Live Feed VPN Issue

[KachinaShadow]

Live Feed through Surfshark VPN...

The camera seems to connect while continuing to show the last image taken but no video and circle keeps spinning. Clicking on spinning circle then produces a "just now" still image.

Added https://my.arlo.com and IP address of the VMB 5000 to Surfshark split tunnel "bypass list" but issue continues until I turn VPN off.

Before I contact Surfshark, Is there anything I'm missing?

Windows PC, Surfshark VPN, VMB 5000
Speedtest Results (through VPN) - Download 425 Mbps...Upload 12 Mbps

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

 Surfshark VPN...

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Is this installed on your router???

[KachinaShadow]

@StephenB 
No, just on the PC 

Per Asus this router, RT-AX55, does not have the required firmware to install VPN on the router.

Don't know if this makes a difference but Port Forwarding is currently off.

I use the Edge browser for Arlo. Also note that Surfshark install was done for "Windows" to cover the entire PC...not just for any particular browser

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

No, just on the PC 

I don't use Surfshark, but I don't think that supports inbound connections to your home network.  In broad terms, you need to have a VPN server deployed at home, and reach it with VPN clients.  I think you instead have a VPN client deployed on the PC that reaches Surfshark servers in the cloud.  

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

Per Asus this router, RT-AX55, does not have the required firmware to install VPN on the router.

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I am puzzled by that, as the specs say that it does have the OpenVPN server.

• https://www.asus.com/us/networking-iot-servers/wifi-routers/all-series/rt-ax55/techspec/

I am wondering if they are thinking about their own Instant Guard VPN???

[KachinaShadow]

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@StephenB wrote:
I am puzzled by that, as the specs say that it does have the OpenVPN server.

• https://www.asus.com/us/networking-iot-servers/wifi-routers/all-series/rt-ax55/techspec/

I am wondering if they are thinking about their own Instant Guard VPN???

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Thanks...I'll dig a little deeper into the router.

[KachinaShadow]

@StephenB 

I looked into it and their Instant Guard is contained within the router and works in conjunction with an app that you put on your mobile devices (only)

Reading their OpenVPN install instructions closer, it looked like their reference to newer firmware pertained to their razzle dazzle installer that makes it easier to add OpenVPN.

So what I ended up doing was manually adding it (from the Surfshark instructions to add VPN to ASUS routers) and all seemed to go well and confirmed it with their Surfshark IP leak test and DNS leak test which showed that indeed the VPN was installed and working, then came the shocker...my previous 425 Mbps download was now 70 Mbps and the 12 Mbps upload was now at 8 Mbps 😳😨

Needless to say I have now hit the "deactivate" button and the configuration is sitting there, in the router, until I can figure this out.

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

 then came the shocker...my previous 425 Mbps download was now 70 Mbps and the 12 Mbps upload was now at 8 Mbps 😳😨

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For remote access, the VPN should only be used to accept an inbound remote connection from your PC or phone.  When the phone/PC VPN client is off, you should see normal throughput from the router.  When its on, you could see some loss in performance.

If you are sending all your internet traffic through surfshark, then I would expect to see a significant drop in performance.

[KachinaShadow]

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@StephenB wrote:

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 When its on, you could see some loss in performance.

Which I would expect...maybe 10% or so?

If you are sending all your internet traffic through surfshark, then I would expect to see a significant drop in performance.

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Suggested solution?

[KachinaShadow]

Maybe it would be easier to solve the original issue with the Surfshark VPN that's installed on the PC.

I would think with the kind of download/upload speeds with VPN activated (about 5% less that with no VPN) that there wouldn't be an issue.

Now that I'm thinking about it...two days ago when I installed Surfshark VPN, there was NO issue with live feed for about half the day and then it started having the issue (without having done anything to the VPN settings) which is why I added myarlo.com to the bypass list, which did no good.

Maybe something with ports although, like I said, I changed nothing 🤔

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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 When its on, you could see some loss in performance.

Which I would expect...maybe 10% or so?

If you are sending all your internet traffic through surfshark, then I would expect to see a significant drop in performance.

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Suggested solution?

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Don't use SurfShark for the VPN in the router.  Try Instant Guard or ordinary OpenVPN instead (so you are only setting up the server in the router, and not a client).

