Accessing BI with OpenVPN

PSPCommOp

PSPCommOp

Getting the hang of it
Jun 17, 2016
688
92
Northeastern PA
Has anyone had issues lately? I'm not sure if its just on my end but I have OpenVPN running on my router and my iPhone.

I open the VPN app on my phone, once it connects I open up BI. Sometimes it connects, other times I get a server error. The error's only occur when I'm outside the LAN.

I don't think its the VPN connection because I can remote into the PC directly via the desktop app with the VPN connected, but I'm still new to this so maybe that isn't proof there isn't a VPN issue.

I've checked the LAN/WAN settings in the BI app and everything looks to be correct. I'm also using a DDNS thru Asus.

Lastly, I last logged in this morning (WAN) and it worked fine. Tried again about an hour later and no beans.

Thoughts?
 
were you on a hotspot or mobile service? its possible a stupid admin blocked VPN access.. though thats considered bad practice, as it denies any good security.
 
I tried mobile yes. that didn't work. Connected to the wifi at work and that isn't working now. It did work on the wifi at my job earlier this morning but when I tried again a few hours later, nothing.

I'm back at work again now and its still not working. Is just strange because I can remote into the PC after the VPN connects, just not access the BI program.

Any suggestions?
 
are you sure your DDNS is accurate? make sure everything has clocks set correctly, if your router thinks its 1979 it could be an issue.
 
yeah DDNS is good, i have an asus router and used the app and it showed everything is correct. Times should be correct, I've updated them all to run off of the same NIST NTP server
 
shrug, mebe restart your BI server? it sounds like the VPN is connected if you can remote into the PC..
 
Yeah i'll try that when i get home in a few hours, it won't let me reboot from a remote. Hopefully that helps, not sure what else it could be
 
might try checking direct clients to redirect internet traffic so everything goes through your VPN

when your VPN is up you use internal IP's, so like 10.8.0.x will be your BI server.. not the DDNS IP, thats just for the VPN Client
 
nayr said:
might try checking direct clients to redirect internet traffic so everything goes through your VPN

when your VPN is up you use internal IP's, so like 10.8.0.x will be your BI server.. not the DDNS IP, thats just for the VPN Client
Click to expand...

Ok thats done... Now how exactly do i find out what the internal IP is? I'm assuming that means thats what will be entered in the BI app on my phone now?
 
you'll have to look at the network config on the machine hosting BI, it should tell you the internal IP.
 
I'm sorry, i know this is prob like trying to teach a 3rd grader mathematics for you but i'm lost. I checked the network configuration and all i'm seeing is the internal IP as the one i've had hosted this entire time.
 
Whats the model number of your Asus router? Usually for Asus the default LAN ip addresses are 192.168.1.xxx. I also use open VPN with my Asus router to connect to my internal network. When you connect to your local network when you aren't home via the VPN, you need to use the LAN ip address of your BI computer to connect to it. For example, if your BI computer is assigned local IP address of 192.168.1.12, that's the IP address you must input into the BI app in order to connect to it (Obviously the port numbers have to match also).

However, from my experience, I found I had to change the LAN IP address from the default of 192.168.1.xxx to something different such as, 192.168.5.xxx. I had to make this change because if I was connected to a network outside of my house with the same local address, it wouldn't connect. For example, if my home network had the IP address of 192.168.1.xxx, and the network I was connected to had the same local ip address (192.168.1.xxx), I wouldn't be able to connect to the devices on my network via the VPN, even though the VPN was connected.

The LAN ip address of your computer can be found in the server tab of Blue Iris or you can do start>Run>CMD type in ipconfig and hit enter
 
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smiticans said:
Whats the model number of your Asus router? Usually for Asus the default LAN ip addresses are 192.168.1.xxx. I also use open VPN with my Asus router to connect to my internal network. When you connect to your local network when you aren't home via the VPN, you need to use the LAN ip address of your BI computer to connect to it. For example, if your BI computer is assigned local IP address of 192.168.1.12, that's the IP address you must input into the BI app in order to connect to it (Obviously the port numbers have to match also).

However, from my experience, I found I had to change the LAN IP address from the default of 192.168.1.xxx to something different such as, 192.168.5.xxx. I had to make this change because if I was connected to a network outside of my house with the same local address, it wouldn't connect. For example, if my home network had the IP address of 192.168.1.xxx, and the network I was connected to had the same local ip address (192.168.1.xxx), I wouldn't be able to connect to the devices on my network via the VPN, even though the VPN was connected.

The LAN ip address of your computer can be found in the server tab of Blue Iris or you can do start>Run>CMD type in ipconfig and hit enter
Click to expand...

That is EXACTLY the problem that i'm having. I can connect no problem while on my home wifi. Outside, even if i connect thru VPN, its still not working. I temporarily enabled Port Forwarding a short time ago and it worked like a charm, but I don't want to leave the ports open after reading alot of the suggestions here.

My local IP for the BI server is 192.168.1.17. How would i go about changing the internal IP address to something like u recommended of 192.168.5.xx?

Also i'm running an Asus RT-AC68P and the mobile device that won't connect is an iPhone 6+ with the latest iOS
 
Before we change anything in the router, turn off the wifi on your phone, connect to your network with open VPN and type in 192.168.1.17 as the server ip in your BI app, and also make sure you have the correct port number. Try to connect and report back.

You have to change the local ip range in the router settings. I forgot off the top of my head but I'll login to my router later and give you instructions.
 
smiticans said:
Before we change anything in the router, turn off the wifi on your phone, connect to your network with open VPN and type in 192.168.1.17 as the server ip in your BI app, and also make sure you have the correct port number. Try to connect and report back.

You have to change the local ip range in the router settings. I forgot off the top of my head but I'll login to my router later and give you instructions.
Click to expand...

Its timing out. But i'm also using a DDNS, is that an issue?

Also i'm not sure if i posted this earlier or in a different thread but I can remotely access this PC thru VPN when i use the RD Client app. Its just the BI app that isn't working with the VPN.
 
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Are you using the DDNS for openVPN to connect to your router? If so that's fine. If you're using a DDNS service to connect to your BI server that's your problem. You need to type the local IP address of your BI computer in your BI app for it to work.
 
Try unchecking the feature nayr had you enable "direct clients to redirect internet traffic". I don't have that enabled. Also, make sure "push LAN to clients" is still enabled.
 
smiticans said:
Are you using the DDNS for openVPN to connect to your router? If so that's fine. If you're using a DDNS service to connect to your BI server that's your problem. You need to type the local IP address of your BI computer in your BI app for it to work.
Click to expand...

The DDNS is in programmed into the router. When the VPN connects on my iPhone, in the connection details it shows the Server and Server IP as the DDNS address and IP
 
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