DDNS no longer works with VPN on router | DS220+ (NAS)

[Ellucho]

Hello everyone !

Thank you in advance for your help.

I have a DS220 + NAS which is accessible from the outside thanks to a DDNS link to a domain name, it all works perfectly.

The NAS is connected to an ASUS RT AX88U router with the necessary ports open.

BUT, when I connect the router to an Open VPN type VPN (to put all the devices on my network under VPN), I lose my remote connection, while the status of the DDNS link of the NAS is perfectly renewed, and with the "normal" status.

Someone would have any idea ?

(Sorry if I have not posted perfectly in the right place, I'm not very used to the forum, but maybe it can help other people).

 

[Rusty]

BUT, when I connect the router to an Open VPN type VPN

This happens when you connect to a commercial vpn provider?

Try and enable multiple gateways in advanced settings of the network section in nas control panel.

It might not help with all the services you are trying to reach but it should.

Also on the other hand this usually helps when vpn is initiated from the nas itself, but give it a go.

 

[Ellucho]

Many thanks for your quick response Rusty.
Unfortunately this did not lead to any improvements.

After more testing, I think the problem is not with the NAS but with the VPN shutting down all my ports (by the way it's a commercial VPN, "Express VPN"). I haven't been able to find a solution yet.

Best wishes.

 

[Rusty]

Many thanks for your quick response Rusty.
Unfortunately this did not lead to any improvements.

After more testing, I think the problem is not with the NAS but with the VPN shutting down all my ports (by the way it's a commercial VPN, "Express VPN"). I haven't been able to find a solution yet.

Best wishes.

Honestly, I didn't expect this to work tbh as most VPN providers do not port forward on their end. Depending on your targeted need for VPN protection there are other methods and places you can deploy the VPN client.

So what's the intention behind this running on the router? You want to protect your whole LAN when accessing the web or?

 

[WST16]

You can change to a VPN provider that supports port forwarding like, Mullvad for example. Or test it first with a one month payment.
(read the bit about the restrictions to reoccurring payment method).

The other option is to move this functionality to your DiskStation by installing vDSM and connecting it to the VPN service and pointing your LAN devices to use vDSM as their gateway.

Note that the 220+ has two cores only, you'll be forced to dedicate one to vDSM. You can try and see how your NAS is impacted and what kind of performance (internet access) the clients on the LAN will have.

One vDSM license is included already, so no harm in trying if you're up to it

 

[fredbert]

The other option is to move this functionality to your DiskStation by installing vDSM and connecting it to the VPN service and pointing your LAN devices to use vDSM as their gateway.

While you're at it you might as well use the vDSM 6 image so you have access to anything you might want to still use that's deprecated in DSM 7. Actually you can have more than one vDSM setup (so could have vDSM 6 and vDSM 7, useful for testing) but only one can use (i.e. run) the free licence at a time, but you can unmap the licence and remap to the virtual machine you want to use without deleting them.

Note that the 220+ has two cores only, you'll be forced to dedicate one to vDSM. You can try and see how your NAS is impacted and what kind of performance (internet access) the clients on the LAN will have.

I'm wondering this. Is it actually dedicated or competing with the host DSM?

This seems to me to imply that no threads are reserved (so all available to the host) and the relative weight is lower than the host too. The only reservation that is definitely made is the RAM: I give 1GB to enable light use of vDSM 6 and that is reflected in Resource Monitor on the host DSM.

 

[WST16]

I'm wondering this. Is it actually dedicated or competing with the host DSM?

I’m not sure, I don’t know what to make of it. If you think it’s not dedicated, that’s even better.

 

[fredbert]

I’m not sure, I don’t know what to make of it. If you think it’s not dedicated, that’s even better.

I had thought it could be dedicated too. But yesterday I was adding a vDSM 6 VM and saw those two (i) next to the CPU settings and it got me wondering. I'd have to stress the CPU on the host DSM to see how high it goes and I haven't anything to do that at the moment. Certainly the CPU in VMM shows sub-1% for the host DSM CPU, and Resource Manager is likewise, when the VM is quiet.