[KachinaShadow]

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@StephenB wrote:

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Don't use SurfShark for the VPN in the router.  Try Instant Guard or ordinary OpenVPN instead (so you are only setting up the server in the router, and not a client).

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Obviously I'm no expert on VPN's (but I can build you a motor for a nostalgia fuel dragster 😁)

I went through the entire ASUS instructions "How to set up a VPN server on ASUS router - OpenVPN" and everything went just fine until I ran the installer from the OPENVPN open source website and it failed three times (actually found others who had the same issue).

As far as the ASUS Instant Guard, from what I'm finding, it's basically an app based system to protect your external devices and does nothing for protecting the PC (see FAQ pic below from ASUS)

So, unless you have any other thoughts (and I do appreciate all your help👍), I'll try working on the original issue of why the Arlo live feed is affected by the Surfshark VPN, even though the Download/upload speeds are less than 10% lower with the VPN than without it (which works just fine)...if their split tunnel would recognize www.myarlo in bypass then everything would be just great.

[StephenB]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

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As far as the ASUS Instant Guard, from what I'm finding, it's basically an app based system to protect your external devices and does nothing for protecting the PC (see FAQ pic below from ASUS)

My understanding is that the app creates a VPN tunnel from your phone to the router - if I am understanding that correctly, that is what you need for direct access to local storage (since the recordings can't be played on a PC anyway).

You could instead just install the OpenVPN server on the router, and export the OpenVPN settings - at least that is the way I read this FAQ. 

• https://www.asus.com/support/faq/1008713/

That would let you connect either your PC or your phone.

But I've never had an Asus router, so am tagging @alex_loo again.

Note if you go the OpenVPN router you will also need a DDNS service to create a DNS name for your router.  Most routers can connect to the popular DDNS services.  NoIP.com still offers a free service, though you do need to renew it once a month (they send you an email reminder when this needs to be done).

[KachinaShadow]

@StephenB 

Thought I'd share this with you...I actually thought to try live streaming, via the Arlo app, with my android phone connected to the Asus router WiFi, with the Surfshark VPN connected, and it worked flawlessly.
Also, I never mentioned that playing the archived "feed" videos on the web portal, with the Surfshark VPN connected, works just fine.

[KachinaShadow]

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@StephenB wrote:

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My understanding is that the app creates a VPN tunnel from your phone to the router - if I am understanding that correctly, that is what you need for direct access to local storage (since the recordings can't be played on a PC anyway).

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That's interesting...perhaps I'll try that.

[KachinaShadow]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

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@StephenB wrote:

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My understanding is that the app creates a VPN tunnel from your phone to the router - if I am understanding that correctly, that is what you need for direct access to local storage (since the recordings can't be played on a PC anyway).

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That's interesting...perhaps I'll try that.

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Tried it and it works great!
Nice to be able to access local storage remotely.

[alex_loo]

ASUS router, Surfshark VPN and VMB5000 user here! 🖐

@KachinaShadow , if I understand this correctly from message 1, you wanted to view LIVE FEED from a browser from windows PC.  For this situation, you simply do NOT need any VPN --- whether your PC is connected to home network or not.  That is --- even WITHOUT whatever kind of VPN, and connected to home network or not ---- LIVE feed should be available from the windows pc browser.  Am I correct, @StephenB ?  

Which also means something is already wrong within the ARLO setup --- simply given LIVE FEED is absent.

I would suggest trying viewing LIVE FEED from a mobile app, which is connected to the home network.  No whatever VPN there.  This should be the cleanest setup to check ARLO's LIVE FEED.

If LIVE FEED is still absent, then you forget about whatever VPN, and focus on what went wrong here.

If LIVE FEED is good, then we can take 1 step further to try other VPN scenarios, which I'd discuss on separate message.

So please share if your LIVE FEED is healthy here, first.

Alex

ps: just to collect more info --- is your windows PC connected to home network or not?

[alex_loo]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

I actually thought to try live streaming, via the Arlo app, with my android phone connected to the Asus router WiFi, with the Surfshark VPN connected, and it worked flawlessly.

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As said in the other message, you don't need the VPN view live streaming from the cameras.

Also, I never mentioned that playing the archived "feed" videos on the web portal, with the Surfshark VPN connected, works just fine.

