Malfunctioning kill switch (RT-AC68U)

[stefankbd]

I have a VPN client configured on my router and it works fine until there is an "idle period" (i.e. at night). After a couple of hours of network inactivity the VPN "disconnects", the external IP becomes "unknown" and the connection goes directly to the ISP. Even though the kill switch is active the direct connection to the ISP is still allowed.
The log shows a regular (hourly) activity, sometimes it reads:

Sep 25 06:01:32 ovpn-client1[25831]: UDP link local: (not bound)
Sep 25 06:01:32 ovpn-client1[25831]: UDP link remote: [AF_INET]10.0.0.1:80
Sep 25 06:01:32 Samba_Server: smb daemon is stopped

At most times this UDP link remote shows a real external IP.

After a restart everything goes back to normal.

Any advise on what to check?

The router is running the latest Merlin firmware.

 

[Adooni]

did you look at VPN Director changes ? "Manual shutdown of a client removes the kill switch. The kill switch. It will now only be applied at boot time (if the client has been configured to start at boot time), or if the tunnel is disconnected by a non-user event"

 

[eibgrad]

I've written previously about the kill switch behavior since VPN Director was introduced, how to create your own kill switch that mimics the prior behavior, and discussed ways to mitigate issues w/ failed OpenVPN connections using a watchdog. Perhaps this will help.

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P.S. It would have been better, for the purposes of visibility, for the OP to have posted in the Merlin forum given this is a Merlin-specific issue.

 

[stefankbd]

did you look at VPN Director changes ? "Manual shutdown of a client removes the kill switch. The kill switch. It will now only be applied at boot time (if the client has been configured to start at boot time), or if the tunnel is disconnected by a non-user event"

I am not sure if I understand your answer correctly. All events I described are "non-user events", so the kill switch should work. Also the VPN client does start at boot time.

 

[stefankbd]

I've written previously about the kill switch behavior since VPN Director was introduced, how to create your own kill switch that mimics the prior behavior, and discussed ways to mitigate issues w/ failed OpenVPN connections using a watchdog. Perhaps this will help.

Thanks, I've set it up in a way suggested in your post. Hopefully it helps.