I’m using two GL routers, one as a server at home in Australia and the other as a client in China. I’ve connected both OpenVPN and WireGuard, and they have been working well in China for a few days. However, suddenly, the VPNs stopped working (indicated by a yellow dot).
When I switch to the Australian mobile network while roaming in China, the VPN works fine. But when I use the Chinese network, whether via Wi-Fi or mobile, the VPN doesn’t work.
I’m unsure what caused this issue. Could it be that the server at home is blocking Chinese connections? Has anyone encountered a similar problem in China or other countries? Any help in resolving this issue would be greatly appreciated.
Its probably the China ISP, try different ISP
It’s probably the GFW at work.
This was from 10 years ago: https://www.reddit.com/r/China/comments/2y3qxk/the_gfw_vpn_block_speculation_on_how_its_done/
I’m sure the GFW has evolved significantly since.
It’s been said that, network connections “for foreigners” (roaming your Australian mobile) are less restricted. I’ve previously also heard that the internet connection for guests at some of the nicer hotels (5 star?) are similarly less restricted too.
You can try port hopping. Change the listening port of your incoming VPN server to a different number, and see how that goes. The GFW will probably detect the new connection after a few days (or hours), and when that happens, you’ll have to switch to a different port number again.
You’re likely getting blocked by the China GFW. You can try setting up Shadowsocks on the routers instead, but you need to install the extra packages and do a decent amount of customization.
I’ve set this up successfully for customers behind the Egypt firewall connecting to the US (also a DPI FW that blocks wireguard) using GL routers, but haven’t had the chance to try it for China yet.
Do you mean Internet Service Provider? But if it’s because of the Internet Service Provider, it should not allow me to connect to VPN all the time? I was able to connect to VPN before…
Oh thank you so much for your explanation. Would you please kindly instruct me how to change the port number?
Oh thank you. Do you install it on the server router or the travel router?
The VPN server configuration page on the router back home should allow you to change the listening port number.
Both… you install & configure the shadowsocks server packages on your Aussie router and the client packages on your client China travel router.
The client side it the much more complex setup as you need to configure SS redirect rules on the router to direct all the traffic through the tunnel and will want to use Encrypted DNS over HTTPS on the router as well to push all the DNS via TCP.