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I seldom view archived "feed" videos on the web portal, but use the mobile app instead.   When I am not connected to home network, I would need the same Surfshark VPN server (installed on my ASUS router) + VPN client (installed on android phone here) to view.

So yes, VPN is needed when it comes to viewing local recordings (ie the "feed" videos as described by you).  But for live streaming of cameras, VPN is NOT needed.

Alex

[KachinaShadow]

@alex_loo @StephenB 
Hi Alex, thanks for the reply.
I think things got a little out of context through all of the posts so let me see if I can make it more understandable...

To answer your first question...PC is connected to the router via short 3' ethernet cable.

Prior to installing Surfshark VPN (on Feb. 5th) I had no issues whatsoever with Arlo (live view on web portal or app, viewing feed videos from web portal or app and local storage from phone (when connected to my network).

The issue is that after installing Surfshark VPN (client) on the PC and both Android phones, and with the VPN connected, everything with Arlo, that's mentioned above, works just fine except for live streaming on the web portal (the camera seems to connect while continuing to show the last image taken but shows no video and circle keeps spinning...clicking on the spinning circle then produces a "just now" still image). Note that the live view issue is only on the web portal and goes back to working normal when I disconnect the VPN.

Prior to Installing Surfshark, I used Cyberghost which really slowed the connection, speed was inconsistent but did actually work with live view (most of the time although not smoothly...jerky). Another thing about Surfshark is that my download speeds only drop less than 10% with VPN connected (from around 470 Mbps to around 425 Mbps) compared to Cyberghost which reduced the speed by 50% or more.
Note that I did try installing Surfshark directly to the router (server) but the speed dropped to around 70 Mbps, so I removed it from the router and am only using it on the PC and mobile devices.

Is your Surfshark installed on the router and, if so, how are the speeds?

Surfshark does have a bypass feature so I added myarlo.com to it but when the VPN is connected it still affecting the live view, on the web portal, so it doesn't seem to be working correctly...I'm going to work with Surfshark on that but wanted to start here first to see if anyone had any thoughts. Note that live view on my mobile devices, via the app, works just fine through the VPN so I did not have to add Arlo to the bypass on them.

I did activate the ASUS Instant Guard just to try it out (the nice thing about that is that it allows remote access to the "local videos" (on the SD card in the VMB5000) but it is app based and doesn't do anything to protect the PC.

Bottom line is that Arlo has always worked great on the web portal and the apps but the only issue lies with the web portal live viewing when the Surfshark VPM is connected. Let me know your thoughts on anything that might help.

One last note...while I was typing this I did just get an email from Surfshark asking lots of questions along so basically, if they can figure out why "bypass" doesn't seem to work correctly (at least not for Arlo) and can resolve that, then I'm ready to go.

Paul

[alex_loo]

oh some mistake there .....

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@alex_loo wrote:

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I seldom view archived "feed" videos on the web portal, but use the mobile app instead.   When I am not connected to home network, I would need the same Surfshark VPN server (installed on my ASUS router) + VPN client (installed on android phone here) to view.

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Actually when I am not connected to home network, I would connect to the OpenVPN server I have enabled on my asus router + OpenVPN client app installed on my android phone, to view archived "feed" videos (aka local recordings)

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So yes, VPN is needed when it comes to viewing local recordings (ie the "feed" videos as described by you).  But for live streaming of cameras, VPN is NOT needed.

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This statement stands unchanged.

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

To answer your first question...PC is connected to the router via short 3' ethernet cable.

Prior to installing Surfshark VPN (on Feb. 5th) I had no issues whatsoever with Arlo (live view on web portal or app, viewing feed videos from web portal or app and local storage from phone (when connected to my network).

The issue is that after installing Surfshark VPN (client) on the PC and both Android phones, and with the VPN connected, everything with Arlo, that's mentioned above, works just fine except for live streaming on the web portal (the camera seems to connect while continuing to show the last image taken but shows no video and circle keeps spinning...clicking on the spinning circle then produces a "just now" still image). Note that the live view issue is only on the web portal and goes back to working normal when I disconnect the VPN.

