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AvidHunter
Joined: 09 Feb 2019 Posts: 12
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Posted: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 02:51 Post subject:
Comcast blocking VPN |
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@ OscarTalks
Reconfigured everything for VPNbook and got the same results. Everything connects but no web access, so I went to bed frustrated.
Next Day (today) I took the laptop a few cities south to a location where I had access to a commercial account with the same ISP (Comcast). WAHLA!!! everything works perfectly, Comcast is blocking VPN use from residential accounts. Any suggestions on how to deal with this? I wonder if Comcast blocks a Tor browser?
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festus

Joined: 14 Jan 2015 Posts: 235
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Posted: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 11:05 Post subject:
Subject description: Thank you |
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@OscarTalks
I am using your "Simple VPN Implementation" successfully on upupbb & both 32 & 64 bit xenial-7.5
Is there any way to configure other pkgs, eg: claws-mail, to use this vpn pkg?
Thank you very much, for this important pkg.
bliss,
festus
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 14:42 Post subject:
Re: Comcast blocking VPN |
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AvidHunter wrote: | Reconfigured everything for VPNbook and got the same results. Everything connects but no web access, so I went to bed frustrated.
Next Day (today) I took the laptop a few cities south to a location where I had access to a commercial account with the same ISP (Comcast). WAHLA!!! everything works perfectly, Comcast is blocking VPN use from residential accounts. Any suggestions on how to deal with this? I wonder if Comcast blocks a Tor browser? |
At least that is partial good news in that it works on that computer.
Since I have no experience of ISP blocking I don't have any immediate ideas.
If this is a widespread issue I would have thought that search engines might reveal something.
There is still a possibility that the problem is caused by your router or a router setting, unless you have found official confirmation that the ISP domestic accounts are definitely VPN blocked.
Tor Browser Bundle is easy to test.
http://murga-linux.com/puppy/viewtopic.php?t=91141
_________________ Oscar in England

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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Sun 17 Feb 2019, 15:05 Post subject:
Subject description: Thank you |
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festus wrote: | I am using your "Simple VPN Implementation" successfully on upupbb & both 32 & 64 bit xenial-7.5
Is there any way to configure other pkgs, eg: claws-mail, to use this vpn pkg?
Thank you very much, for this important pkg.
bliss,
festus |
Hello Festus,
Thanks for the report.
This program does open the browser as a form of notification so you can see if your IP has changed, but it does route your main system connection through the VPN, so other programs that connect should also be doing so via the VPN. This applies to streaming media players and Transmission torrent client for example. Have you found that claws-mail doesn't work when connected to VPN? I don't use an e-mail client myself, only webmail.
_________________ Oscar in England

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festus

Joined: 14 Jan 2015 Posts: 235
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Posted: Mon 18 Feb 2019, 16:40 Post subject:
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Quote: | Have you found that claws-mail doesn't work when connected to VPN? I don't use an e-mail client myself, only webmail. |
Hello, Oscar, thanks for the reply.
With the VPN active, these pks connected and worked fine:
PPM, Pup Advert Blocker, Palemoon, Firefox, dogradio, vlc
The only pkgs that would NOT work were my email pks, claws-mail & thunderbird
Here is the logfile from claws-mail:
Code: | * Account 'xxxx@xxxx.net@pop3.xxxxx.net': Connecting to POP3 server: pop3.xxxxxx.net:995...
** Session timed out. You may be able to recover by increasing the timeout value in Preferences/Other/Miscellaneous. |
I increased the timeout period from the default ~62 secs to 120 seconds with still no connectivity with either email client.
This behavior is alright with me; I just figure it is something to do with the big-bother gov't trying to catch "terrists".
Anyway, thank you, again Oscar...
bliss,
festus
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LeithR
Joined: 24 Jan 2011 Posts: 341 Location: Kemnay, Aberdeenshire/Scotland
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Posted: Wed 20 Feb 2019, 15:23 Post subject:
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Thanks all for your efforts on this activity. I eventually got it going this afternoon.
Basically the steps I took to set it up on a new installation of xenialpup64-7.5-UEFI was as follows
Download from the smokey01/OscarTalks web page the openvpn files similarly named to your operating system so I downloaded openvpn-2.4.6-x86_64-xenial.pet and vpn-onoff-0.1-x86_64-xenial.pet.
I loaded both of them onto the machine, checked that I had VPN-Start and VPN-Stop showing in Menu>Network then went to
https://www.vpnbook.com/freevpn
I then downloaded from the Free OpenVPN column the FR Open VPN Certificate Bundle (Depends where in the world you are located so download one adjacent to where you live). Noted the Username and Password.
Then opened the file /etc/vpn-onoff/vpnpass as text and overwrote the words username and password in the file (2nd Tab called vpnpass). Don't forget to save the change.
To note that you are starting a vpn session, firstly run What is my vpn address as per suggestion in OcarTalks first note, take note of it, then start vpn from Menu>Network>VPN-Start then re-open what is my vpn address. The should be quite different thus indicating that you are running in VPN.
Many thanks to OscarTalks for putting this thread together, its been an interesting couple of days figuring it out.
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Sun 24 Feb 2019, 11:55 Post subject:
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Hello LeithR, glad to know you got it working.
Just a couple of points for yourself and others, the experimental vpn-onoff package does already contain all the needed components, including openvpn, so there is no need to install openvpn as well.
The openvpn packages are intended for people who want to run it from command line or as a dependency of other tools.
The vpn-onoff package also contains a selection of the .ovpn configuration files which allow connection to all the available servers (at the time of writing) of VPNbook and FreeVPN.me although these configuration files have been renamed for simplicity.
Users can (and should) download other configuration files if they want to use a different protocol (UDP or TCP) or a different port number, or in the event that these providers change server details or introduce new servers that you want to use.
As things stand, the vpn-onoff package should work on completion of only one step, which is to grab the VPNbook password and paste it into the second line of /etc/vpn-onoff/vpnpass in place of the word "password".
_________________ Oscar in England

