x3mRouting 3.86.3 Firmware & VPN Director

[Sean Rhodes]

Hi Xentrk,

I thought I would start a new thread for this in case there are significant changes. What will be the effects on x3mRouting of the new upcoming firmware with all the OpenVPN changes?

Will x3mRouting need to be updated, or being scripts, will the updates have minimal effect on how it operates?

 

[Kingp1n]

Hi Xentrk,

I thought I would start a new thread for this in case there are significant changes. What will be the effects on x3mRouting of the new upcoming firmware with all the OpenVPN changes?

Will x3mRouting need to be updated, or being scripts, will the updates have minimal effect on how it operates?

Some of the people who upgraded to the beta fw were reporting that x3mRouting was still working with the beta. I still havent upgraded so cant provide too much input. Lets hope is still working without issues.

 

[SomeWhereOverTheRainBow]

Some of the people who upgraded to the beta fw were reporting that x3mRouting was still working with the beta. I still havent upgraded so cant provide too much input. Lets hope is still working without issues.

the only thing i could see potentially not working is the X3mrouting GUI implementation or any operation variables changed requiring @Xentrk to update the script. Keep in mind, this firmware is still in beta. not too many Devs play around with their scripts with beta stage firmware.

 

[abracadabra11]

x3mRouting doesn't appear to be working properly with 386.3 and VPN Director for me.

I'll need to play around with the IPSETs a bit to see if there's some other issue instead.

 

[kernol]

I'm not a coder - but much of the back-end of OpenVPN has been changed by Merlin ... I gather mostly to correct misbehaviours which have existed in the OpenVPN code on our Asus routers for a long time [especially "Exclusive Mode" for DNS] - so I doubt that ALL aspects of x3mRouting will work under Merlin's VPN Director.

@Xentrk's amazing scripts made multiple VPN routing methods available through Policy Rules using all the tools in the chest that are out there . VPN Director confines itself to ip addresses only and unlike x3mRouting can't deal with domain names / named IPSET lists / ASN / AWS Regions etc.

In early banter when VPN Director was mooted in its Alpha development I recall Merlin indicating in a post that he was unfamiliar with x3mRouting - so one can't expect VPN Director to play nicely with x3mRouting.

What I can say is that VPN Director with NordVPN triggered to a specific device by source ip address [or ip range] for say UK [or USA] streaming services works perfectly as long as DNS is configured for Exclusive Mode. That seems to have solved a long time problem which x3mRouting grappled with in recent months using NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

What for me is missing from VPN Director [please correct me if I'm wrong] - is the ability to direct any client request within the local LAN for a specific service [say BBC] to a particular VPNClient to obviate the need to link a local ip or a limited number of consecutive local ip's within a range to that VPNClient. It may work if you can provide a single ip or contiguous range of ip's as the destination ip - but most streaming services use multiple servers from a wide range of ip addresses.

I note that @Xentrk has not been seen on the forums since 1 June 2021 ... so I really hope he has not "left the building" permanently .
Hopefully he will return to make any tweaks to his x3mRouting code that may be needed to restore the added functionality that he provided.

 

[abracadabra11]

What I can say is that VPN Director with NordVPN triggered to a specific device by source ip address [or ip range] for say UK [or USA] streaming services works perfectly as long as DNS is configured for Exclusive Mode. That seems to have solved a long time problem which x3mRouting grappled with in recent months using NordVPN or ExpressVPN.

Can you expand on your configuration? I have DNS set to Exclusive for my guest network using NordVPN, but I'm unable to bypass streaming service detection.

 

[ardennguyen]

Can you expand on your configuration? I have DNS set to Exclusive for my guest network using NordVPN, but I'm unable to bypass streaming service detection.

Which service? I'm using TunnelBear VPN, the only service I cannot bypass is Disney+, everything else work well.

 

[kernol]

Can you expand on your configuration? I have DNS set to Exclusive for my guest network using NordVPN, but I'm unable to bypass streaming service detection.

There seem to be a bunch of factors that can affect the outcome - so may not work for you if other issues are at stake!

In my case I have no DNS settings in the LAN Tab / I have Quad9 DNS settings in the WAN Tab plus the DoT settings to Quad9 - but that is all fall back only since I am running unbound locally on my AX86U. I do have DNS filter set to Router - with no alternate DNS records available in that section.

With the above in mind ... my OPVN3 settings look like this : - [click on it for larger display]

NOTE: I am using this for ONE particular device [AppleTV] because I have a presence in the UK - London [with TV license] but don't live there permanently. My Apple ID remains domiciled in the UK where it was/is region bound from the outset.

