Solved VPN setup on router but IP Address not changing

[iliketurtles86]

I got a second router to install an OpenVPN client on so I will have 2 home networks, one with "regular" internet access, and one that is encrypted via VPN. I want two networks so I can pick and choose if I connect a device to a VPN connection or not. But after installing the VPN on my second router and connecting to it, my IP Address still does not change.

Here's my setup:
* My primary router is a TP-Link Archer C7 with ip address of 192.168.0.1 I ensured that VPN passthrough is enabled (it already was). I didn't make any other changes on this router.
* My secondary VPN router is an ASUS RT-N66U with stock firmware and an ip address of 192.168.1.1
* I have Windscribe VPN and followed this guide to set things up on the secondary router: https://windscribe.com/guides/asus
* An ethernet cable runs from my modem to the WAN of the primary router.
* An ethernet cable runs from a LAN port of the primary router to the WAN port on my secondary router.

The VPN is showing as activated on my secondary router, but when I connect to it via WIFI and lookup my ip address, it is still showing the ip address from my ISP.
I tried different OpenVPN configurations (443/tcp and 1194/UDP) as well as different VPN locations, but it still doesn't fix the issue.

Any advice? I can put the logs here if needed.

 

[Tech9]

- N66U stock firmware is from 2020, check if the VPN version on it is good for Windscribe requirements
- check the logs on N66U and make sure the VPN client is working properly and not showing any errors
- make sure you connect to N66U and not to C7 by mistake
- if you have IPv6 enabled it may cause IPv6 data leaks, my advice to disable it
- if all of the above is good, there is some configuration issue you have overlooked

- N66U has single core MIPS CPU and can do about 15-20Mbps on OpenVPN (potential performance issue)

 

[iliketurtles86]

- N66U stock firmware is from 2020, check if the VPN version on it is good for Windscribe requirements
- check the logs on N66U and make sure the VPN client is working properly and not showing any errors
- make sure you connect to N66U and not to C7 by mistake
- if you have IPv6 enabled it may cause IPv6 data leaks, my advice to disable it
- if all of the above is good, there is some configuration issue you have overlooked

- N66U has single core MIPS CPU and can do about 15-20Mbps on OpenVPN (potential performance issue)

Thanks for the reply, what in particular should I look for in the log?

Here are a couple pics:
Pic 1: This is screenshot from the VPN router. It is connected to the primary router via ethernet cable that goes from WAN (VPN router) to LAN (primary router). Notice the IP Address, it starts with 192.168.0.XXX. That is the network id for my primary router. Is that what it should be?? My network id for my VPN router has a 1 in it (192.168.1.XXX), but the screenshot is showing the primary router network id. Is that correct?

Pic 2: This is from the VPN router showing that my VPN connection is activated. But again, when I do a lookup on my IP Address while connected to this network, it shows me my old IP address (the one from my ISP).

Pic 3: Basic drawing of my modem and router setup.

 

[iliketurtles86]

Here is the log from my VPN router. I "X'd" out some of the ip addresses in the log, not sure what is sensitive or not.

Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7050]: OpenVPN 2.4.7 mipsel-unknown-linux-gnu [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [EPOLL] [MH/PKTINFO] [AEAD] built on Jun  9 2020
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7050]: library versions: OpenSSL 1.0.2u  20 Dec 2019, LZO 2.03
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: NOTE: the current --script-security setting may allow this configuration to call user-defined scripts
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: Outgoing Control Channel Authentication: Using 512 bit message hash 'SHA512' for HMAC authentication
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: Incoming Control Channel Authentication: Using 512 bit message hash 'SHA512' for HMAC authentication
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]198.12.XX.XX:1194
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: UDP link local: (not bound)
Dec 15 21:36:04 vpnclient5[7052]: UDP link remote: [AF_INET]198.12.XX.XX:1194
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY OK: depth=2, C=CA, ST=ON, L=Toronto, O=Windscribe Limited, OU=Systems, CN=Windscribe Node CA X1
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY OK: depth=1, C=CA, ST=ON, L=Toronto, O=Windscribe Limited, OU=Systems, CN=Windscribe Node CA X2
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY KU OK
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: Validating certificate extended key usage
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: ++ Certificate has EKU (str) TLS Web Server Authentication, expects TLS Web Server Authentication
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY EKU OK
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY X509NAME OK: C=CA, ST=ON, L=Toronto, O=Windscribe Limited, OU=Systems, CN=buf-281.windscribe.com
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: VERIFY OK: depth=0, C=CA, ST=ON, L=Toronto, O=Windscribe Limited, OU=Systems, CN=buf-281.windscribe.com
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: Control Channel: TLSv1.2, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 XXXXX-RSA-AES256-GCM-SHA384, 4096 bit RSA
Dec 15 21:36:05 vpnclient5[7052]: [buf-281.windscribe.com] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]198.12.XX.XX:1194
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: Outgoing Data Channel: Cipher 'AES-256-GCM' initialized with 256 bit key
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: Incoming Data Channel: Cipher 'AES-256-GCM' initialized with 256 bit key
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: TUN/TAP device tun15 opened
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: /sbin/ifconfig tun15 10.121.XX.XX netmask 255.255.254.0 mtu 1500 broadcast 10.121.XX.XXX
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: /etc/openvpn/ovpn-up tun15 1500 1552 10.121.XX.XX 255.255.254.0 init
Dec 15 21:36:06 vpnclient5[7052]: Initialization Sequence Completed
Dec 15 21:38:40 acsd: selected channel spec: 0xd926 (40u)
Dec 15 21:38:40 acsd: acs_set_chspec: 0xd926 (40u) for reason APCS_CSTIMER
Dec 15 21:50:02 acsd: selected channel spec: 0x1002 (2)
Dec 15 21:50:02 acsd: acs_set_chspec: 0x1002 (2) for reason APCS_CSTIMER
Dec 15 21:53:43 acsd: selected channel spec: 0xd99f (161u)
Dec 15 21:53:43 acsd: acs_set_chspec: 0xd99f (161u) for reason APCS_CSTIMER
Dec 15 22:05:05 acsd: selected channel spec: 0x100a (10)
Dec 15 22:05:05 acsd: acs_set_chspec: 0x100a (10) for reason APCS_CSTIMER

 

[Tech9]

But again, when I do a lookup on my IP Address

When connected to N66U with VPN Client enabled what ISP information are you getting here:

What is my ISP — Find your Internet Service Provider

Find your Internet Service Provider (ISP) with this online ISP lookup tool. Also check your hostname, IP address and IP location.

www.whatismyisp.com

Example on my connection, local ISP:

With NordVPN connected to server in Spain:

but the screenshot is showing the primary router network id. Is that correct?

Yes. The WAN IP for your N66U is assigned by DHCP on your C7 and it won't change.

 

[iliketurtles86]

When I click on that link it gives me my current ISP. The same result comes back whether I am connected to the VPN router or primary router.

I am going to try and simplify things and just setup one router with VPN and see if that works.

 

[iliketurtles86]

So I hooked up just the one Asus router. I factory reset it first as well.
So it goes modem, router, laptop.

The connection works fine pre vpn. Then I activate the open vpn, the router says it’s is successfully activated. But the public ip address does not change.

I have the Windscribe app on my computer and when I activate that my ip address changes. So I am so damn confused why it’s not working when activated through the router.

 

[Tech9]

The VPN client is obviously not working. Even if it was - it would be very slow on this router. Think about upgrading your aging hardware.

 

[iliketurtles86]

Thanks for helping out and your feedback.

 

[iliketurtles86]

Well I fixed it, kinda. I still could not get it to work with the stock firmware but once I downloaded and installed Asuswrt-Merlin firmware, then it worked. Not sure why it did not work with the stock firmware.

But now with Merlin firmware installed, it's working as I was hoping for. One router has 'regular' internet, and one router has the VPN enabled.