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AvidHunter
Joined: 09 Feb 2019 Posts: 12
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Posted: Tue 26 Feb 2019, 04:59 Post subject:
Router passthrough -- not! |
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@ OscarTalks
My ISP denies any culpability. I've been playing with my modem/router (netgear C6220) and it does not support VPN pass through. Even when I plug another router into the unit so the modem acts as a bridge only I still can't get through it with the VPN. Now begins the search for a new modem.
Anyway I greatly appreciate everything you have provided here, without your efforts I doubt that I would have gotten anywhere near this far. Thank you.
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AvidHunter
Joined: 09 Feb 2019 Posts: 12
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Posted: Mon 11 Mar 2019, 03:12 Post subject:
New Router Tests Comming |
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@ OscarTalks
I've got a new modem/router to install and test...coming soon.
However I have another curiosity question. I really like what you have done here and I have another laptop running Lubuntu. Since the latest version of puppy is based on ubuntu, or at least able to use ubuntu packages, what would it take to package this up so it would install on Lubuntu?
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Mon 11 Mar 2019, 10:35 Post subject:
Re: New Router Tests Comming |
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AvidHunter wrote: | what would it take to package this up so it would install on Lubuntu? |
I have never tried to package anything as a .deb, I think it is not too difficult to do in Puppy, although I would not want to attempt to make a package for Lubuntu without first examining the structure of the Lubuntu system.
What you could try if you wanted to experiment is to extract the .pet and then copy or move the files into the Lubuntu directory tree (manual installation), leaving out anything which is already in Lubuntu (eg the openvpn executable).
By the way, I have still been using the ProtonVPN Free servers for quite a number of days now using the command-line tool which they provide. One advantage of it is that it even routes DNS lookups through the VPN for you. Speed is not quite as fast as FreeVPN.me but certainly quite acceptable. Once it is set up, it is just pvpn -c to connect and pvpn -d to disconnect. One disadvantage is that there is no tray icon to remind you that you are in VPN, but certainly worth having on board as an alternative to my system.
_________________ Oscar in England

