GL-AR750s and Public Wifi, need a tester... you game?

Hey All,

I am a user of the Tiny Hardware Firewall and am looking to switch because THF’s support rots. It is one guy who just doesn’t seem to have a clue. I am very interested in the GL-AR750s but I have some noob questions and I’m sorry about that.

I volunteer for an very public non-profit organization and do a lot of fiscal/computer work. Since I am in the field a lot, I use my phone’s hotspot, but I need to connect to wifi based on poor cell coverage in my area. I need all of my data to be completely PRIVATE. There are times that I am at my “real” job and need to hop on to the work’s wifi and I don’t want them to know that I am working on my volunteer work and my cell doesn’t always work there.

I am having issue with Tiny Hardware Firewalls Black Hole Cloud VPN. RIght now, I am trying to connect to the organization’s Microsoft Office 365 server. The organization IT reports that there is no block at any point for VPNs and has double checked the VPN’s IP to determine that there is no block.

I have an issue while going through the VPN only with my multiple machines and getting to the Microsoft Authentication Server. When I go over home wifi, work wifi, public wifi with NO VPN, I get through with no troubles. The minute I activate VPN, on any machine, any wifi point, I can’t get to the authentication server. It fails. I’m not looking for you to troubleshoot TinyHardwareFirewall or the BlackHoleCloud VPN!

I am wondering if someone would work with me through private message to test out using a recent version of GL Inet’s firmware and device using one of the supported VPNs. You don’t even need my username and password (not that I would give it out). You just have to go to an web address of my non-profit organization.

I want to use a hardware firewall between me and the public wifi so that I can connect to my router have a NAT and then VPN out to the Internet so work can’t see I’m going to volunteer jobs…

Will anyone private message me to work with me for a couple minutes with their GL iNet device and their own VPN?

Thanks!

Lis

There is a direction to solve it.

I’m confused. Are you saying it isn’t the VPN that is causing the issue, but the actual router?

No, it is caused by VPN.

Could a different vpn provide a different result? Ones that might work with your hardware?

Actually if you want to connect captive portal public hotspot, you should stop vpn firstly, otherwise it can’t pop up the authenticate page. You can start vpn again after it connected. It should be works.

So there is the noob in me. I don’t know what “connect captive portal public hotspot” means.

The underlying issue is once i turn on VPN, the Microsoft software apps, continually ask for passwords. So I could authenticate once, but then it continually asks for the passwords after hopping on the VPN.

Also – if you authenticate without the VPN prior to getting on the VPN, then you are losing your anonymity, correct?

@lister178, it sounds like @kyson-lok definitely mis-interpreted something… Power to him but from your description it sounds like you two are talking about two completely different things.

So just to be clear:
On your existing product/solution, you can connect your device to the wireless network, activate the VPN. When you do this:
a) You DO HAVE access to general Internet?
but b) When you try to access your organization’s Office365 access page it does not load at all, correct?

IF that is the case I would say that despite your IT person’s assurances, something with your existing VPN provider is at fault.

You can do the testing you are asking for simply by trying a different VPN provider on one of your computers directly. Pick a VPN from the ones that are supported by GL-Inet products, sign up for an account/trial with them, and try loading on your computer directly. Once connected test to see if it works properly.

IF it does work, then you know from GL-Inet router it will also work, and you can go ahead and order hardware of your choice. If it does NOT work, try other providers until you find one that does.

@Jolouis Thank you for your response. I actually took the step that you referenced and tried to sign-up with NordVPN. I didn’t actually try their service yet, but this is the response that I got from Tech Support. Someone who actually seemed to know what he was talking about (not referring to you all here… but my previous VPN)… Just for everyone’s reference…

I’m interested to know if anyone is successfully using Office 365 through a VPN service and what their service provider is. I really like the GLinet hardware… it seems slick, but I’m just dying because I can’t find a VPN service.

Thanks @jolouis for pointing me in a direction (which really seemed to be easy… but I was too stuck in the weeds to really think about it after my troubling interaction with my previous VPN provider…

~Lis

Here is NordVPN’s response:

Hello,

Thank you for your letter.

Unfortunately, Microsoft365, Microsoft Exchange servers and applications that use it, will not work with VPN.

That is because of how Microsoft applications are checking your network connection availability.

More about that you can read here:
https://blogs.technet.microsoft.com/the_microsoft_excel_support_team_blog/2014/03/24/office-2013-reports-no-internet-connectivity-with-vpn-connection/

This is an issue that most VPN services suffer from. For now, we do not have a workaround for this, but our developers are aware and are trying to come up with a solution.

NordVPN currently does not offer a port forwarding feature due to security reasons, and most likely, will not have it available in the future as well.

That being said, there is no confirmed neither estimated time for the implementation, unfortunately.

Feel free to contact us if you have any further questions!

Best Regards,
Delmar Merlo
Customer Support Specialist
NordVPN.com

What what Microsoft said (I didn’t read in detail), it only affect VPN client on windows directly. Does this affect VPN on the router?

I have used Microsoft Sharepoint and Office 365 with AR300M ( as hardware) , software version 2.71, Vpn provider : PureVPN. Location of the router : UK , VPN connection point : Germany .

Hope it helps,
M