[SOLVED] Linksys WRT 1900 ACS with Express VPN but missings some features ?

[zillah]

Dear Experts


I am using Express VPN on my Linksys WRT 1900 ACS ,,,, and I have to install their firmware


Couple of features disabled when I installed VPN Express firmware one of them like :


1- Parental Controls


https://www.askdavetaylor.com/enable-parental-controls-linksys-wi-fi-router/


2- Port forwarding


Without disabling the Express VPN What suggestion can be done to keep those features as I need them ?Using additional router ?


Thanks

 

[bill001g]

I though that linksys router supported open vpn with the factory installed firmware. I have not heard of any vpn client you can load on a router unless you mean you are loading a different version of dd-wrt. VPN is just something you configure on most routers, there are some automated configuration files but no actual software. This is why I run vpn on routers the vpn clients have messed my computers up so much I had to reinstall the OS to get some of the drivers out.

Parental controls should still function this is mostly a fancy front end to the firewall. The traffic should be examined before it gets to the vpn. Obviously if the traffic is examined after it gets into the vpn tunnel it is encrypted but why would it not look at the traffic when it entered the router. Maybe a different version of dd-wrt has the support.

Port forwarding will never work when you are using a vpn. All your traffic is being sent and received via the VPN providers data center. Your machine is sharing a IP address at the vpn center location...that is the whole reason you get vpn. Any port forwarding would need to be done on the VPN providers router. I have not seen a vpn provider that allows anything like this, normally you must use a hosting center where you get assigned a static IP and you run your own vpn service on a virtual server.

Now if you really work at it your can run some traffic via the vpn and other traffic directly out the internet. Port forwarding would work for that traffic because it bypasses the vpn and goes directly. How exactly you configure that depends a lot on the vpn client in the router and I have not looked at dd-wrt client implentations for a long time. I know you can pretty much do anything since it is all based on the unix IPTABLES command/file. That tends to be the hard way many clients have gui front ends for simple things like traffic that you want to bypass.

Note the IPTABLES is the same place parental control rules are placed. Still IPTABLES is not something simple. I think the guy that wrote it intentionally made it overly complex.

 

[zillah]

Thanks bill001g

I am using express VPN to access Netflix USA library not all VPN providers can do that.

Only only device at home access VPN which is Rouk small TV box connected to my TV via HDMI

Roku

Roku provides the simplest way to stream entertainment to your TV. On your terms. With thousands of available channels to choose from.

www.roku.com

Other devices are bypassing VPN

I am looking for Port forwarding to access my security cameras when i am outside home

Regards

 

[bill001g]

I can't say with that router I have asus router running the merlin firmware and you can set firewall rules and do port forwarding with a vpn client configured. I know I tried express vpn and had it working on my router with no software install. I forget why I am now using PIA but mine is the reverse I let netflix bypass the vpn....kinda have to netflix know about way to many vpn. It is strange they do not block a big one like express they seem to go though and get blocks of ip from time to time and block them.

Don't know I first stopped using any fancy router feature when I got high speed internet because if you used them the routers bottle necked at about 200mbps. They use a NAT hardware accelerator that bypasses the cpu so many feature don't work when you use that.

Now I am use a a asus 86u because it has a vpn accelerator that lets me hit over 250mbps using vpn but I bet I still can't use things like firewall features without killing my throughput.