VPN connection not working

**infinity85** · December 19, 2016 at 8:22 PM

You said you have a DD-WRT device there. I think it would be possible to establish a PPTP connection with DD-WRT. On the other hand PPTP has a weaker encryption and that's why faster I guess. Don't know whether that automatically means realistic security issues.

gschmidt · December 19, 2016 at 8:38 PM

Quote from infinity85

You said you have a DD-WRT device there. I think it would be possible to establish a PPTP connection with DD-WRT. On the other hand PPTP has a weaker encryption and that's why faster I guess. Don't know whether that automatically means realistic security issues.

I was thinking the exact same way
If the PPTP speed is equal to my ISP connection....than it would be no problem for my other devices. But i have to dig into it.
And there must be a way to Back-up my existing DD-WRT profile incase I want to switch back to the old situation

**zomboided** · December 19, 2016 at 10:53 PM

Someone else has mentioned the Pure connections are out of date, so I'll update them. I'm still not thinking this is the issue though.
I don't think the encryption type is the issue on the RPi, you should see way more than what you're getting (I do on the same device).
I think plugging your RPi into your cable modem directly using an ethernet cable and seeing what you get would eliminate the issue of going through some additional modem hops.

Edit: Pure updated in 2.3.0

gschmidt · December 20, 2016 at 8:50 PM

I found that Windows client of PureVPN is using nl.pointtoserver.com as host.
When i typed this host in Convert Host Name to IP Address or Find IP address of a host - e.g. find IP address of host name of
It came with 11 IP addresses:

Host Name : nl.pointtoserver.com

IP Address : 138.99.211.2 and 188.72.98.130 and 188.72.98.2 and 213.5.64.38 and 213.5.64.37 and 138.99.211.130 and 185.2.31.191 and 213.5.71.71 and 213.5.69.4 and 213.5.68.20 and 185.2.29.191

I have tested it in my ovpn file and the first speedtest i got was 23Mbit/s...However I get a feeling that the speedtest.py that i am using is not the right one...which one do you use?

Update:
Have tested several times with all dutch servers, including nl.pointtoserver.com (latest VPN Manager 2.3.0)...no difference...max 23Mbit/s, but mostly under 10Mbit/s. Also connected RPi to my ISP router....same results

gschmidt · December 21, 2016 at 9:30 PM

Are you familiar with the VPNbook provider?

**infinity85** · December 21, 2016 at 11:28 PM

Quote from gschmidt

I found that Windows client of PureVPN is using nl.pointtoserver.com as host.
When i typed this host in Convert Host Name to IP Address or Find IP address of a host - e.g. find IP address of host name of
It came with 11 IP addresses:

Host Name : nl.pointtoserver.com

IP Address : 138.99.211.2 and 188.72.98.130 and 188.72.98.2 and 213.5.64.38 and 213.5.64.37 and 138.99.211.130 and 185.2.31.191 and 213.5.71.71 and 213.5.69.4 and 213.5.68.20 and 185.2.29.191

I have tested it in my ovpn file and the first speedtest i got was 23Mbit/s...However I get a feeling that the speedtest.py that i am using is not the right one...which one do you use?

Update:
Have tested several times with all dutch servers, including nl.pointtoserver.com (latest VPN Manager 2.3.0)...no difference...max 23Mbit/s, but mostly under 10Mbit/s. Also connected RPi to my ISP router....same results

If you look at vpn-servers for the "netherlands" servers, then you'll see nl1.pointtoserver.com as the DNS for PPTP, L2TP, SSTP, IKEv2 protocols. hcidata.info gives you the same server IP's for nl1.pointtoserver.com and nl.pointtoserver.com. Windows simply prefers the nonOpenVPN servers, because they perhaps produce less load or are more efficient, because of the easier encryption. Apparently you proved us that now that you can use the same servers in OpenVPN (which were meant for PPTP etc.), but then it is consequently building a OpenVPN tunnel. I have still the opinion that OpenVPN, altogether with PureVPN-servers, is the bottleneck in your chain. If it is not the raspberry (like zomboided said), then it is perhaps the PureVPN's servers, which limit OpenVPN somehow in favor of PPTP and other protocols.
You could test something else... you could take your windows machine and install official OpenVPN client there and make a speedtest with this connection instead of PureVPN clients PPTP etc. And perhaps the speedtest you used for windows is not appropriate for comparison with speedtest.py?

I am not familiar with VPNbook. I only used PureVPN so far, and it's okay for me.

gschmidt · December 22, 2016 at 1:51 PM

Quote from infinity85

You could test something else... you could take your windows machine and install official OpenVPN client there and make a speedtest with this connection instead of PureVPN clients PPTP etc. And perhaps the speedtest you used for windows is not appropriate for comparison with speedtest.py?

I am not familiar with VPNbook. I only used PureVPN so far, and it's okay for me.

Again you have the same idea as I had yesterday...I downloaded the Windows 10 OpenVPN installer from the PureVPN site and installed it on my WIN10 PC.
This is actually a nice and simple program to test OpenVPN connections & Speeds....not only the OVPN's configs from PureVPN but also other VPN service providers!
You can store OVPN files in the "Config" folder created by the installer. In this folder also the ca, cert and key files are stored.
If you replace them with your VPN provider files it is also working.