If you have devices on the Guest WiFi and those devices have their own DNS settings which may override those of the VPN - or devices which are prebuilt with locked down DNS - you will likely not succeed if those DNS servers are not in the correct region. Some devices may "leak" their location and that too may well block region bound streaming services. Also - if those guest wifi devices have browser caches filled with info showing locations other than the target region - the streaming may also fail.

I primarily use VPN services for security and privacy ... and get really annoyed by being blocked in my own region simply because some streaming service has decided that all VPN connections are dubious region breakers !

 

[kernol]

Can you expand on your configuration? I have DNS set to Exclusive for my guest network using NordVPN, but I'm unable to bypass streaming service detection.

Sorry - I was slow to notice that you have clearly been using x3mRouting ... so I fear that may be why you are having issues. Not sure to what extent [if any] all your custom settings from x3mRouting will have been carried over - or indeed how you can eliminate those settings completely to start afresh with VPN Director? That's all above my pay-grade .

 

[abracadabra11]

Spoiler

There seem to be a bunch of factors that can affect the outcome - so may not work for you if other issues are at stake!

In my case I have no DNS settings in the LAN Tab / I have Quad9 DNS settings in the WAN Tab plus the DoT settings to Quad9 - but that is all fall back only since I am running unbound locally on my AX86U. I do have DNS filter set to Router - with no alternate DNS records available in that section.

With the above in mind ... my OPVN3 settings look like this : - [click on it for larger display]
View attachment 35239
NOTE: I am using this for ONE particular device [AppleTV] because I have a presence in the UK - London [with TV license] but don't live there permanently. My Apple ID remains domiciled in the UK where it was/is region bound from the outset.

If you have devices on the Guest WiFi and those devices have their own DNS settings which may override those of the VPN - or devices which are prebuilt with locked down DNS - you will likely not succeed if those DNS servers are not in the correct region. Some devices may "leak" their location and that too may well block region bound streaming services. Also - if those guest wifi devices have browser caches filled with info showing locations other than the target region - the streaming may also fail.

I primarily use VPN services for security and privacy ... and get really annoyed by being blocked in my own region simply because some streaming service has decided that all VPN connections are dubious region breakers !

That screenshot was very useful. The bottom section clearly shows settings that are not viewable on my configuration because of the x3m install. I'll uninstall and try some changes to the settings.

 

[Kingp1n]

I just upgraded to latest stable fm (386.3) and using x3mRouting (option 3 only) and everything is working fine for me. I don't use the other options in the script however so thi may be the issue for some.

 

[iTyPsIDg]

I noticed that my DNS is leaking since upgrading to 386.3. I use Unbound and x3mRouting and Unbound says the requests are going through the VPN tunnel. I'm not sure where the problem is for that issue.

Spoiler: Unbound Settings

 

[L&LD]

Please use 'Better Search' for RMerlin's multiple responses to that same question you have above.

 

[Laxarus]

I am also very interested in this I hope @Xentrk continues to develop this. It is one of the most useful and well thought VPN tools ever.

 

[ugandy]

I am also very interested in this I hope @Xentrk continues to develop this. It is one of the most useful and well thought VPN tools ever.

he's not been seen here, for a while now

 

[chongnt]

I just did a dirty upgrade from 386.2_4 to 386.3_2. Compared to the screenshot above, looks like my VPN Client GUI is not updated. Force Internet traffic through tunnel dropdown menu still show Policy Rules instead of VPN Director. It is not synced with the pop-up description.
Any idea how to fix this?

Update:
Got the VPN Client GUI to display properly now after uninstall x3mRouting.

 

[chongnt]

After remove x3mRouting, I missed the vpnclient1-route-up and vpnclient1-route-pre-down script. Is there something similar for VPN Director somewhere that we can add some rules when openvpn event is triggered?

 

[Laxarus]

After remove x3mRouting, I missed the vpnclient1-route-up and vpnclient1-route-pre-down script. Is there something similar for VPN Director somewhere that we can add some rules when openvpn event is triggered?

User scripts

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

maybe this one

 

[Laxarus]

Does anyone tested the method 3 and it still works?

 

[iTyPsIDg]

Does anyone tested the method 3 and it still works?

Yes, if you install x3mRouting with option 3 instead of option 2, then you get the correct GUI and you can use the vpnclient1-route-up and vpnclient1-route-pre-down scripts.