VPN and connection management in general

[MatteoPV]

I apologize if I open this thread but I used the search option and found nothing specific about it.

By constantly using the VPN, it can happen that in a certain geographical location, the VPN manager has several servers and sometimes some are down. Is there an addon that restarts the VPN if the internet connection fails ??? Or is there an addon that if the connection to the network fails, restarts the connection?

I give an example. If I set up my ExpressVPN on Cosenza, there are 3 possible series of IPs, at startup the system will choose the best one but if that series of IPs falls, I'm without connection

 

[ColinTaylor]

Try setting "Connection Retry attempts" to "(0 for infinite)".

 

[MatteoPV]

Try setting "Connection Retry attempts" to "(0 for infinite)".

Done. So in case of disconnection, the system tries to reconnect infinite times?

 

[ColinTaylor]

That is my assumption, but I've never tested it myself.

 

[MatteoPV]

Nothing changes with the new setting. It would take an addon that sends a ping to google for example and after a certain number of failed pigs, restart the modem. Or a monitor that if it does not detect network access, restarts the modem

 

[ColinTaylor]

Why do you need to restart your modem? Or do you really mean your router?

Do you have to restart the modem/router, why not restart the VPN?

Can you post the router's complete syslog on pastebin which includes the time period the problem occurs so that we can try and understand what is happening.

Can you also post a screen shot of your VPN client settings.

What router model do you have? What firmware version are you using?

 

[MatteoPV]

I have the Asus AC 68 U modem / router with GNUton Merlin 386.02_04 firmware on board.

Everything works fine. Only sporadically does it happen to me that it disconnects from the network, perhaps after I haven't restarted it for 4 or 5 days.

Everything works fine, I was just wondering if there is an addon that can monitor access to the network and in case of no access you restart the VPN for example

 

[Torson]

Everything works fine, I was just wondering if there is an addon that can monitor access to the network and in case of no access you restart the VPN for example

Check this script out:
https://github.com/MartineauUK/VPN-Failover

 

[ColinTaylor]

I have the Asus AC 68 U modem / router with GNUton Merlin 386.02_04 firmware on board.

OK, so that's a DSL-AC68U.

 

[MatteoPV]

Check this script out:
https://github.com/MartineauUK/VPN-Failover

Thanks for the reply. I installed the script, but how do you set it up? How to use? I followed the directions on the page but didn't understand much

 

[MatteoPV]

It's an interesting script but to make it work I have to create cronjobs etc. It would be nice if it was integrated into the system so that it was customizable directly from the VPN client menu.
I thought there was a more immediate way to check the VPN connection

 

[Torson]

Thanks for the reply. I installed the script, but how do you set it up? How to use? I followed the directions on the page but didn't understand much

Since you're using Merlin f/w you can configure up to 5 VPN clients. Configure the first 3 clients for each of the 3 Cosenza servers. Then run:

/jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1

This way if the first server fails it will connect to the second client etc. To test the functionality (after you configured the 3 VPN clients) issue the command:

service stop_vpnclient1

and you'll see that the script will connect to the next VPN client etc.
Once done with the testing don't forget to restart the VPN client

service start_vpnclient1

. Note that the connection will stick to the last working client. You can check the status with

/jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh status

.
Also, if you want the script to run upon router reboot, add the statement to '/jffs/scripts/post-mount'.

 

[MatteoPV]

I can't do it. The choice of the IP happens automatically when I start the modem ........ it connects to Cosenza and ExpressVPN gives me an IP address. I would like the system to check the VPN connection every X minutes or seconds and if it is down to restart it. To do this I must necessarily set cronjobs so that the modem then executes everything automatically even if there should be a random power failure and relative restart. Maybe you can do it but I find it uncomfortable

 

[Torson]

Then try:

cru a VPN_Failover "5 */1 * * *" /jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once #VPN Failover

or adjust to every 30 minutes or whatever suits you.

 

[MatteoPV]

I've already dealt with cronjobs with poor results so I guess I'll avoid trying.
I'm sorry

 

[MatteoPV]

Then try:

cru a VPN_Failover "5 */1 * * *" /jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once #VPN Failover

or adjust to every 30 minutes or whatever suits you.

I added this command:

cru a VPN_Failover "5 * * * *" /jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once #VPN Failover
Inside the file :

'/jffs/scripts/post-mount'


That way it should monitor VPN 1 every 5 minutes and restart if needed. It's correct?

 

[ColinTaylor]

There is a mistake in those instructions on github. The second quotation mark should be at the end of the cru command.

To run the command every 5 minutes you would use */5 not 5.

cru a VPN_Failover "*/5 * * * * /jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once" #VPN Failover

 

[MatteoPV]

I added to the file:

'/jffs/scripts/post-mount'

These commands:

/jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once
cru a VPN_Failover "*/5 * * * *" /jffs/scripts/VPN_Failover.sh 1 once #VPN Failover

I deleted the VPN2, 3, 4, 5 configurations, I only use the VPN1 Cosenza. I did the tests, everything works great !!!! Thank you

 

[ColinTaylor]

That's good to hear.

Personally I would not include the first command and only use the second (cru) command. Otherwise there is a very small possibility that both commands could be running at the same time.

 

[MatteoPV]

I entered the first command for security as I noticed that a few times when the router was restarted, the cru command was not loaded into the ram