Unable to access 2 RT-AC68U's to setup VPN

[Arjay]

I am no techie, as you shall see, but hope this is a correct analysis of what I have:

I have a fibre optic line that comes into the house to a Huawei HS8546V GPON/EPON Terminal that is setup on 192.168.2.1. From this I have two RT-AC68U boxes - one setup as a router with a WAN address as 192.168.2.5 (allocated by the Huawei) and a LAN of 192.168.1.1 setup by me via ethernet cable to the Huawei. The other ASUS is a node on 192.168.1.217 (LAN) connected wirelessly (AirMesh??) - both designed to give me coverage in a rather big open-plan, two-story house.

I created this setup a couple of years ago and, to be frank, no longer remember exactly how I did it. Now I want to access the two ASU routers so that I can add a VPN number to them. I can connect to the Huawei OK on 192.168.2.1. But I cannot access either Asus router. I have tried the obvious 192.168.1.1. and 192.168.2.5 for the first router - these just time out. I have also tried 192.168.1.217 for the node - same result. I also tried http://router.asus.com but this comes up as "We can’t connect to the server at router.asus.com."

Any help appreciated.

TIA

 

[Grisu]

As long as your Asus is in router mode and connected on WAN to modem you will first have to open WAN access on Asus router.
You are running double NAT.
They use different subnets, Huawei ..2.1 and Asus ..1.1

 

[dave14305]

Are you using a Windows PC? If so, can you verify your IP address and Default Gateway by running

ipconfig /all

I’m confused which network you are connecting to since your Huawei also has WiFi capabilities.

 

[ColinTaylor]

I think this has a typo? "one setup as a router with a WAN address as 192.168.1.5 (allocated by the Huawei)". I think you meant to say "192.168.2.5 (allocated by the Huawei)".

Now I want to access the two ASU routers so that I can add a VPN number to them.

What is a "VPN number"?

 

[Arjay]

Many thanks for the prompt replies.

Reason for additional routers.
The Huawei is setup in an upstairs office and I am stuck with that as that is where the cable comes in from the road. The house has solid brick and concrete internal walls (this is Spain) and the wifi signal from the Huawei dies about 5 yards outside the office door. So I have the first Asus router outside the office (by ethernet) which services the upstairs floor and a small open area downstairs by wireless. Then the second route is connected wirelessly to the first and located downstairs to serve the rest of the downstairs - if that makes sense.

Results of ipconfig:
Windows IP Configuration

Host Name . . . . . . . . . . . . : OFFICE-MAIN
Primary Dns Suffix . . . . . . . :
Node Type . . . . . . . . . . . . : Hybrid
IP Routing Enabled. . . . . . . . : No
WINS Proxy Enabled. . . . . . . . : No

Ethernet adapter Ethernet:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . . : Intel(R) Ethernet Connection (2) I219-V
Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 0C-9D-92-18-86-48
DHCP Enabled. . . . . . . . . . . : Yes
Autoconfiguration Enabled . . . . : Yes
IPv4 Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.130(Preferred)
Subnet Mask . . . . . . . . . . . : 255.255.255.0
Lease Obtained. . . . . . . . . . : 10 August 2019 19:27:02
Lease Expires . . . . . . . . . . : 13 August 2019 07:28:21
Default Gateway . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DHCP Server . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
DNS Servers . . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.2.1
NetBIOS over Tcpip. . . . . . . . : Enabled

Error re WAN address
Sorry, my bad. Yes the WAN for the first ASUS router is 192.168.2.5 not 192.168.1.5. I'll edit that in the first post.

Gaining access to router:
"As long as your Asus is in router mode and connected on WAN to modem you will first have to open WAN access on Asus router."
This is the crunch question - how do I do that?

Setting up VPN
Poor English - I just mean set up a VPN so that connected devices use a VPN...


New info
I have just found that at one time I had NordVPN running on this Windows 10 PC and still have NordVPN TAP installed. No idea if this would affect things. So I will uninstall both and see if anything changes after a reboot.

 

[Grisu]

Connect your PC directly to your Asus router, then you are able to access its GUI.
Then you can enable WAN access on Admin-page.

 

[Arjay]

Ah thanks - had forgotten that. All coming back to me now - age sucks believe me.

 

[Grisu]

Ah thanks - had forgotten that. All coming back to me now - age sucks believe me.

I know very well

 

[Arjay]

Up to 75 it has been OK but slippery slope now I think

 

[Arjay]

Well - thanks folks for the help. Got a good result. Only thing is that setting up a VPN using openvpn as part of Nordvpn cut my D/L speed on the main router from 8o Mbps to 10 and on the Airmesh node from 50Mbps to 11.... Hardly enough to run bbc iplayer or any other programs.

 

[Grisu]

to get much better VPN speeds you would need a 86U as main router (running VPN) instead of your 68U.