New to VPNs so I have a question

[Lee MacMillan]

Dangling my toe into the VPN waters with the free version of Proton. I have it installed only on my hardwired desktop (Windows 10) PC. I am using an Asus AX86U with the latest Merlin firmware. No noticeable speed drop and it's pretty transparent so far. Just a couple quirks or possibly just my lack of understanding of how it works. Anyway, it won't let me log into my router which is not a big deal since connecting and disconnecting from the VPN is easy. Only one site so far wouldn't let me in and that was fitbit.com which I found a little odd. It gave me a message indicating it didn't like the IP address. Yet, the next time I tried, it was ok. So I guess that was just a fluke.

So the question is why is the VPN preventing me from logging into my router? Is it a Merlin issue, a general VPN issue or a Proton-specific VPN issue. The message I get from Chrome is:

This site can’t be reached​

router.asus.com’s server IP address could not be found.

 

[Crimliar]

When you use a VPN, you are creating a Virtual Tunnel for your traffic from the client device running the VPN software to the server you are connecting to. Running the VPN client on your computer, then everything on your local network is outside of that tunnel and so you won't be able to connect to it. So that's not just your router but any local printers, or other devices etc.
There are ways around that limitation if you need them - the simplest being to run the VPN client on the router rather than on your local machine!

 

[philote]

Most VPN providers, including Proton, let you access the local network as they don't tunnel local connections through the VPN.

router.asus.com works when you're not connected to a VPN because the default config for a router's DHCP DNS setup is the router itself, if you have DHCP enabled (which is also default). So when a client queries the IP address for the domain, the router returns it's own local address before routing the DNS query externally.

You should still be able to connect to the router by specifying the IP address of the router itself instead of using router.asus.com. If you go to your computer's network settings & check your LAN details, it should look something like this:
IP address: 192.168.50.101
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.50.1
DNS servers: 192.168.50.1

 

[Lee MacMillan]

Most VPN providers, including Proton, let you access the local network as they don't tunnel local connections through the VPN.

router.asus.com works when you're not connected to a VPN because the default config for a router's DHCP DNS setup is the router itself, if you have DHCP enabled (which is also default). So when a client queries the IP address for the domain, the router returns it's own local address before routing the DNS query externally.

You should still be able to connect to the router by specifying the IP address of the router itself instead of using router.asus.com. If you go to your computer's network settings & check your LAN details, it should look something like this:
IP address: 192.168.50.101
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Router: 192.168.50.1
DNS servers: 192.168.50.1

That worked, thanks.

 

[To the ocean]

btw, ASUS has upgraded their link: http://www.asusrouter.com

 

[Deleted member 89090]

When you use a VPN, you are creating a Virtual Tunnel for your traffic from the client device running the VPN software to the server you are connecting to. Running the VPN client on your computer, then everything on your local network is outside of that tunnel and so you won't be able to connect to it. So that's not just your router but any local printers, or other devices etc.
There are ways around that limitation if you need them - the simplest being to run the VPN client on the router rather than on your local machine!

This. VPNs perform so much better when set up on your router. Then, everything connected to the router, either via wi-fi or Ethernet, is connected to the VPN, even devices that can't have a VPN app installed on them.

 

[Crimliar]

Resurrecting a near-dead thread! I think we were trying to answer the question and not (in this case) provide an alternative, or flood the questioner with additional info - if it wasn't wanted.
Like quite a few in these forums I've a VPN server on the router that I can enable should I need it, and I've more than one VPN client on the router should I need them, but I'm not using a VPN as a matter of course! VPNs have their uses, but VPN providers out there often "over-sell" their services - a badly set up VPN can actually decrease your security!
*Right so that's added enough personal opinions to start a war of words!*

 

[Lee MacMillan]

I ended up un-installing Proton. Decided I didn't really need a VPN. Thanks to all who responded.