconvenience already. The significant drop in speed and higher latency has already surprised me a lot.
You mention paying extra is the only guaranteed to work feature, can you please explain what you actually mean by that?

 

[Tech9]

You mention paying extra is the only guaranteed to work feature, can you please explain what you actually mean by that?

You are not getting the security and privacy they advertise. You have no control of the other end of this VPN connection, it’s just changing your exit point to Internet like a proxy. There are other actively used methods to identify you online. You are paying for promises, getting false sense of security and have to deal with the related inconvenience. We have discussed this matter many times, but I guess commercial VPN advertisement is doing a great job. The service is not true Virtual Private Network, but more like Virtual Public Network.

 

[Paul Short]

You are not getting the security and privacy they advertise. You have no control of the other end of this VPN connection, it’s just changing your exit point to Internet like a proxy. There are other actively used methods to identify you online. You are paying for promises, getting false sense of security and have to deal with the related inconvenience. We have discussed this matter many times, but I guess commercial VPN advertisement is doing a great job. The service is not true Virtual Private Network, but more like Virtual Public Network.

Thank you for your reply.
It does seem the advertising for VPN providers is there to mislead the public, and draw them into buying products that aren't of any great use, and can become more of a hindrance than a benefit.
I'm guessing the only real way to protect our internet usage is to adopt safe browsing techniques, regular checking and refreshing of site login passwords and be super cautious of any document and file downloading.
Thanks again for your help, got a feeling I'll be cancelling the service for a refund.

 

[Tech9]

I have NordVPN account, but using it for different purposes. It has some value, but not in privacy and security.