Router Curiosity (Was Windows 10)

[wrldtvlr]

Having a strange problem. Spun up an AWS CloudFront UK Region instance with no problem. It works quite well using an Android mobile client, and my Windows 10 Desktop Fast Ring machine with wired Ethernet connection. It does not work from a Windows 10 1809 Intel NUC using a WiFi connection. Just gets stuck on the login step.

Though it might be the Public network status of the wifi adapter, but changing that to Private didn't change anything. Thoughts on what else I should look at?

[wrldtvlr]

Screenshot of error:

[wrldtvlr]

And the mystery continues. It appears that the error above is associated with Windows network error 778, which is a credential error. Created a new Cloudfront VPN, being very careful to use a simple username and password. Worked fine on development desktop machine, but same error on NUC.

[wrldtvlr]

Still not figuring out why the NUC can't establish the VPN connection. Tried L2TP with a similar error. My ASUS router will establish the VPN connection with no problem. May have to get a dedicated router for the NUC.

[wrldtvlr]

Latest update - it appears to be an issue with the NUC WiFi driver. Wired connection connects up just fine. Perhaps similar to this post: #43.

Will investigate further.

[wrldtvlr]

Just an unrelated comment - using an AWS VPN can be helpful to avoid geolocation restrictions, but it isn't a sure thing. Although it does avoid the multiple users per IP issues and screening that come with shared VPN services, some geolocation restrictions take into account known IP block assignments. The AWS IP blocks are known, even with just a single user.

[wrldtvlr]

For grins, I installed a USB WiFi interface and disabled the NUC's built-in WiFi. Still using the Windows 10 WiFi high level driver and latest Intel low level driver. Unfortunately no success.

[webdigi]

can you try pairing your windows to your mobile internet connection and try? Just making sure it is not related to internet connection?

[wrldtvlr]

Wow. I'm not quite sure what this means, but when I changed the NUC WiFi connection to use my phone as a hotspot instead of the router, the VPN connection worked. I guess this suggests there's something going on with the router that's blocking the VPN connection. Strange, as wired connections through the router from the NUC and my development machine have no problems.

[wrldtvlr]

Thanks for the pointer - definitely the router WiFi connection. Disconnected my dev machine wired connection and used its wifi adaper and see the same problem: Can't log into the VPN connection. Have started poking around some of the advanced settings in the router (ASUS RT-AC68U). Not seeing anything jumping out, but I"ll keep looking. One of the default firewall rules or the routing table may be causing the problem.

Very strange, as using the router's built-in VPN capability with the AWS credentials works just fine. It's just the pass through WiFi VPN connection that gets blocked. It's not all VPN connections though. Wired connections work fine and I've used laptops with company WiFi VPN clients with no problem.

[wrldtvlr]

Not a router firewall issue - turned that off with no change. All the router passthroughs are enabled. I.e. PPTP and L2TP. Enabled PPPoE Relay. Wasn't expecting this to make a difference and it didn't. Not a strong routing table person, but the four entries there are the router defaults and I don't see anything that is WiFi interface related. Nothing in the router general or wireless logs. The puzzle continues...

[wrldtvlr]

Still investigating router problem, but a comment on cost:

AWS has two charging points for hosting this type of function. There's a charge for the EC2 instance and then a separate charge for data transfer. The EC2 micro instance is running me about $10/month running 24/7. Data Transfer for $4, with very limited use.

I think they waive the EC2 charge for the first year if it's the first time you've used an EC2 micro instance, but I've done other things, so am past that. The micro instance seems to work fine for me, but they charge more for larger machines. You can also suspend running the EC2 instance when it's not being used.

The data charge is a bit more concerning. Have hardly pushed any data through the VPN. That could jump considerably if I was using the connection regularly.

Some of the more reliable VPN providers (like NordVPN) are much less expensive even with a non-shared static IP option.