vpnmgr vpnmgr - Manage and update VPN Client configurations for NordVPN and PIA

[iTyPsIDg]

Whats the benefit of allowing vpnmgr refresh every night?

For my setup under 'scheduled update/reload I chosed 'yes' but i untick all the days so it doesn't refresh every night. When it was set to 'no' it would still refresh at midnight.

Just curious if I would benefit to refresh once per day. Thanks.

I found that without a refresh, I would occasionally hit an error and need to force one manually. I'm guessing load played a factor or something. I would rather have planned refreshes with an outage of ~30 seconds rather than an unplanned one where I'm the only person in the household that can fix it and everyone freaks out if I'm not home.

 

[iTyPsIDg]

I saw in another thread that you plan to add obfuscated servers for Nord at some point. Do you plan to do the same with dedicated IPs?

 

[bilboSNB]

My PIA sub is coming to an end, I am thinking about Nord vpn instead, not that I have any issues, except cant get US netflix, but judging by the votes on this thread it would be a good move?

 

[iTyPsIDg]

My PIA sub is coming to an end, I am thinking about Nord vpn instead, not that I have any issues, except cant get US netflix, but judging by the votes on this thread it would be a good move?

I'm rarely in the US; however, I'm a US citizen with a Netflix account. I can tell you, unequivocally that you can get US Netflix with NordVPN on the router but you can't use the router as the DNS provider for the devices that are accessing Netflix. It'll cause a DNS leak. Based on what I've read, that may not be the case if you use Unbound and x3mRouting. I haven't personally tested that part yet. For the short term, I just use Custom 1 and 2 in DNS Filter under LAN for my FireSticks.

 

[Uniken]

First of all, really nice script and really useful!

A suggestion, a customization box for each vpnclient where custom commands can be given.
I know you have optimized the openvpn config, but it would be nice to have that option.

 

[CaptainSTX]

A suggestion, a customization box for each vpnclient where custom commands can be given.
I know you have optimized the openvpn config, but it would be nice to have that option.

Have you actually found any custom commands that make any difference to either the connection's reliability or the download/upload speeds? Using PIA I haven't.

 

[Uniken]

Have you actually found any custom commands that make any difference to either the connection's reliability or the download/upload speeds? Using PIA I haven't.

The commands I want to trigger is not related to the standard vpnmgr configuration.
An example push DNS, sometimes you want to use a different DNS than VPN provides

 

[sambosoul]

I would love to see ExpressVPN implemented

 

[ComputerSteve]

Add TigerVPN

 

[iTyPsIDg]

Wishlist (based on my use of NordVPN):

• A blacklist of servers that I don't want to use
  • Why?
    • Since moving from Playa del Carmen, MX to Oaxaca, MX, I noticed that some of the US VPN servers I get are exceptionally poor.
    • I found one server that operates at about 2 Mbps. I found another server that seemingly doesn't work on half of the Internet. Several servers don't work with Mint or other banking tools.
    • When I was in PDC, I mainly got servers in Miami and they usually worked fine. Now I get servers in the midwest and TX. I'd rather get the closest server but exclude the ones that I know have problems.
• Dedicated IP
  • Why?
    • That would probably eliminate my banking issue from the blacklist above.
    • I added x3mRouting so I could force Unbound to appear to come from my VPN, but I still get blocked by streaming services. I still have to use NordVPN's DNS servers on my FireTVs. I would love to test if a dedicated IP stops them from blocking me without bypassing Unbound.

I have a very unique use-case as a digital nomad. I bought the router so I could appear to be in the USA regardless of where I really am in the world, and because most Airbnbs have really poor Wifi routers. I move every one to two months. I'm in Mexico for two more months, then I'll be in Costa Rica, then I'm going to the US for three weeks, then I don't know.

 

[TechLobo]

i can't recall off the top of my head but obfuscated might be queryable via the API. not sure!

I'll look into squeezing server id into the next release

Unfortunately it appears that this didn't make the cut, and I personally would like to see this capability if possible.

There are a few use cases, but the one that interests me in particular is the situation where the destination sites require an authenticated IP (separate validation process), which can only be achieved by using a nominated server.

I realise that this can be achieved via a dedicated IP VPN server but these aren't supported either, and can be less performant than the normal servers.

The main benefit of vpnmgr in this scenario is to provide a refresh scheduler so as to reduce impact of stale / failed connections - as well as to facilitate ease of setup.

I believe that the reference to a specific server was something similar to:
'United States #8038' - although I may be wrong as to what the original poster was intending (it is what I would be looking to use).

Is this something that you would consider implementing, or is there another simple method to achieving the same requirement?

Many thanks for your efforts.

