VPN + Passthrough?

Technical Support for Routers
1

Hi there,

I recently just purchased a new Flint 2 and am enjoying all of my traffic going through my Surfshark VPN.

However, I've noticed I cannot access my Plex Server outside of my house (or network) unless locally connected.

My setup is as follows:

Modem > Flint 2 > Linksys Mesh Network

All devices are connected via the WAN ports. I think the second WAN port is being used in LAN mode though.

Goal: Use VPN for all devices if possible, but still remotely access Plex and some smart home devices. If the Plex data can be sent to the VPN, even better! But it's not essential.

I read that I could try and setup some policies to maybe stop the PC I'm using for Plex to not go through the VPN. But the only device showing up on my Flint 2 is the Linksys Router.

Could anyone offer some suggestions for this?

2

Does your Linksys Mesh Network create a NAT-environment? It looks like that.
Maybe you can set it into some bridge mode or something like this?

3

Hi there Admon,

Thanks for the quick reply.

Yes my Linksys router does have an option for bridge mode. I should have mentioned that I would prefer to connect all my devices to the Linksys network if possible.

Would bridge mode still let me do that?

4

I guess so, but you will need to find it out.

Currently, your Linksys creates a NAT, which makes it impossible for the Flint to detect any other device than the Linksys router itself. So without disabling this you will not be able to use any rules on the Flint - no matter if firewall, VPN or others.

Please create a backup of your Linksys config before since I don't know what might (or might not) happen if you change to bridge.

5

I’ve now setup my Linksys router on Bridge Mode as suggested and you were correct. The Flint can now individually identify all of my devices. Thank you for the suggestion.

Can you provide any suggestions on what I could do next to use my online services (e.g. Plex and smart home accessories) outside of my home network?