PIA VPN RT-AC68 Merlin Firmware 384.8_2 Configuration

[PubBoy]

Hi All, Networking noob in the house. I’ve been trying to configure my VPN using configuration documentation here and here; however, I cannot seem to get things to work properly. I’m currently using Merlin 384.8_2 with PIA VPN. With the configuration below I seem to be able to activate the vpn; however, the devices assigned to the vpn just lose access to the internet and within 5 minutes the service state goes back to "OFF" with an Error- Authentication failure. I've confirmed that the username and password used are correct. Any advice is appreciated.

 

[PubBoy]

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hi All, Networking noob in the house. I’ve been trying to configure my VPN using configuration documentation here and here; however, I cannot seem to get things to work properly. I’m currently using Merlin 384.8_2 with PIA VPN. With the configuration below I seem to be able to activate the vpn; however, the devices assigned to the vpn just lose access to the internet and within 5 minutes the service state goes back to "OFF" with an Error- Authentication failure. I've confirmed that the username and password used are correct. Any advice is appreciated.

Here are my custom settings with PIA

persist-key
persist-tun
pull-filter ignore "auth-token"
resolv-retry infinite
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
disable-occ
fast-io
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288


Note with the recent changes in the Open VPN in the latest Merlin firmware the settings to make PIA work or optimize it have changed slightly so it is best to ignore posts on PIA prior to the 8_2 ver of Merlin.

 

[PubBoy]

Thanks Captain! I've modified my settings to yours. I notice the vpn seems to be more stable; however, I still am not able to access the web. I also noticed the Public IP remains "unknown". Any advice is appreciated!

 

[CaptainSTX]

Thanks Captain! I've modified my settings to yours. I notice the vpn seems to be more stable; however, I still am not able to access the web. I also noticed the Public IP remains "unknown". Any advice is appreciated!

I just downloaded the OVPN file from PIA then just added some of the custom settings I posted.

Two differences I noticed in what you have are as follows:

I use accept DNS = relaxed

Username/Password Auth Only = yes

 

[PubBoy]

Hi Captain, Thanks again! I downloaded the OVPN file from PIA and used the following custom configs:
resolv-retry infinite
setenv CLIENT_CERT 0
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
persist-key
persist-tun
pull-filter ignore "auth-token"
disable-occ
fast-io
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288

Everything appears to be working now.

 

[CaptainSTX]

Hi Captain, Thanks again! I downloaded the OVPN file from PIA and used the following custom configs:
resolv-retry infinite
setenv CLIENT_CERT 0
tls-client
remote-cert-tls server
persist-key
persist-tun
pull-filter ignore "auth-token"
disable-occ
fast-io
sndbuf 524288
rcvbuf 524288

Everything appears to be working now.

Great! Once you have it working try to only change one variable item in your setup at a time so you can judge if they make things 1. more stable and/or 2. faster. Be careful at looking at "old posts" prior to the 8_2 version of Merlin as things work slightly different now.

Also certain settings in the Merlin where you fill in the blank may duplicate settings in the custom file and I'm not certain which setting takes precedent and also in certain cases where you try and push settings to PIA server there isn't any gurantee that their server will act on them.