openvpn

[camsmith]

Has anyone setup openvpn to work with the blue iris android app?

I have the blue iris app on a samsung s7, blue iris is on a PC with i7 4790
router is Untangle NG firewall with openvpn.

I can get the mobile app on my phone to connect to the blue iris server using the port forward method.
But I cant manage to connect using the VPN method.

Disclaimer, I'm not an IT pro. More like a hillbilly pressing buttons.

 

[MrRalphMan]

Hi,

We'll need a few more details to be able to assist.

Is your VPN client connecting to the Router's VPN server?
How have you got openVPN setup on the router?
What errors are you seeing with the VPN client?

There may be more questions from more experienced people, but it's a start.

Paul

 

[randytsuch]

So adding a little to Ralph's post above:
Are you using openVPN Connect? That's what I use for VPN, it works well for me.

When you try to connect, both OpenVPN Connect and the router will create error messages in the logs if there is a problem, did you look at the logs to see what they say?

Posting the logs might help, but you should "sanitize" the logs first (IE remove any private information like DDNS names and IP addresses)

And that reminds me, does your router provide a DDNS service, or are you using another DDNS? You have to have a DDNS so your phone can find your home network's public IP address. This will not be in the form of 192.168.x.x. You can type in "what is my ip" at home, and google will give your public ip address. But your public address can change, which is why you need DDNS.

Also, I made these instructions for setting up OpenVPN on an Asus router. You have a different router, but it may still be helpful to see what I did.
Randy : OpenVPN on a Asus router

 

[camsmith]

Hi,

We'll need a few more details to be able to assist.

Is your VPN client connecting to the Router's VPN server?
How have you got openVPN setup on the router?
What errors are you seeing with the VPN client?

There may be more questions from more experienced people, but it's a start.

Paul

The phone ( vpn client ) makes a connection to the Routers VPN server
The only error I see is from the blue iris app that says unable to reach server.

 

[camsmith]

So adding a little to Ralph's post above:
Are you using openVPN Connect? That's what I use for VPN, it works well for me.

When you try to connect, both OpenVPN Connect and the router will create error messages in the logs if there is a problem, did you look at the logs to see what they say?

Posting the logs might help, but you should "sanitize" the logs first (IE remove any private information like DDNS names and IP addresses)

And that reminds me, does your router provide a DDNS service, or are you using another DDNS? You have to have a DDNS so your phone can find your home network's public IP address. This will not be in the form of 192.168.x.x. You can type in "what is my ip" at home, and google will give your public ip address. But your public address can change, which is why you need DDNS.

Also, I made these instructions for setting up OpenVPN on an Asus router. You have a different router, but it may still be helpful to see what I did.
Randy : OpenVPN on a Asus router

I am using openVPN on my router, openVPN for android on my phone, I'm unsure if I need openVPN on the Blue Iris server.
My router does provide a DDNS service. After looking at it I see that it is off. It gives me these choices of service: Easy DNS, Zone Edit, DynDNS, Namecheap, DSLReports, DNSPark, No-IP, DNS-O-Matic
After that I need to choose a username password and hostname(s)

 

[MrRalphMan]

Got the dynamic DNS service, you'll have to sign up. I used NO-IP for years until I got a static IP. You have to confirm it every 30 days, but they send you a reminder.

What IP address are you using to access the BI server once connected to the VPN? You'll have to use the internal IP of the server as the VPN basically extends your home lan to your phone.

Sent from my Nexus 10 using Tapatalk

 

[randytsuch]

You do not need to run openVPN on Blue Iris, you only should run one instance of OpenVPN on your home network, as a VPN server, and the router is the best place to do it.

Did you read Nayr's thread on VPN? Very good intro to VPN
VPN Primer for Noobs

After you connect, your phone should act like its on your home network.
If you're at home, with your phone connected on wifi, I assume you can use the android blue iris client?

You could also try to connect to the camera's directly, but I would make sure it works at home connected via wifi first, then try it through VPN.

 

[camsmith]

Thanks guys, I signed up for noip. I then configured that in the router. I changed some other setting and now cant log into the router. Ill have to get a monitor to hook up directly to the router now. The router is on a pc.

