Multiple Public IP addresses

D

Dave Lonsdale

Pulling my weight
Dec 3, 2015
460
195
Congleton Edge, UK
My new Asus DSL AC88U clearly shows my public IP address/WAN IP.

My iPhone, iPad and my wife’s laptop all report this same WAN IP when connected to the router by wifi.

However, my wife’s iPhone, my laptop (wifi), my wife’s desk PC (ethernet cable) and my Blue Iris PC (ethernet cable) all show different WAN IPs and are different from each other all at the same time.

The BI PC has a static LAN IP and all the others are DHCP - all fine. I have 16 IP cameras on a separate network card using a different network segment.

I discovered I appear to have multiple WAN IPs when typing in “what’s my IP address” in the browsers when trying to find out why I can only get my inbound VPN to connect to the router from remote but not to my BI web server.

Summarising, five simultaneous public IP addresses for my single low speed home broadband line??? I’m not an expert, what don’t I understand please?
 
You need to provide more information, in an organized fashion.

1. You say you have a DSL. I assume a modem and then the RT-AC88U.
2. I assume the AC88U is the ONLY router, and the previous one is disabled/removed.
3. What are the "WAN IPs"? Actual numbers. if you are paranoid, just put in x in the first string, like this: 7x.108.35.198 that is my current WAN IP. LAN should be 192.168.86.15, one of my current LAN IPs.
4. What VPN are you trying to run?
 
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Hello TVille, many thanks for your reply. It helped me to discover what's going on. Your points:-

1. The ASUS DSL-AC88U includes the modem.
2. Yes, it's the only router on my single broadband line (approx ping 35mS, download 7Mbit/s, upload 1Mbit/s).
3. Not sure why the specific numbers are significant, apart from the router they are different each time I switch on. Examples:- 3.10.214.181, 52.56.47.127, 18.135.27.162, 18.132.18.188. The LAN IPs are inbetween 192.168.1.1 (router) and 192.168.1.254 (gateway)
4. VPN. As I type this message I've figured out the problem:-
I set up openVPN in the router with the intention of avoiding port forwarding for inbound connections to my Blue iris CCTV when away from home. However, my Norton 360 provides secure VPN for outbound connections from each PC. The Norton server hides my WAN IP so when I type "whats my IP address" in a browser, it returns a completely different address, different for each device and different each time I connect. So my inbound openVPN connection can get to the router (I have no-ip DDNS) but can't find its way to my Blue Iris PC.

Just tried switching off Norton's secure VPN in the Blue Iris PC. Now openVPN works to that PC!!!!! I haven't figured out what the risk is of not using Norton's secure VPN on this PC or if there's a better fix?
 
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Norton's VPN hides your IP address for illegal streaming and porno LOL. It is no different than the other paid VPN services to hide/mask one's IP address.

OpenVPN is free and doesn't hide your IP as you are the host server in this instance. If it is a hidden IP, then BI won't connect to it as you found out.

If all you are doing on that computer is BI, then no reason to be hiding your IP. In fact, going through Norton VPN means your data is routing off to servers who knows where.
 
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OK thanks wittaj. I would expect to only normally use it to download updates, although I also use it to capture and send snip and sketch images to ipcamtalk for you guys to solve my many queries… and then ending up clicking on MSedge news clips etc. But definitely not the bank.

What confused me for some time is Norton’s VPN was set to auto-connect only when needed. So when at home, the router did the job and the iPad WAN IP was the same as the router. But when switching wifi on/off, the delay in Norton’s VPN server cutting out/in to change the IP was misleading.

Cheers
Dave
 
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Hello guys - I've still got a problem that I haven't figured out how to solve:-
Having switched off Norton's outbound VPN on my Blue Iris PC, the inbound VPN works fine but only until my ISP changes the dynamic WAN IP. The problem seems to be the openVPN file exported from the router uses the WAN IP instead of the DDNS. I don't see how to make this process use the DDNS assuming that's the problem. Can you guys put me right again, please? Snapshots attached (working OK at the moment with an updated openVPN export).



DDNS1.jpgDDNS2.jpgDDNS3.PNG
 
It should do the outside address based on the host entry there. And looks to me as it is. In the first image it's showing the resolved address for the DDNS host name below it.

Click the VPN tab and Advanced and show the screenshot there.

The OPVN files are editable btw so you can make changes to the address/host name at the top of the file without having to go through the router to recreate every time.
 
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Asus also has its' own DDNS service, and it's free. I use that with OpenVPN and never have a problem.
 
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Mike A. Thanks for your reply but unfortunately I'm not an expert (obviously) and need more help. To try and demonstrate my problem, I rebooted my router to get a different WAN IP - same DDNS name - see the snapshot below. So now, openVPN on the iPad (on 4G) doesn't connect because it's still using the previous IP. If I was able to use the DDNS name instead then I assume it would still connect. I haven't found any way to edit the openVPN file.