 

[Jack Yaz]

Unfortunately it appears that this didn't make the cut, and I personally would like to see this capability if possible.

There are a few use cases, but the one that interests me in particular is the situation where the destination sites require an authenticated IP (separate validation process), which can only be achieved by using a nominated server.

I realise that this can be achieved via a dedicated IP VPN server but these aren't supported either, and can be less performant than the normal servers.

The main benefit of vpnmgr in this scenario is to provide a refresh scheduler so as to reduce impact of stale / failed connections - as well as to facilitate ease of setup.

I believe that the reference to a specific server was something similar to:
'United States #8038' - although I may be wrong as to what the original poster was intending (it is what I would be looking to use).

Is this something that you would consider implementing, or is there another simple method to achieving the same requirement?

Many thanks for your efforts.

i assumed that the number was as you suspect, 8038, but I wanted to be sure before I develop something and the user wanted something else (since i have no need for this feature personally, I rely on user's who requests things to make sure I'm making the right thing!)

 

[TechLobo]

i assumed that the number was as you suspect, 8038, but I wanted to be sure before I develop something and the user wanted something else (since i have no need for this feature personally, I rely on user's who requests things to make sure I'm making the right thing!)

Yeah that's perfectly understandable.

I can see that a lot of people would just want the 'best' available server at the time (although the criteria for best may differ), but the ability to specify the desired server as an option would be beneficial.

I also appreciate that its not something you require so may not wish to spend time on.

If that's the case, and I get some time, I hope you won't mind if I have a look through your scripts to see how to implement the refresh schedule aspect for a specified VPN client.

Again many thanks.

 

[eleVator]

First of all thanks for the script, it does help but i run into some problems lately.
The last days i have been getting to many disconnects with NordVPN and have to manually restart the vpn client via scMerlin or no internet in the House.

How could i achieve this to be done automatically, has anyone written a cron script, or could vpnmgr take care of this in the future?

 

[Jack Yaz]

First of all thanks for the script, it does help but i run into some problems lately.
The last days i have been getting to many disconnects with NordVPN and have to manually restart the vpn client via scMerlin or no internet in the House.

How could i achieve this to be done automatically, has anyone written a cron script, or could vpnmgr take care of this in the future?

did you configure a scheduled update? vpnmgr has this built in so you can have a "new" VPN server provided however often as you like

 

[eleVator]

did you configure a scheduled update? vpnmgr has this built in so you can have a "new" VPN server provided however often as you like

yes, but i cannot be waiting for hours till the schedule update kicks in, or did i misunderstand how it works?

 

[Jack Yaz]

yes, but i cannot be waiting for hours till the schedule update kicks in, or did i misunderstand how it works?

you can set it to refresh a lot more frequently, but vpnmgr doesn't monitor the availability of the VPN connection at the moment, so the refresh would be applied whether the connection is working or not (assuming the "recommended" server changes in that window).

its certainly something I can consider for the future but my roadmap/backlog is full for the foreseeable future

 

[eleVator]

you can set it to refresh a lot more frequently, but vpnmgr doesn't monitor the availability of the VPN connection at the moment, so the refresh would be applied whether the connection is working or not (assuming the "recommended" server changes in that window).

its certainly something I can consider for the future but my roadmap/backlog is full for the foreseeable future

yes but i would prefer to not interrupt when not needed

I found this, maybe you can integrated in a future update,

GitHub - MartineauUK/VPN-Failover: ASUS Router Monitor VPN Client connection status/throughput performance and switch or restart VPN Client

ASUS Router Monitor VPN Client connection status/throughput performance and switch or restart VPN Client - MartineauUK/VPN-Failover

github.com

going to see if it works the next days.
cheers

 

[TechLobo]

you can set it to refresh a lot more frequently, but vpnmgr doesn't monitor the availability of the VPN connection at the moment, so the refresh would be applied whether the connection is working or not (assuming the "recommended" server changes in that window).

its certainly something I can consider for the future but my roadmap/backlog is full for the foreseeable future

Is your roadmap published anywhere?

It would be interesting to see what is in the pipeline.

 

[Jack Yaz]

yes but i would prefer to not interrupt when not needed

I found this, maybe you can integrated in a future update,

GitHub - MartineauUK/VPN-Failover: ASUS Router Monitor VPN Client connection status/throughput performance and switch or restart VPN Client

ASUS Router Monitor VPN Client connection status/throughput performance and switch or restart VPN Client - MartineauUK/VPN-Failover

github.com

going to see if it works the next days.
cheers

I think that script lets you failover between VPN clients, it wouldn't let you get a new nordvpn server in a failure condition. it could help you in the meantime, if you have multiple clients set up (1 tcp and 1 udp if both nord to avoid conflict)