VPN blocking router access

[doctormann]

I run Linux Mint on my laptop and desktop and use the Tunnel Bear VPN extension on the Chromium browser on both machines.

 

All was fine until today but I now find that with the VPN activated I can no longer access my router on 192.168.1.1 as I always could before.  Turn off the VPN and access is restored.  This is the same on both machines - laptop runs Mint 17.3 and Desktop runs Mint 18 - so I don't think that it's likely to be an OS problem.  Both machines run the Chromium browser but the problem also occurs with the Chrome browser.  No VPN on Firefox so I can't test that.  The router is an Asus DSL-N55U and I'm on ToT ADSL.

 

Any thoughts on what could be causing the problem?  I've emailed the Bear Help Line but no response, as yet.

 

[muratremix]

those vpn extensions are not real vpn, but https proxies.

perhaps stick to firefox to access router page when you use vpn plugin on chrome?

[RichCor]

True VPN tunnels generally encapsulate, insulate,  redirect and restrict all traffic to that of the remote VPN connection (though some VPN software can be configured for dual-IP routing so local Internet connectivity can be maintained while allowing access to the remote LAN).

 

If you are using a VPN to access overseas media then having dual access to your local network is not a good thing as browser scripts can easily detect and report your true IP information to remote hosted services.

[doctormann]

10 hours ago, muratremix said:

those vpn extensions are not real vpn, but https proxies.

perhaps stick to firefox to access router page when you use vpn plugin on chrome?

 

7 hours ago, RichCor said:

True VPN tunnels generally encapsulate, insulate,  redirect and restrict all traffic to that of the remote VPN connection (though some VPN software can be configured for dual-IP routing so local Internet connectivity can be maintained while allowing access to the remote LAN).

 

If you are using a VPN to access overseas media then having dual access to your local network is not a good thing as browser scripts can easily detect and report your true IP information to remote hosted services.

 

Thanks for the replies.  I am aware of the difference between 'true' VPN and the browser extension version.  All I really use the VPN for is to access Pandora and the BBC and it has been working extremely well.  In fact, it still works, apart from the issue with not being able to access the router when the VPN is 'ON'.  

 

This is a minor annoyance really but I'm puzzled as to what has suddenly changed.  To the best of my knowledge, nothing on either of my machines, or on the router, has been changed so it definitely looks like a Tunnel Bear issue.  No response from their help team, as yet.

 

 

 

 

 

[KittenKong]

11 hours ago, doctormann said:

All was fine until today but I now find that with the VPN activated I can no longer access my router on 192.168.1.1 as I always could before.  Turn off the VPN and access is restored.

 

This is entirely normal. Routers by default are configured only to accept admin connections from local IP addresses, and when you are using the VPN extension your browser appears to have a non-local address.

 

To get around this either use another browser that doesnt have a VPN extension, or turn off the VPN when accessing the router, or alter the router settings to allow non-local admin connections. The latter solution is dangerous so I would never do it.

 

Why do you need to access the router so often anyway? I never look at mine.

[doctormann]

4 minutes ago, KittenKong said:

 

This is entirely normal. Routers by default are configured only to accept admin connections from local IP addresses, and when you are using the VPN extension your browser appears to have a non-local address.

 

To get around this either use another browser that doesnt have a VPN extension, or turn off the VPN when accessing the router, or alter the router settings to allow non-local admin connections. The latter solution is dangerous so I would never do it.

 

Why do you need to access the router so often anyway? I never look at mine.

 

This doesn't really explain why the problem only started yesterday.

 

As I said, it's a minor annoyance but I'm just curious as to what has changed.

 

As far as accessing the router is concerned, it is useful to be able to do this on a fairly unstable ADSL connection - at least, when it falls over, I can see why as the router keeps a comprehensive log of events.  It's also good to be able to see who is accessing the wireless LAN.  I run a guest network so that my wife's friends can get access when they visit - and there is a lot of them and they visit frequently. I think that 19 simultaneous connections is the record at the moment!

 

Your point about accessing the router from a non-VPN browser is a good one.  I can do this with Firefox so I'll probably do that.

 

 

 

 

[maxpower]

Tunnelbear is doing exactly what is says on the tin - putting your browser in a tunnel. Maybe a recent extension update has closed some holes. This service pretty much puts you in the dark and unable to make any network tweaks. As a linux user you should be using something better than this teddy bear junk.

[doctormann]

2 minutes ago, maxpower said:

Tunnelbear is doing exactly what is says on the tin - putting your browser in a tunnel. Maybe a recent extension update has closed some holes. This service pretty much puts you in the dark and unable to make any network tweaks. As a linux user you should be using something better than this teddy bear junk.

 

I just need something simple so, if you would like to suggest something ...

 

[maxpower]

3 minutes ago, doctormann said:

 

I just need something simple so, if you would like to suggest something ...

 

 

Turn off tunnelbear when you want access to LAN or get a cheap VPN service. Setting up VPN in your Linux Mint is quite easy and does not require terminal commands.

If you prefer not to mess with the linux network settings then a browser plugin is the only choice. 

[KittenKong]

7 hours ago, doctormann said:

This doesn't really explain why the problem only started yesterday.

As I said, it's a minor annoyance but I'm just curious as to what has changed.

 

True. I think the suggestion of a recent extension update is a good one.