 

[randytsuch]

Did you get the router back?
Just saw this, it may help you
BI mobile app and VPN - issues connecting

 

[camsmith]

Did you get the router back?
Just saw this, it may help you
BI mobile app and VPN - issues connecting

I got it back. I redid everything but couldn't get it to work with open vpn connect. It wouldn't accept the opvn file because it was referencing other files in the profile. crt, ca. crt and key file.
The other app called openvpn for android accepted all of the files and worked. This app has a ton of options available way beyond my understanding.
The wifi on my phone is off and it connects instantly. I didn't have to change the WAN address to be the same as the LAN address as referenced in the link above.
I checked my router and shows my phone under connected remote clients.

Thanks to all.

 

[MrRalphMan]

So it's all working? Awesome if it is.
Remember to remove the port forwarding to secure it.

 

[camsmith]

It's all working fine, I've connected while away from home with port forwarding off.
Thanks

 

[hmjgriffon]

It sounds like your openvpn config on the phone was wrong, there IS a way to include all 3 certs in one config file, I use openVPN connect and it works fine. But I also have port forwarding set up so I don't have to go through the vpn to see the cameras. I know security but my home firewall is running OpenBSD and OpenVPN that I set up myself and I've got a few tricks in my firewall and logs so..

 

[LeeZ]

Hi hmjgriffon,
I wonder if you can offer guidance on something. I'd like to set up a VPN to view the video securely remotely. I have heard mixed information on this forum and elsewhere about the feasibility of running a VPN server with a Google Wifi router to allow for a secure way of viewing video feeds of my home security cameras on my smartphone remotely. However, I have read here and elsewhere that a way that I can set up OpenVPN and still keep the Google Wifi router is to set up OpenVPN and port forward to the Google Wifi router. But, I'm not very technically savvy, and I'm having trouble with the configuration script (in particular how to create it) that OpenVPN requires to work.

From outside going in, I have an Arris cable modem which is connected to three Google Wifi pucks which is connected to my Windows 7 pc running Blue Iris. I have 4 IP cameras connected via ethernet cables to a PoE switch which is connected to the PC. My PC is always running, and I'd like to install the OpenVPN server on that PC and port forward to the Google Wifi router.

I've tried using the onboard Windows 7 VPN that Fenderman has suggested using but I keep getting errors 720, 600, etc. either when I use the LAN IP address or the WAN IP address.

I did read that I can buy an additional router to put in front of the Google Wifi pucks and set up a VPN on that, but I'd prefer not to have to purchase even more equipment if I can do it with what is available.

Guidance would be much appreciated.

Thank you in advance.

Lee

 

[Vettester]

Unfortunately, Google Wifi doesn't support VPN. From what I have read some people have had success setting up Express VPN with Google Wifi, but I would prefer not to pay a monthly subscription. I have been using stunnel with my Google Wifi for over a year with no issues.

 

[LeeZ]

Vettester, Thank you for your thoughts.

I do already have ExpressVPN in fact, but based on the instructions in the tutorial on how to use expressVPN with Google Wifi saying "If you would like to encrypt traffic from your Google Wifi, connect your Google Wifi as a “device” to a router running the ExpressVPN app for routers", I'm assuming I would need another router.

Is Stunnel fairly straightforward to set up? Did you have to use OpenVPN somehow, or just by itself?

Thank you,
Lee

 

[Vettester]

Is Stunnel fairly straightforward to set up? Did you have to use OpenVPN somehow, or just by itself?

Thank you,
Lee

Yes, stunnel is fairly easy to setup and you do not need to use a separate VPN app. There are several threads on this forum that should help guide you through the setup.

 

[Richdem]

I have an older Asus router that I use to create a network specifically for my security cameras, Blue Iris and wink hub. I used a raspberry Pi to create an open VPN server, the beauty of this little box is that it is also a NAS with a 4TB Western Digital drive. It runs flawlessly and I connect using Openvpn Connect every time I'm using public WiFi to encrypt my network connection.

I then have 2 Asus routers running AI Mesh for my main home network. I run the router from my ISP in bridge mode and was able to get 2 separate WAN addresses for each network. I know I could have used open VPN on my Asus router for my cameras but the raspberry Pi was a project that I enjoyed doing. There's lots of good tutorials online.


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