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NordVPN Running on Router and Streaming Box Clients Issue

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mattakacas

New Around Here
This is my first post to this site, I come here alot for advice and guidance and its never failed me. A friend of mine decided that he wanted his entire home network to be behind a vpn, and he opted for NordVPN. My friend resides in the US. He asked me to set it up for him on a brand new ASUS RT-AC86U (AC2900) router - which he plans to use to provide his entire home with a network/internet. I got it setup and the router appears to be up and running just fine behind the NordVPN firewall, but the problem as it stands now is that while Netflix works for me on PC's connected to said router, it will not work for me on streaming boxes such as Amazon FireTV or Rokus - and this is important to my friend so I want to try to figure this out.

The background/details:
  • First thing I did when i got the router is flash it with merlin successfully.
  • Then I followed the typical procedure for setting up an openvpn client, having downloaded one of NordVPN's OpenVPN configs for UDP for a server within the US. Obviously I entered the 'service' (super obfuscated) u/n and p/w for his acct, changed 'Accept DNS Configuration' to 'strict', and copied over the suggested custom openvpn configuration options from Nord's how-to guide for setting up their OpenVPN service on a AsusWRT-merlin router.
    • The VPN connects up fine, and I get blazing speeds (in excess of 200mbits down which is more than i expected).
  • As stated earlier, Netflix works fine when i access it through a PC connected to the router (using Chrome) but it will not work on Roku's and FireTV's connected wirelessly to the same router. (I get the 'vpn/proxy detected' error message from netflix when i try to play a video).
    • I tried checking DNSleaktest.com from a PC connected to the router (running in the thorough mode) and the only DNS server listed was the IP of the NordVPN server my router was setup to use which indicates to me that there is no DNS leak on the router.
    • It crossed my mind that maybe the roku and firetv were 'hardcoded' to try to use a different DNS to circumvent what was setup as the default on the router, so I added firewall rules to the router to only allow port 53 traffic (UDP and TCP) to the 2 different Nord DNS servers. I verified that the rule was working as intended (blocking all prt 53 requests except to Nord's DNS servers) but it did not resolve the netflix issue on the roku and firetv.

Nord seems to claim that their vpn works with netflix, and tons of 'reviews' around the web state as much. I tried contacting their support, they essentially give me new servers they say work when i contact them, but none of them work when used in the manner I described above with OpenVPN client setup on the router and Netflix running on FireTv's or Roku's connected to said router. I've tried at least 10 different nord vpn servers for the record so I dont think this is a bad luck or one off type issue.

Am i missing something dumb here? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
 
I should have mentioned too that I have an ExpressVPN account, and that I tried setting up OpenVPN using my ExpressVPN account on his router to see if it would make a difference. And it did, it worked like we wanted with no hassle (e.g. the firetv's and roku's connected to the AC2900 through the ExpressVPN VPN were able to stream netflix)

Thanks again!
 
I should have mentioned too that I have an ExpressVPN account, and that I tried setting up OpenVPN using my ExpressVPN account on his router to see if it would make a difference. And it did, it worked like we wanted with no hassle (e.g. the firetv's and roku's connected to the AC2900 through the ExpressVPN VPN were able to stream netflix) Ps welcome to the forum

Thanks again!
I use express VPNs DNS servers and lately I get the same error message from Netflix US but all I need to do is just keep trying to play the show I streaming and eventually it comes good. At the worst I may need to restart the Roku device but I always get through
 
This is my first post to this site, I come here alot for advice and guidance and its never failed me. A friend of mine decided that he wanted his entire home network to be behind a vpn, and he opted for NordVPN. My friend resides in the US. He asked me to set it up for him on a brand new ASUS RT-AC86U (AC2900) router - which he plans to use to provide his entire home with a network/internet. I got it setup and the router appears to be up and running just fine behind the NordVPN firewall, but the problem as it stands now is that while Netflix works for me on PC's connected to said router, it will not work for me on streaming boxes such as Amazon FireTV or Rokus - and this is important to my friend so I want to try to figure this out.

The background/details:
  • First thing I did when i got the router is flash it with merlin successfully.
  • Then I followed the typical procedure for setting up an openvpn client, having downloaded one of NordVPN's OpenVPN configs for UDP for a server within the US. Obviously I entered the 'service' (super obfuscated) u/n and p/w for his acct, changed 'Accept DNS Configuration' to 'strict', and copied over the suggested custom openvpn configuration options from Nord's how-to guide for setting up their OpenVPN service on a AsusWRT-merlin router.
    • The VPN connects up fine, and I get blazing speeds (in excess of 200mbits down which is more than i expected).
  • As stated earlier, Netflix works fine when i access it through a PC connected to the router (using Chrome) but it will not work on Roku's and FireTV's connected wirelessly to the same router. (I get the 'vpn/proxy detected' error message from netflix when i try to play a video).
    • I tried checking DNSleaktest.com from a PC connected to the router (running in the thorough mode) and the only DNS server listed was the IP of the NordVPN server my router was setup to use which indicates to me that there is no DNS leak on the router.
    • It crossed my mind that maybe the roku and firetv were 'hardcoded' to try to use a different DNS to circumvent what was setup as the default on the router, so I added firewall rules to the router to only allow port 53 traffic (UDP and TCP) to the 2 different Nord DNS servers. I verified that the rule was working as intended (blocking all prt 53 requests except to Nord's DNS servers) but it did not resolve the netflix issue on the roku and firetv.

Nord seems to claim that their vpn works with netflix, and tons of 'reviews' around the web state as much. I tried contacting their support, they essentially give me new servers they say work when i contact them, but none of them work when used in the manner I described above with OpenVPN client setup on the router and Netflix running on FireTv's or Roku's connected to said router. I've tried at least 10 different nord vpn servers for the record so I dont think this is a bad luck or one off type issue.

Am i missing something dumb here? Any advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance!
I know that with express VPN I need to use LA 3 ,Washington or new jersey for Netflix to work so I assume that nord have similar restrictions but unclebuks advise is the best basically you get what you pay for
Express VPN costs more but in the 3 years I have used it I can't complain about anything, the customer service, the uptime it just works and works everytime
 

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