PS4 Remote Play over VPN

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Hi all!

I have PlayStation 4 Pro at home. As you may know Sony has an app / programm named PS4 Remote Play which lets users access PS4 remotely from their laptops / PCs / Android and iOS devices.

This weekend I could not connect to my PS4 using PS4 Remote Play on my laptop (being ~1000 km away from home), even though I could connect to PS4 from my local PC (local PC was accessible via TeamViewer). I was lucky to accidentally find out that the solution is to update PS4 from 7.00 to 7.01, but the whole issue made me wonder whether VPN server running on my router could be helpful in this situation.

I have OpenVPN server running on my Asus RT-AC88U (Asuswrt-Merlin FW 384.13). OpenVPN server's interface type is TUN, which means that PS4 and VPN clients are in different subnets (PS4 in 192.168.X.XX and laptop in 10.8.X.XX). When I use PS4 Remote Play on my laptop while being connect to the above mentioned OpenVPN server, PS4 Remote Play could not find PS4 "locally" (i.e., PS4 Remote Play fails to "Find PS4 nearby").

Once I've changed OpenVPN server's interface type to TAP, PS4 Remote Play on my laptop managed to find PS4 "nearby" (it makes sence, because - in case TAP interface is used - both the VPN client and PS4 are in the same subnet 192.168.X.XX).

The question is whether there is a way to make PS4 discoverable in PS4 Remote Play in case OpenVPN server's interface type is TUN, but not TAP? TAP is not the best solution, because, e.g., iOS and Android devices do not support TAP.

I have a gut feeling that there has to be a beatufil and simple solution, e.g., to do some sort of routing in OpenVPN server's preferences (e.g., to assing IP address to PS4 in VPN's subnet [10.8.X.XX], or to make all LAN clients behind OpenVPN server "discoverable" to VPN clients, etc.).

Jsut to be on the same page - I am not an experienced OpenVPN user, so I don't know how "push" and "iroute" commands work ...

Any leads would be much appreciated. Many thanks in advance!

 

[ColinTaylor]

I don't think there is a "beautiful" solution. I don't know how Remote Play discovers PS4's, but typically such things are done using broadcast packets. As you have discovered that means it will not work using a TUN connection because broadcast packets don't go outside their local subnet. If you could "tell" the client what the IP address of the PS4 was that could work, but I don't know whether that's an option.

A simpler solution would be to run 2 VPN severs on your router, one with a TUN interface and the other with TAP. Alternatively, if you had 2 VPN servers running (of either type) you could log in using one server to temporarily reconfigure the other if needs be.

 

[Nikolay Kiselev]

Hi ColinTaylor,

Many thanks for your prompt response.

A simpler solution would be to run 2 VPN severs on your router, one with a TUN interface and the other with TAP

Yes, this is what I actually did right now, because this option also seemed to be easiest for me (and I am happy to find out that it is not a stupid idea ).

If you could "tell" the client what the IP address of the PS4 was that could work

That makes sense to me and currently I also don't know how to make this happen... Is there a way to "push" or "route" all broadcast packets from a LAN device behind OpenVPN server (with TUN interface) to the VPN's subnet devices (I thought that all these "push" and "iroute" command lines which are added in OpenVPN server's setting could help)? Maybe it is possible to push all traffic from PS4 into VPN's subnet - that theoretically could help to solve the issue.

Anyway - many thanks! I hope that others looking for a way to make PS4 Remote Play "discover" PS4 over VPN would find this thread helpful (i.e., would find that they should use TAP interface in OpenVPN server's settings instead of TUN in order to make things happen ...).