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Forum Discussion
OpenVPN connects to router when clients on Ethernet but not on Wifi
I am having difficulty getting OpenVPN to work to connect to my RS300 router with my Windows 11 computers. I have a Dell XPS 16 9640 and a Microsoft Surface Pro 2103 both running Windows 11 Pro. Both computers have the same issue. The router is a Netgear Nighthawk RS300 v 1.0.5.18. The client computers are running OpenVPN 2.6.14 and GUI 11.55.0.0
I want to connect to the RS300 "remote" LAN via the VPN tunnel and the internet through the local LAN at the client location. This works perfectly as long as the client computers are connected to their local LAN via a hardwired Ethernet connection. If the client computers are connected with a WI-fi connection (which works perfectly without the VPN) on the same local network, there are issues. The VPN still connects properly. The router status shows the active VPN connection is successful. File explorer shows the remote LAN devices properly. However, none of the 3 browsers I have tried can access devices on the remote LAN or access the internet. Although not a complete test, the same thing happens when trying to us a public WI-fi connection at a different location. I have tried the usual things. I run the Open VPN as administrator. I have tried changing the adapter metric, placing the various Wi-fi, Ethernet and VPN adapters in various priorities. I have disabled the firewall. There is no subnet overlap. At this point, I am out of ideas.
14 Replies
I struggle with "Client" and "Remote".
Is this correct:
- The RS300 router is set up at the Remote location. (perhaps your home office)
- What is the primary IP subnet for the RS300?
- What IP subnet does the RS300 use for devices connected using OpenVPN?
- The Windows 11 laptops are located at the Client location (or at a public WiFi location).
- When the Windows 11 laptops are connected to the Client system using Ethernet, they receive a local IP address that is different from the IP subnet at the Remote location.
Over Ethernet, the laptops can connect to OpenVPN and "everything works". What is the IP address they receive from the RS300 when connected using Ethernet? - When the Windows 11 laptops are connected to the Client system using WiFi, they receive what IP address? What "router status" says the connection is successful? (are these tests being conducted with the Client and Remote networks physically in the same location?
I like to set the OpenVPN log file debugging option to 5. i.e. change
verb 0to
verb 5No. I am trying to connect to my router from a remote location using VPN. I am only using one connection type at a time. I discovered the issue when trying the second computer that was connecting to the network via wifi. The first computer connected fine as it was connected via ethernet. That is when I tried alternately wired and wifi connections on both of the computers and found the issue was consistent.
I want to connect to the RS300 "remote" LAN via the VPN tunnel and the internet through the local LAN at the client location. This works perfectly as long as the client computers are connected to their local LAN via a hardwired Ethernet connection. If the client computers are connected with a WI-fi connection (which works perfectly without the VPN) on the same local network, there are issues.
Are you saying that the you are trying to connect a PC to your router using OpenVPN while the same PC is already connected to the same router over WiFi?
