Update: the findings below were subsequently inconsistent. Please ignore. I’ll write a separate post for what I’m consistently seeing.
Original
I’m testing a new internet provider (Community Fibre). Switching IPFire’s red interface to them was easy. Everything works. I have a dynamic IP address and can use OpenVPN.
I’m getting some odd behaviour using OpenVPN. I’m using an Android client to test OpenVPN. Here’s what happens:
- Using Wi-Fi, the VPN client connects fine, eg I can continue to browse the web.
- Using 4G/5G, the VPN client connects fine if I’ve not connected via Wi-Fi in step 1 above.
- If I connect to VPN via Wi-Fi then switch off Wi-Fi and use 4G/5G, I can connect to VPN but can’t browse or connect to IPFire SMB share.
- I then ran out of connections even though the WUI shows just one connection (the Android client). It seems to be hanging onto old connections.
- OpenVPN service stops at some point on a connection attempt. I can’t restart via WUI or SSH command line. From SSH, I killed the OpenVPN process and that allow the service to start. However, when I try to connect again, the OpenVPN service stops.
- None of this was an issue with my previous provider (Plusnet). I could switch between Wi-Fi and 4G/5G.
I’m puzzled where to look next. There seems to be a different between the two providers. The OpenVPN log is attached below:
[deleted]
Any help would be appreciated.
Also, on a practical note, once the OpenVPN service gets into this state (5 above), I have to restart IPFire (similar to this post). As a workaround (assuming I’m on the home network), is there a way to reset OpenVPN without rebooting IPFire?