But what is most important....what are the PureVPN connection speeds....sadly enough the same crappy speed I got on the RPi
Then I was looking for alternatives....is this only a PureVPN server problem, or something else in my local network?

The only way to figure this out is to try another VPN service...after some surfing on the net I found VPNbook, which is a totally free VPN service.
On their site you can download 2 Zipfiles with each 4 OVPN files. Each zip file is a different EU server. The login details can be found on the site.
So I copied them to the PureVPN OVPN files "Config" folder (fortunately the ca, cert and key are stored in the OVPN files, so I did not have to switch them with the PureVPN files).
The VPNbook OVPN files have a UDP port 53 and 25000 and TCP port 80 and 443 version

The First time I loaded an UDP port 53 OVPN file, I typed in the login details....and it was connected to a host in Toronto...I performed a speedtest: 25Mbps
Second time I tried it I was connected to a dutch host Altushost...4mbps, but each time when connected to the Toronto host >23Mbps and each time connected to a Dutch host<10Mbps

Then I tried one of the 2 UDP port 25000 OVPN files... it was connected to a host in Romania, Cluj-Napoca (MXhost.ro)....and...boooom 82Mbps download speed (I even saved a pic ;))
Each time when the OVPN file connected me to the Cluj-Napoca host >40Mbps download speeds
When it connects to other hosts like the one in Toronto (but not the Dutch Host), the speeds are above 23Mbps at prime time Europe.
But the Cluj-Napoca (MXhost.ro) host is far from the best (for me).

Tonight I will test them on the RPi if it is possible to setup the VPNbook service in the VPN Manager Addon.
With regard to the PureVPN OpenVPN service....I have to get in contact with them about the OpenVPN speeds (in the Netherlands).

**infinity85** · December 22, 2016 at 3:26 PM

Pretty interesting infos you provide here!

So some conclusion is:

As your Win 10 machine is limited with OpenVPN (PureVPN provider) similarly as your raspberry is, it means that choosing the OpenVPN protocoll is one part of your limitation
Your further testing showed that the limit could be either because of the Port 53 (could be an indication of limitation withing your Network) or that PureVPN limits its own OpenVPN connections on Port 53. Or your Provider Limits the Port 53 intentionally.
You know... I think that routers need to support "VPN Passthrough" for having the ability to use VPN clients on your machines. As your VPN is establishing tunnels successfully, that means that your router obviously supports vpn passthrough (as does almost every I think). But who knows... perhaps the router limits some ports or certain VPN protocols because of hardware limitations or so? May be I'm also wrong about necessity of VPN-Passthrough support, but I remember reading something like this once.
It would be great if you could contact the PureVPN support and describe your problem and the results of this testing. Imagine they would explain you how to change the port (to lets say 25000, because you know already due to your crosscheck that it is fast) and still be able to use PureVPN. Then you could perhaps avoid this limit, and if not, then you would have the clue that is some other limitation by your ISP (limiting PureVPN intentionally) or by PureVPN in general because of OVPN bandwidth limits to their servers.

gschmidt · December 22, 2016 at 7:33 PM

So much for thinking that dutch OpenVPN host have no speed...
Connected with VPNbook ovpn file: "vpnbook-euro1-udp25000.ovpn"

Maybe you should try it too "Infinity"...just for fun?
[hr]
When I compare the OVPN files between PureVPN and VPNbook they are quite different....does this depend on how the providers OpenVPN servers have configured or are different OVPN connections possible?

Update: I found out that I didn't run the PureVPN OVPN Gui on Windows in Admin mode. Although the IP number in the Speedtest gave the impression it was connected to the VPNbook provider it actually was my ISP's IP....hence the high speed of the speedtest...

dado1971 · December 26, 2016 at 11:54 AM

any idea why my vpn connection is not validating? i press it, and nothing happens...

gschmidt · December 29, 2016 at 7:17 PM

Yeah.....I found the problem....today I ask my ISP to put their modem/router into bridge mode, that did the trick!
Somehow it blocked more than I thought....
Here a Speedtest with a PureVPN UK server around 8 pm:

**infinity85** · December 30, 2016 at 1:25 PM

Quote from dado1971

any idea why my vpn connection is not validating? i press it, and nothing happens...

Does the progress bar show something? If it fails, at the end there is a button where you can read the openvpn.log. You could tell us what is written there as a reason.

@gschmidt
great to read that you found the reason for the limititation! But how did you know to ask them for this specific thing (never heard of something like "bridge mode" on ISPs side)?

gschmidt · December 31, 2016 at 8:58 AM

Quote from infinity85

@gschmidt
great to read that you found the reason for the limititation! But how did you know to ask them for this specific thing (never heard of something like "bridge mode" on ISPs side)?

This biggest (merged) Dutch ISP, which is also TV and landline telephone provider, provides by default a wireless modem/router in dhcp mode. But it's wireless function is not great. However the users (with a specific modem type in some Dutch areas) are not able to put this modem in bridge mode by themselves. You have to ask them! Appearantly this by ISP pre-configured device blocks or slowing down more in default mode, regarding VPN Connections!

I also found that the OpenVPN protocol download speed on a RPi is about 70% compared to a Win10 PC. I have read that appearantly the hardware has an impact on the OpenVPN protocol.

ethanturkel · September 27, 2017 at 9:52 AM

Probably you should try a new dd-wrt service What is DD-WRT? | Topsecur. This one is the best created so far

VPN connection not working

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