Sebastiontombs, thank you also for your suggestion. In your system, does the exported openVPN connection show the WAN IP address like mine, or does it show the DDNS name when using the service provided by ASUS? If I don't succeed using no-ip I'll risk deleting my no-ip. My worry here is that I have already used three DDNS names and I think the free limit is three. I don't know if when you delete them they are still somehow logged and this stops you making new ones if needed.

DDNS4.jpg
 
It should (<--operative word) have created the oVPN file with a reference to the DNS name. Also, keep in mind it does take a period of time for the DDNS service to sync and update its own record with your new IP.

Did you try opening the file in notepad?
 
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As Spaceman mentioned, find the config file where ever you saved it on the ipad and open it in a text editor to change the IP to the name or find the config file on a different device before you send it to the ipad and change the IP to the name there and then send it to the ipad.
 
The client.ovpn file shows a "private" IP address assigned by OpenVPN in the 10.x.x.x range of subnets.
 
Thanks OICU2, I eventually realised that if I temporarily changed the file extension to .txt then I could open it in notepad and make the change. It looks similar ish to yours. Hasn’t worked so far though, I tried with and without the default 1194 port number on the end. I’m sure I’ve done something silly and will persevere.

Please tell me, don’t you have a dynamic WAN IP and need to use the DDNS name instead of the IP? Picking up on sebastiontombs point, does anyone know if the file exported automatically takes the DDNS instead of the IP when using the ASUS DDNS service instead of no-ip?

I‘m sorry sebastiontombs, I didn’t understand the significance of your 10.x.x.x subnet remark in respect of my problem.
 
Dave Lonsdale said:
Thanks OICU2, I eventually realised that if I temporarily changed the file extension to .txt then I could open it in notepad and make the change. It looks similar ish to yours. Hasn’t worked so far though, I tried with and without the default 1194 port number on the end. I’m sure I’ve done something silly and will persevere.

Please tell me, don’t you have a dynamic WAN IP and need to use the DDNS name instead of the IP? Picking up on sebastiontombs point, does anyone know if the file exported automatically takes the DDNS instead of the IP when using the ASUS DDNS service instead of no-ip?

I‘m sorry sebastiontombs, I didn’t understand the significance of your 10.x.x.x subnet remark in respect of my problem.
Click to expand...

Yes I use a dyndns service, that was just a sample. I am not sure about the Asus export as I run it on pfsense router.
 
try that xxxxx.asuscomm.com DDNS? I found it to be somehow less of a fight than the other stuff I was trying.
 
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Dave Lonsdale said:
Thanks OICU2, I eventually realised that if I temporarily changed the file extension to .txt then I could open it in notepad and make the change. It looks similar ish to yours. Hasn’t worked so far though, I tried with and without the default 1194 port number on the end. I’m sure I’ve done something silly and will persevere.

Please tell me, don’t you have a dynamic WAN IP and need to use the DDNS name instead of the IP? Picking up on sebastiontombs point, does anyone know if the file exported automatically takes the DDNS instead of the IP when using the ASUS DDNS service instead of no-ip?
Click to expand...

Yes, if you enter a host name, the client.opvn file generated by the Asus will have the host name vs IP in the file. You can view it at the time that you create the file when it shows up at the bottom of the screen or wherever else to be downloaded in whatever browser you're using. You do need the port number.

Again, look under the VPN tab on the router. Then click OpenVPN to the right. Then select Advanced Settings for VPN Details. Post that screen.

I‘m sorry sebastiontombs, I didn’t understand the significance of your 10.x.x.x subnet remark in respect of my problem.
Click to expand...

Don't need to worry about that part right now unless maybe you're using a 10.x.x.x addressing scheme for your local network. Otherwise, OpenVPN uses that as the default range for the VPN clients it assigns. The router then routes those addresses over to your local IP address space to make it function basically as if the client is local to your network. Yeah, I know that probably isn't real clear at this point but don't worry about now unless as I said you're using 10.8.x.x addressing scheme for your LAN (likely not).
 
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Gentlemen, very good news - when using the ASUS DDNS service instead of no-ip, it now connects. Once again a big thanks for your help.
Points to note:
  • The router still exported the WAN IP and so it was necessary for me to edit it to the xxxxx.asuscomm.com DDNS name.
  • I tried again several times to make it connect using the no-ip DDNS service, being very careful not to make a mistake. It definitely did not work.

OK, now on to the next problem - how to make the Blue Iris PC automatically restart after a power break, now that it’s updated to Windows 11. A new post I guess if I fail…
 
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the answer will be in the Bios options of the PC. IF, in fact, the bios has that capability.
After Power loss: option
 
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