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    Tutorial: Configuring pfSense as VPN client to Private Internet Access

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
    348 Posts 99 Posters 461.6k Views
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    • S
      saytar
      last edited by

      @bj24:

      I have to disable that top rule to reply.

      When all the rules are enabled, on the BJENVY pc, it doesn't seem to have internet for some time, then it comes for a few seconds, I can check the ip and it is my WAN IP and then it stops responding.

      Should I be concerned about the Gateway showing offline?

      scratching my head… ???

      Mine has ALWAYS shown as down on the Dashboard Gateway Panel. But checking on Service status is mean and green…......that's a quirk they have never "fixed".

      “An armed society is a polite society. Manners are good when one may have to back up his acts with his life.”

      “Ignorance is curable, stupid is forever.”
      ― Robert A. Heinlein, Beyond This Horizon

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • S
        stanthewizard
        last edited by

        @Derelict:

        You can make aliases that periodically look up FQDNs and put all the IP addresses in a table.

        How do you mke such aliases ?

        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • DerelictD
          Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
          last edited by

          Create the alias.

          ![Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.01 PM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.01 PM.png)
          ![Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.01 PM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.01 PM.png_thumb)
          ![Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.43 PM.png](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.43 PM.png)
          ![Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.43 PM.png_thumb](/public/imported_attachments/1/Screen Shot 2015-03-28 at 11.00.43 PM.png_thumb)

          Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
          A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
          DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
          Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • S
            stanthewizard
            last edited by

            Thanks
            I tried previously to create that kind of aliases in url
            Didn't worked  :o

            In IP it works
            I created an aliases for what is my ip adress and changed a rule … Every IP inside my lan show an adress from the vpn when accessing what is my ip adress. With an other service like what is my ip, I have the adress from my ISP.

            So it works !

            But not success with netflix
            In the netflix alieses I have this

            netflix.com

            lnwd.net

            nflximg.com

            edgesuite.net

            nflximg.net

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            • DerelictD
              Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
              last edited by

              Sorry, but I don't play whack-a-mole.

              The URL aliases are for downloading the content of the aliases from a URL, not for creating an alias based on a FQDN.

              Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
              A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
              DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
              Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • S
                stanthewizard
                last edited by

                Thank you for your help
                I think that is a good start

                ;D

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                • L
                  louicruz88
                  last edited by

                  THIS IS PFSENSE GOLD!!!!
                  I am having one issue though. SMTP Notifications seem to not work when PIAVPN/OpenVPN is running.
                  I stopped the OpenVPN service and notifications worked just fine.
                  Logs state:

                  "php-fpm[38529]: /system_advanced_notifications.php: Could not send the message to myemailadress@xxxx.com – Error: could not resolve host "smtp.xxxxx.com"

                  Any ideas on a possible fix?

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • Y
                    YoMan
                    last edited by

                    The tutorial states to turn off hardware encryption and to use BL-128.  Is there anyway to use AES-256 instead and use hardware encryption?

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                    • L
                      louicruz88
                      last edited by

                      Found out tha PIA blocks smtp servers by default due to spam.
                      Had to open a ticket with PIA for them to test the smtp server and whitelist it
                      SMTP notifications are working fine now!!!!!

                      @louicruz88:

                      THIS IS PFSENSE GOLD!!!!
                      I am having one issue though. SMTP Notifications seem to not work when PIAVPN/OpenVPN is running.
                      I stopped the OpenVPN service and notifications worked just fine.
                      Logs state:

                      "php-fpm[38529]: /system_advanced_notifications.php: Could not send the message to myemailadress@xxxx.com – Error: could not resolve host "smtp.xxxxx.com"

                      Any ideas on a possible fix?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • DerelictD
                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                        last edited by

                        A better solution would probably be to turn on route-nopull, and policy route the port 25 traffic out your WAN.

                        That way when PIA or the email server operator makes a change it doesn't break again.

                        Or move to SSL/STARTTLS and use submit port 587 with authentication.

                        Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                        A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                        DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                        Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • L
                          louicruz88
                          last edited by

                          Really!!! I looked but wasn't able to find ROUTE_NOPULL.
                          Where can I find route-nopull option????

                          @Derelict:

                          A better solution would probably be to turn on route-nopull, and policy route the port 25 traffic out your WAN.

                          That way when PIA or the email server operator makes a change it doesn't break again.

                          Or move to SSL/STARTTLS and use submit port 587 with authentication.

                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • DerelictD
                            Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                            last edited by

                            @louicruz88:

                            Really!!! I looked but wasn't able to find ROUTE_NOPULL.
                            Where can I find route-nopull option????

                            @Derelict:

                            A better solution would probably be to turn on route-nopull, and policy route the port 25 traffic out your WAN.

                            That way when PIA or the email server operator makes a change it doesn't break again.

                            Or move to SSL/STARTTLS and use submit port 587 with authentication.

                            https://forum.pfsense.org/index.php?topic=76015.msg501074;topicseen#msg501074

                            Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                            A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                            DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                            Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                            1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • C
                              coolspot
                              last edited by

                              In the tutorial, manual NAT rules are required … is this still required for 2.2.1 and why is this?

