Proton VPN got off the grid after several tries to upgrade from 3004.388.10 to 3004.388.10_2 and back.

[user_20240830]

Well, subject says it all.
My specs are:
RT-AX68U with 3004.388.10_2 .
Got totally lost VPN as it got lost on the way from 3004.388.10 which was running smooth.
Might be some ISP tricks at the same time.
I've stepped down to 3004.388.10 but that didn't work out for me.
Then I did Factory Reset.
Don't know were to dig actually.
Most probably I got messed up with settings restoration on the way to upgrade.
One very strange thing that I noticed is RAM use has reduced by 10% down to 62% only.
While previously with or without VPN use it kept to occupy up to 75% RAM.
Since there's no way to use old settings reserve file I got to fill up everything manually: WAN settings, WiFi settings, etc.
I'm still able to browse Internet but only with ISP permitted URLs which are extremely narrowed.
The only way for me to browse Internet is to use one freely available VPN.
But I got limited traffic over there and can't afford to use it for couple of days.
Got very important communication to attend soon.
Any Proton VPN specialists around here?
A helping hand is greatly appreciated.

 

[RMerlin]

Based on the second screenshot, you are not redirecting anything through the VPN - the rule list is empty. With WireGuard, you must configure rules within VPN Director.

 

[user_20240830]

Based on the second screenshot, you are not redirecting anything through the VPN - the rule list is empty. With WireGuard, you must configure rules within VPN Director.

Like this one?
I keep getting ISP IP only.
No VPN in use this way...

 

[RMerlin]

Like this one?
I keep getting ISP IP only.
No VPN in use this way...

Your first rule, which has the highest priority (because it targets WAN) tells it to redirect everything through your ISP. Change that to only redirect the router itself (192.168.249.1).

Your VPN rule tells it to redirect through WireGUard client 1, but your screenshot shows you are using client 4. You need to fix that to redirect through the correct VPN.

Also remove all those other empty rules.

 

[user_20240830]

Your first rule, which has the highest priority (because it targets WAN) tells it to redirect everything through your ISP. Change that to only redirect the router itself (192.168.249.1).

Your VPN rule tells it to redirect through WireGUard client 1, but your screenshot shows you are using client 4. You need to fix that to redirect through the correct VPN.

Also remove all those other empty rules.

I've 'Local IP' like this.
Still ISP IP is there. But is it even correct to assign all WG clients in a row?
It might be WireGuard by itself creating connection problem. Though in 3004.388.10 I used only OpenVPN-UDP.
That way I had no rules at all.
The only thing that connected properly.
Most of a sudden VPN Status shows no connection established.

 

[RMerlin]

I've 'Local IP' like this.
Still ISP IP is there. But is it even correct to assign all WG clients in a row?
It might be WireGuard by itself creating connection problem. Though in 3004.388.10 I used only OpenVPN-UDP.
That way I had no rules at all.
The only thing that connected properly.
Most of a sudden VPN Status shows no connection established.

Those rules make no sense. You need to follow my instructions:

1) Remove ALL rules
2) Create one rule: Local: 192.168.249.1 -> WAN
3) Create one rule: Local 192.168.1249.0/24 -> WGC4

What this does:

- If the traffic comes from the router, go through the ISP, and end there
- Or alse, if the traffic comes from the whole LAN, then go through WireGuard client 4, and there.

This is obviously for WireGuard client 4, which according to your screenshot isn't even started - you started WireGuard client 2. You need to decide WHICH client you use, create a rule specifically for that client, and have only that rule enabled in addition to the router exception rule. You cannot have different rules that overlap, only the first matching rule gets used. And having multiple clients connected at the same time make no sense either, unless you intend to have specific LAN devices through specific clients, in which case you need device-specific rules.

 

[user_20240830]

Done that.
Got WG connected back.
But no internet traffic allowed by ISP and I got stuck in never ending request to any server: "This site can't be reach" ...
So I had to switch off WG completely.
Very strange though my additional free VPN successfully goes via both modes OVPN and WG.
But traffic is the limit.
Hope to bring back OVPN. In previous Firmware I used to leave only one single OVPN Client enabled and that was it!
But have no idea how to do that now as I continue to receive "Error - check configuration".
Left URL to this post to Proton VPN Support.
Hope they will study screenshots.
Last one is the table I hope to be correct because this is the sequence I expect it to run.
And one more thing - this weird 10% less RAM in use bothers me a lot...

 

[JoGi]

Eric is absolutely right.

I'm familiar with the message "Error - check configuration"
(you can only choose one country with a free account.)

I have two ProtonVPNs connected to two "guest networks"
and also running two scripts.

First:
one that generates a ping every 5 minutes and sends some traffic to trick the both connections into thinking there's online traffic.
Second:
when a VPN goes down (checks for no ping), this guest network/VPN is automatically restarted.
when a protonvpn server is overloaded (100% load > you can check this on the proton site) i notice they disconnect some (inactive) connections.

I'm using the latest Merlin firmware, so this works just fine, and therefore has nothing to do with it.
so check your rules and follow RMerlin instructions

 

[bennor]

But have no idea how to do that now as I continue to receive "Error - check configuration".

As a troubleshooting step, if you haven't done so already, download a different Proton VPN server endpoint configuration and import it into the router replacing your existing one that is generating the error. Then test if the issue continues.

As RMerlin and others indicated check your VPN Director settings. Remove all the settings and start from scratch with just one VPN client end point and the client rules for it. Typically when you have VPN problems VPN Director rules is the first thing to check, review and adjust.

For additional context if you are using any third party addon scripts on the router, or are you using any DNS sink holes like Pi-Hole on the local network, you should indicate what you are using and how they're configured..