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MrDuckGuy

Joined: 31 Jan 2019 Posts: 159 Location: Hermosa Beach, CA, USA
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Posted: Wed 13 Mar 2019, 20:47 Post subject:
Re: A Simple VPN Implementation |
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OscarTalks wrote: | ... method uses openvpn ... Install
openvpn. ... Click the VPN-Start menu entry
and wait for around 30 seconds ... default
browser should open ... default browser
should open and show your normal IP address
... method can ... be adapted for other
VPN providers ... Ideas are welcome ... | Hello, I am trying this. I am a customer of
a VPN provider called 'Ivacy'.
Ivacy has a list of 30 or 40 VPN providers
on their website, and I have a username and
password that allows me to access the
service.
I tried to use the pre-installed
'Gpptp VPN v 2.0' and loaded in my username,
password, along with one of the VPN server
URL addresses. I think it's connected but I
don't know how to implement it.
Also I have loaded your widget as well and
it's succeeded in configuring one of the
open VPN clients but I found that it, when
browsing to many sites, the system hangs and
won't connect. I'd like to configure open
VPN to access one of my provider's sites.
I have edited the password as you directed.
I already know how to edit the username and
password from reading this thread, but how
do I change the url of the VPN provider?
Also how does one implement the
Gpptp VPN 2.0 system? My browser shows no
change in ip address.
As always, thanks in advance, Kelikaku. B'H.
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Description |
Output from the GpptpVPN program. B'H. |
Filesize |
51.25 KB |
Viewed |
971 Time(s) |

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rcrsn51

Joined: 05 Sep 2006 Posts: 13129 Location: Stratford, Ontario
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Posted: Thu 14 Mar 2019, 11:44 Post subject:
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Deleted.
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Thu 14 Mar 2019, 11:59 Post subject:
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PPTP and OpenVPN are alternative protocols for establishing a VPN connection so you would use either one or the other, therefore you would not use Gpptp in conjunction with my system which uses OpenVPN. I can't advise on Gpptp as I have no experience of it.
My thing is mainly designed to be used with the mentioned free providers. In practice it can be adapted to operate with other providers, but there are no guarantees with this.
You will need to obtain .ovpn config file(s) from Ivacy in order to configure my thing to connect to their servers. I asked them (in their chat applet) and they said they do provide these to their subscribers. You will need to pick out the one which corresponds to the server (location) you want to use. Place it in /etc/vpn-onoff along with the others, delete the vpnconfig symlink and make a new vpnconfig symlink which links to your Ivacy config file. Enter your Ivacy username and password in to the vpnpass file. Then see if it connects.
The URL of the VPN provider is contained within each of the .ovpn config files
There may be some other lines in it that you will need to edit.
The main one will need to read:-
auth-user-pass /etc/vpn-onoff/vpnpass
Without this it will not know where to look for the username and password so is unlikely to work.
_________________ Oscar in England

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Indy

Joined: 01 Feb 2006 Posts: 73 Location: Sydney, Australia
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Posted: Thu 14 Mar 2019, 21:43 Post subject:
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I can confirm that this works with (paid) Private Internet Access (PIA). I have it working on two machines, one running xenialpup32 and the other xenialpup64 and it's working very well on both, rock solid. Thanks, OscarTalks!
Everything worked exactly as per your instructions.
Here's how I did it:
- Installed vpn-onoff-0.1-i686-xenial.pet. It creates /etc/vpn-onoff. (installed vpn-onoff-0.1-x86_64-xenial.pet for the 64-bit laptop)
- Downloaded the .ovpn config files from the PIA website
- Copied all the (.ovpn) files into /etc/vpn-onoff.
- Went into /etc/vpn-onoff and recreated a symlink of vpnconfig to my chosen region (e.g. "AU Sydney.ovpn")
- Edited the .ovpn file of my chosen region, looked for the line "auth-user-pass" and changed it to "auth-user-pass /etc/vpn-onoff/vpnpass"
- Edited /etc/vpn-onoff/vpnpass and entered my PIA username/password
To run, Menu > Network > VPN-Start. (I didn't have to to mess with Gpptp.)
The PIA website (www.privateinternetaccess.com) reflects your IP address and tells you if you're protected by PIA (as in, if you're reaching that web page via their VPN, I suppose). I decided to use that to check my VPN status as a PIA user. So, I edited vpn-start and vpn-stop (both found in /usr/bin) and replaced everywhere I found "http://my-ip-address.co" with "https://www.privateinternetaccess.com". So now, every time I start or stop the VPN, that PIA website pops up for me.
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OscarTalks

Joined: 05 Feb 2012 Posts: 2202 Location: London, England
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Posted: Sun 21 Apr 2019, 13:20 Post subject:
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Now testing "vpn-onoff" version 0.2
Added DNS handling using openresolv
Version upgrade of OpenVPN to 2.4.7
Update of freevpn.me configuration files to reflect changes and addition of 1 new server.
See first post.
_________________ Oscar in England

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