I recently purchased an Orbi kit and having OpenVPN on the router is handy (this was on my old router too, so keeping it on there makes it simpler), however... I have own custom Dynamic DNS configuration setup with my personal domain, and therefore I have no need to enable the Dynamic DNS services on the Orbi. If I don't enable the Dynamic DNS on the Orbi, I'm unable to enable OpenVPN. I understand this might be the recommended setting, but I have no need and don't want to use public Dynamic DNS services. Can this be modified so OpenVPN can be enabled without requiring Dynamic DNS?

Hi Darren,I think you've completely missed the point of my question.1. I have the Orbi kit, not the Nighthawk router2. I know how DNS works, and how having a dynamic IP address makes it hard to access my home network. This is not an issue for me - I have my own solution on place with my personal domain. In other words, I already have a DNS name to access my current home IP Address.3. My issue is with the latest Orbi firmware - to enable the OpenVPN server on the Orbi, I must either configure a static IP Address on the WAN link, or enable the Dynamic DNS services on the Orbi.The OpenVPN service is "greyed" out and cannot be enabled without one of those two options configured.5. This request is to remove that limitation so I (and others) can enable the OpenVPN service *without* a static WAN address and *without* having to enable the in-built Dynamic DNS service on the Orbi.-austoonz

Exact same problem here. I already have an account with Dyn.com, and the updater is running on one of my computers already. (And the updater for Dyn.com isn't working, as somebody else has already noted in this forum.) The wording of the popup dialog when enabling OpenVPN makes it sound like it's just a reminder ("please make sure you will do this"), but apparently that's just a poorly phrased error message. Can the firmware be fixed, or do we need to just replace this with some wwdrt variant when it comes out if we want openvpn support?

Hey there! I wrote that original post about Dyn.com registration being broken. Thank you for the reference. I'm going to take the opportunity to bump this since it's really annoying to not have the dyn updater working!

This is a know issue which we have fixed in the next official release which we plan to release soon DarrenM

Is there an update for the fix of this VPN issue? It's been almost 3 months and users still cannot activate the VPN server on Orbi unless they are going to use one of Orbi's predefined DDNS services. This product was advertised as having VPN services, but no where in the product literature did it mention that it was restricted only to users with either a static IP or just one of three particular DDNS services. Please provide a date for when the product will be able to perform to the advertised specifications.

Orbi, OpenVPN and DynamicDNS | NETGEAR Communities

11 Replies

DarrenM
Sr. NETGEAR Moderator
Jan 12, 2017
Hello austoonz

Here is the article with the recommended way to use Open vpn.

http://kb.netgear.com/23854/How-do-I-use-the-VPN-service-on-my-Nighthawk-router-with-my-Windows-client?cid=wmt_netgear_organic

DarrenM
austoonz
Guide
Jan 13, 2017
Hi Darren,

I think you've completely missed the point of my question.

1. I have the Orbi kit, not the Nighthawk router

2. I know how DNS works, and how having a dynamic IP address makes it hard to access my home network. This is not an issue for me - I have my own solution on place with my personal domain. In other words, I already have a DNS name to access my current home IP Address.

3. My issue is with the latest Orbi firmware - to enable the OpenVPN server on the Orbi, I must either configure a static IP Address on the WAN link, or enable the Dynamic DNS services on the Orbi.

The OpenVPN service is "greyed" out and cannot be enabled without one of those two options configured.

5. This request is to remove that limitation so I (and others) can enable the OpenVPN service *without* a static WAN address and *without* having to enable the in-built Dynamic DNS service on the Orbi.

-austoonz
AndUrbi
Guide
Jan 16, 2017
Exact same problem here. I already have an account with Dyn.com, and the updater is running on one of my computers already. (And the updater for Dyn.com isn't working, as somebody else has already noted in this forum.)

The wording of the popup dialog when enabling OpenVPN makes it sound like it's just a reminder ("please make sure you will do this"), but apparently that's just a poorly phrased error message.

Can the firmware be fixed, or do we need to just replace this with some wwdrt variant when it comes out if we want openvpn support?
- markaustin
  Guide
  Jan 18, 2017
  Hey there! I wrote that original post about Dyn.com registration being broken. Thank you for the reference. I'm going to take the opportunity to bump this since it's really annoying to not have the dyn updater working!
  - DarrenM
    Sr. NETGEAR Moderator
    Feb 03, 2017
    This is a know issue which we have fixed in the next official release which we plan to release soon
    
    DarrenM

Forum Discussion

Orbi, OpenVPN and DynamicDNS