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    Tutorial: Configuring pfSense as VPN client to Private Internet Access

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
    348 Posts 99 Posters 468.8k Views 6 Watching
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    • S Offline
      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 Offline
        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)

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        • S Offline
          stanthewizard
          last edited by

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

          ;D

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          • L Offline
            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?

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            • Y Offline
              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?

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • L Offline
                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?

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                • DerelictD Offline
                  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)

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                  • L Offline
                    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.

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                    • DerelictD Offline
                      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 Offline
                        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.

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                        • D Offline
                          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.

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                          • C Offline
                            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

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                            • J Offline
                              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 Offline
                                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 Offline
                                  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?

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                                  • Q Offline
                                    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.

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                                    • J Offline
                                      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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                                      • DerelictD Offline
                                        Derelict LAYER 8 Netgate
                                        last edited by

                                        As far as I know, you have to have the Plex port open to the world just to sign it into plex.  Doesn't have anything to do with who you allow access to it.

                                        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
                                        • Q Offline
                                          q54e3w
                                          last edited by

                                          @JimPhreak:

                                          @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.

                                          Yes, I can see how that would be an added inconvenience.

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                                          • P Offline
                                            psxnight
                                            last edited by

                                            When trying to start the VPN client connection configured for PIA, I receive the following error:

                                            Cannot load CA certificate file /var/etc/openvpn/client1.ca (no entries were read) (OpenSSL)

                                            I've gone through the certificate authority setup a few times and there doesn't seem to be much to it.  I did try to search through the forums for this error but didn't turn up anything that helped.  Can someone tell me what I might be missing?

                                            Thanks

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