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I can repeat your issue here.  Turn on surfshark on local window PC (ie as VPN client, VPNed to somewhere), and the live streaming on local browser does not work.  I don't even have to turn on surfshark on my android device (kind of unrelated)

Alex

[KachinaShadow]

@alex_loo @StephenB 

Hi Alex,
So, to avoid confusion, lets only discuss the web portal and not the Android device since it doesn't have an issue.

I'm assuming that what you are saying is that you are able to duplicate my issue when you connect the Surfshark VPN on your PC, which results in your live streaming, on the web portal, not working. I would also assume that your live streaming, on the web portal, does work with the VPN disconnected, which is identical to my issue...is that correct?

If so, then that's good to know since I am currently working with Surfshark support on the issue and, of course, I will let you know of any solution so that you will be able to implement whatever it is and be able to live stream on the web portal with the VPN connected.

Paul

[KachinaShadow]

@alex_loo @StephenB 

Hi Alex,

Just got an email from Surfshark Support with some settings to try and one of them worked.

On your PC go to the Surfshark control panel (app) and go to...Settings –> VPN Settings –> Protocols and set it to OpenVPN (UDP)

That should allow you to live stream from your Arlo  cameras while you're on the web portal. Let me know if that works for you.

Paul 

[alex_loo]

@KachinaShadow wrote:

Prior to Installing Surfshark, I used Cyberghost which really slowed the connection, speed was inconsistent but did actually work with live view (most of the time although not smoothly...jerky). Another thing about Surfshark is that my download speeds only drop less than 10% with VPN connected (from around 470 Mbps to around 425 Mbps) compared to Cyberghost which reduced the speed by 50% or more.
Note that I did try installing Surfshark directly to the router (server) but the speed dropped to around 70 Mbps, so I removed it from the router and am only using it on the PC and mobile devices.

Is your Surfshark installed on the router and, if so, how are the speeds?

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I have installed SurfShark:

• on my ASUS router, as a client (via VPN Fusion) ---- so I can have multiple devices (including TV) VPNed to different countries.  I turn this on/off from router where it is necessary
• as clients, on individual devices like mobile phone, desktop computer, laptop --- again turned on where necessary

Speeds have never been an issue.  Unchanged the same as before VPN is turned on (ie downlink 50M bps, uplink some 20M bps)

Surfshark does have a bypass feature so I added myarlo.com to it but when the VPN is connected it still affecting the live view, on the web portal, so it doesn't seem to be working correctly...I'm going to work with Surfshark on that but wanted to start here first to see if anyone had any thoughts. Note that live view on my mobile devices, via the app, works just fine through the VPN so I did not have to add Arlo to the bypass on them.

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I am suspecting something different though.

Given:

• VPN-ed mobile app can view live streaming

And assuming that:

• I don't think ARLO is facilitating live streaming on mobile app differently from on web portal
• surfshark client on mobile should behave like its client on windows pc

I am suspecting something is not right with the video component, specific to web portal, that has something incompatible with surfshark vpn.

Did you have a chance to try the client for another VPN brand, on the same windows PC?

Looking forward to more discussions on this.

Alex

[alex_loo]

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@KachinaShadow wrote:

I'm assuming that what you are saying is that you are able to duplicate my issue when you connect the Surfshark VPN on your PC, which results in your live streaming, on the web portal, not working. I would also assume that your live streaming, on the web portal, does work with the VPN disconnected, which is identical to my issue...is that correct?

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correct.

If so, then that's good to know since I am currently working with Surfshark support on the issue and, of course, I will let you know of any solution so that you will be able to implement whatever it is and be able to live stream on the web portal with the VPN connected.

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Great, please share your updates here.  (Though I am suspecting the issue is NOT with surfshark, but the video component used within the web portal)

Alex

[KachinaShadow]

@alex_loo @StephenB 

@alex_loo wrote:

Great, please share your updates here.  (Though I am suspecting the issue is NOT with surfshark, but the video component used within the web portal)

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Alex - 
Did you see the post, before your last two posts, with an update regarding the web portal/VPN fix from Surfshark?...and did you try that to see if you could live stream on the web portal w/VPN connected?
I've put it below in italics...

"On your PC go to the Surfshark control panel (app) and go to...Settings –> VPN Settings –> Protocols and set it to OpenVPN (UDP).
That should allow you to live stream from your Arlo  cameras while you're on the web portal. Let me know if that works for you."

Paul