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PFsense 2.5 RC OpenVPN/ExpressVPN problem

Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
vpnopen vpnexpressvpnnetworkingproblems
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  • B
    bcruze
    last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 11:27 AM

    this is the same issue I have having with another provider who clearly isn't using open vpn 2.5
    I have a support ticket open, I am hoping to see progress at some point today.

    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
    • L
      LayerThree @applesalwaysred
      last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 12:28 PM

      @applesalwaysred wait I will try that. Did u all the settings in the guide or other settings?

      A 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2021, 3:01 PM Reply Quote 0
      • A
        applesalwaysred @LayerThree
        last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 3:01 PM

        @layerthree No settings were changed, just re-entered, then restart. Checked the vpn logs and noticed no disconnect errors. ~10 minutes later ip was established. This is obviously non-optimal.

        B L 2 Replies Last reply Feb 21, 2021, 3:03 PM Reply Quote 0
        • B
          bcruze @applesalwaysred
          last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 3:03 PM

          @applesalwaysred said in PFsense 2.5 RC OpenVPN/ExpressVPN problem:

          @layerthree No settings were changed, just re-entered, then restart. Checked the vpn logs and noticed no disconnect errors. ~10 minutes later ip was established. This is obviously non-optimal.

          yes. every 25 or so reconnect attempts mine would work. but if i disconnected / reconnected it would stop flowing again

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • L
            LayerThree @applesalwaysred
            last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 3:16 PM

            @applesalwaysred so u use exactly the ExpressVPN Guide Rules?
            I need to try more things xD

            A 1 Reply Last reply Feb 22, 2021, 3:20 PM Reply Quote 0
            • J
              JairoAV25
              last edited by JairoAV25 Feb 21, 2021, 3:44 PM Feb 21, 2021, 3:43 PM

              Btw, The only purpose I'm using pfSense with ExpressVPN is to unblock Geo-restricted sites (Netflix, Hulu, etc) I downgraded to 2.4.5 and everything worked as expected, except some streaming sites are not loading but if you use the native app they do. So from now, I will stop using pfSense for this purpose and will switch to OpenWRT as it is suggested in this forum

              It is a shame since pfSense is a solid Firewall.

              L 1 Reply Last reply Feb 21, 2021, 4:01 PM Reply Quote 0
              • L
                LayerThree @JairoAV25
                last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 4:01 PM

                @jairoav25 I understand this but I will stay with PfSense and try to figure this Problem out xD

                J 1 Reply Last reply Feb 22, 2021, 4:20 PM Reply Quote 1
                • S
                  stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                  last edited by Feb 21, 2021, 7:46 PM

                  Mmm, this seems almost certainly to be a config mismatch between the OpenVPN 2.5 client in pfSense 2.5 (confusingly!) and the OpenVPN 2.4 server you're trying to connect to.

                  The first thing I would try is leaving NCP enabled and adding AES-256-CBC to the list of ciphers.

                  Also set compression to 'Omit prefernce' since you can see in the logs the server is pushing comp-lzo no but you have it set to adaptive.

                  Steve

                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                  • A
                    applesalwaysred @LayerThree
                    last edited by Feb 22, 2021, 3:20 PM

                    @layerthree Yes.

                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • J
                      JairoAV25 @LayerThree
                      last edited by Feb 22, 2021, 4:20 PM

                      @layerthree

                      OpenWRT didn't work. The solution in my case was to install OpnSense. Check my response here

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                      • S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by Feb 22, 2021, 6:05 PM

                        Anyone seeing a problem with the expressvpn certificate?

                        Just seen where it looks like they are issuing a 50 year cert that is overrunning a counter and hence shows as expired.

                        Steve

                        S 1 Reply Last reply Feb 24, 2021, 5:26 PM Reply Quote 1
                        • O
                          OpenResty
                          last edited by OpenResty Feb 22, 2021, 6:56 PM Feb 22, 2021, 6:52 PM

                          Hey, I could be wrong but I think its something to do with the NAT.
                          I personnaly would try going over to NordVPN's SetUp for pfsense 2.5 & try that . Try loading both tutorials next to each other in browser to compare.
                          Now In the beginning of tutorial try to Load cetificates the expressvpn way instead of Nords, But then from there follow Nordvpn for the rest of the setup. Also Make Sure when you add Expressvpn to the NAT as described that you add it to the top of the Mappings List & not at the bottom.
                          Maybe having a look at Nords Tutorial may give some Clues. Also make sure you reboot pfsense after setup as it may still look like its not working but hopefully will after a reboot.
                          I dont think theres any harm in trying but make sure to reboot if it looks to not work after.
                          If it will work for NordVPN 2.5 then it may work for Express. XXXX

                          A 1 Reply Last reply Feb 24, 2021, 1:58 PM Reply Quote 1
                          • A
                            applesalwaysred @OpenResty
                            last edited by applesalwaysred Feb 24, 2021, 2:56 PM Feb 24, 2021, 1:58 PM

                            @openresty Just got an update from support. Removed the option "Don't pull routes" which is mentioned in their guide. I now have an encrypted connection.