                              1. How come the OpenVPN wizard doesn't automatically add the NAT rules?
                              2. How come pfSense automatic NAT rules doesn't do this for you?

                              Just wondering why manual rules must be added.

                              Thanks.

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • D
                                doktornotor Banned
                                last edited by

                                @coolspot:

                                1. How come the OpenVPN wizard doesn't automatically add the NAT rules?
                                2. How come pfSense automatic NAT rules doesn't do this for you?

                                Because people usually do NOT want all their Internet-bound traffic go through some slow VPN tunnel.

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • C
                                  coolspot
                                  last edited by

                                  @doktornotor:

                                  Because people usually do NOT want all their Internet-bound traffic go through some slow VPN tunnel.

                                  Great thanks, so I got my tunnel up and running… however, my performance is only ~40mbps.

                                  I'm running an Atom D525 CPU, what should be the expected performance?

                                  When I run TOP, my WCPU for OpenVPN hovers around 50% ... however, the other cores/threads are pretty idle.

                                  Here is my TOP output:

                                  last pid: 15026;  load averages:  1.02,  0.61,  0.43                                                                                  up 19+02:05:29  14:33:57
                                  210 processes: 7 running, 177 sleeping, 26 waiting
                                  CPU:    % user,    % nice,    % system,    % interrupt,    % idle
                                  Mem: 28M Active, 179M Inact, 542M Wired, 465M Buf, 7172M Free
                                  Swap: 16G Total, 16G Free

                                  PID USERNAME      PRI NICE  SIZE    RES STATE  C  TIME    WCPU COMMAND
                                    11 root          155 ki31    0K    64K CPU2    2 440.2H  79.05% idle{idle: cpu2}
                                    11 root          155 ki31    0K    64K CPU0    0 432.5H  78.66% idle{idle: cpu0}
                                    11 root          155 ki31    0K    64K RUN    3 446.5H  76.56% idle{idle: cpu3}
                                    11 root          155 ki31    0K    64K RUN    1 443.6H  68.16% idle{idle: cpu1}
                                  28854 root          52    0 21728K  5752K select  0  1:06  58.40% openvpn

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • J
                                    JimPhreak
                                    last edited by

                                    Has anyone gotten this setup to work with Plex Media Server?  From what I've seen, most can't get Plex to publish to the internet once connected to PIA.

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • DerelictD
                                      Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                      last edited by

                                      Has anyone gotten this setup to work with Plex Media Server?  From what I've seen, most can't get Plex to publish to the internet once connected to PIA.

                                      Publish over PIA or over the internet bypassing PIA?

                                      For the former, PIA has to forward a port to you.  Do they support that?

                                      For the latter, it should be a simple matter of making sure Plex policy routes out your WAN instead of PIA.

                                      If you want the same IP address to route some things over PIA and some over WAN you have to figure out how to identify the different traffic and policy route accordingly.

                                      IMHO, Plex requiring a port forward open to any is fail and pretty much makes it a non-starter for me.

                                      Chattanooga, Tennessee, USA
                                      A comprehensive network diagram is worth 10,000 words and 15 conference calls.
                                      DO NOT set a source address/port in a port forward or firewall rule unless you KNOW you need it!
                                      Do Not Chat For Help! NO_WAN_EGRESS(TM)

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                      • J
                                        JimPhreak
                                        last edited by

                                        @Derelict:

                                        Has anyone gotten this setup to work with Plex Media Server?  From what I've seen, most can't get Plex to publish to the internet once connected to PIA.

                                        Publish over PIA or over the internet bypassing PIA?

                                        For the former, PIA has to forward a port to you.  Do they support that?

                                        For the latter, it should be a simple matter of making sure Plex policy routes out your WAN instead of PIA.

                                        If you want the same IP address to route some things over PIA and some over WAN you have to figure out how to identify the different traffic and policy route accordingly.

                                        IMHO, Plex requiring a port forward open to any is fail and pretty much makes it a non-starter for me.

                                        PIA does support port forwarding but the port changes every time you get disconnected.

                                        What do you use in place of Plex or do you just not have a media server you can access remotely?

                                        1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                        • Q
                                          q54e3w
                                          last edited by

                                          I use AirVPN but you should be able to port forward a secure OpenVPN session into your LAN and then connect to Plex over the OpenVPN connection with usual subnet routing….thats how I do it anyway. Seems secure and was simple enough to do.
                                          I agree with Derelict though - opening a media player to to the outside world directly feels like a unnecessary risk.

                                          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                          • J
                                            JimPhreak
                                            last edited by

                                            @irj972:

                                            I use AirVPN but you should be able to port forward a secure OpenVPN session into your LAN and then connect to Plex over the OpenVPN connection with usual subnet routing….thats how I do it anyway. Seems secure and was simple enough to do.
                                            I agree with Derelict though - opening a media player to to the outside world directly feels like a unnecessary risk.

                                            I have a bunch of family and friends that connect to it and it's just not possible for me to set them all up as VPN clients unfortunately.  I realize having it open to the public is not ideal.  However given that fact, I'm trying to make it as secure and hidden as I can.

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