                            L 1 Reply Last reply Feb 24, 2021, 4:50 PM Reply Quote 2
                            • L
                              LayerThree @applesalwaysred
                              last edited by Feb 24, 2021, 4:50 PM

                              @applesalwaysred so u did everything like in the guide except this the "Dont pull routes" and it works?

                              If that's true, then I will update soon!

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • S
                                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator @stephenw10
                                last edited by Feb 24, 2021, 5:26 PM

                                @stephenw10 said in PFsense 2.5 RC OpenVPN/ExpressVPN problem:

                                Anyone seeing a problem with the expressvpn certificate?

                                Just seen where it looks like they are issuing a 50 year cert that is overrunning a counter and hence shows as expired.

                                Yeah if you're using the SG-3100 (or SG-1000) you might hit that. There is a patch for it now:
                                https://redmine.pfsense.org/issues/11504

                                Steve

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • L
                                  LayerThree
                                  last edited by Feb 24, 2021, 8:12 PM

                                  So the "Don't pull routes" solved the whole problem.

                                  Follow the guide, except this step and then restart ur machine. After this everything works.

                                  Thank you for ur help!

                                  B 1 Reply Last reply Feb 24, 2021, 9:35 PM Reply Quote 1
                                  • B
                                    bcruze @LayerThree
                                    last edited by bcruze Feb 24, 2021, 9:35 PM Feb 24, 2021, 9:35 PM

                                    @layerthree said in PFsense 2.5 RC OpenVPN/ExpressVPN problem:

                                    So the "Don't pull routes" solved the whole problem.

                                    Follow the guide, except this step and then restart ur machine. After this everything works.

                                    Thank you for ur help!

                                    I posted in the other thread. I just reset up my provider that wasn't working

                                    it connected. but if I restart the tunnel. traffic stop passing again

                                    you?

                                    1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • S
                                      stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                      last edited by Feb 26, 2021, 1:50 AM

                                      I would always set 'don't pull routes' personally. Otherwise you're at the mercy of whatever they want to send you, which is usually a new default route.
                                      However if you don't pull routes from them you need to policy route the traffic you want via the VPN gateway.

                                      Steve

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 2
                                      • T
                                        trikki69
                                        last edited by trikki69 Aug 1, 2021, 9:38 AM Aug 1, 2021, 9:37 AM

                                        Apologies for resurrecting this thread 5 months after the last post but I'm hoping the solution I found helps someone else out with pfsense and ExpressVPN problems.

                                        I've been having really big problems trying to get ExpressVPN working on pfsense - took me about 6 hrs of troubleshooting yesterday.

                                        First, I set the VPN gateways to "unmonitored" in the routing section of pfsense - don't think it made any differece but the gateways now report as green "up - unmonitored" instead of red "offline - 100% Packet loss"

                                        I thought I'd found the answer in this post about unchecking "don't pull routes" but as per @stephenw10 commented, I was getting a new default route pushed to me, all of my clients where getting pushed out of the VPN interface which is not what I wanted.
                                        I tried adding my own default route but as soon as the VPN service stopped and started again the VPN pushed default route was back again and all of my clients were being sent out over the VPN again.

                                        I finally added this to my advanced custom options within the OpenVPN client setup:
                                        ;pull-filter ignore redirect-gateway;

                                        I don't get any problems with VPN pushed default routes now even when the VPN services are restarted.
                                        Hope this helps someone in the future. :)

                                        noplanN 1 Reply Last reply Aug 1, 2021, 9:49 AM Reply Quote 0
                                        • noplanN
                                          noplan @trikki69
                                          last edited by Aug 1, 2021, 9:49 AM

                                          @trikki69 said in PFsense 2.5 RC OpenVPN/ExpressVPN problem:

                                          so your problem is now solved with this

                                          added this to my advanced custom options within the OpenVPN client setup:
                                          ;pull-filter ignore redirect-gateway;

                                          brNP

                                          T 1 Reply Last reply Aug 1, 2021, 9:54 AM Reply Quote 0
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