Hi.

I am using ExpressVPN to stream some videos online and MikroTik router 951Ui-2HnD

I've made a simple configuration of L2TP but when I try to stream the stream provider detects that I am using VPN/proxy and blocks me. If I use the ExpressVPN application there is no problem. Me connected to VPN is not detected and I can stream.

The problem is that I need to route the entire network traffic of the house via the VPN, not only the computer.

Please assist.

I checked the IP address before trying to stream. It was correct, meaning it was going through the VPN server.

It's more likely that the service is blacklisting the public IP addresses used by the VPN provider.

Hi again.

I did some tests.

Using the ExpressVPN app (native) if I choose L2TP it works.

But if I set it up on my MikroTik they detect me as being behind proxy/VPN.

There is something different in the setup of MikroTik L2TP client that I am getting wrong.

Anyone?

BR

You should check the IP address which your VPN provider assignes to your connection, both while you are connected via mikrotik and via VPN's own app. You can check it on WhatIsMyIpAddress site. If these addresses are from different subnets, it's a most probable reason to the given problem, i.e. one of them is blacklisted by the streaming service, while the other isn't.

Mtk vpn client is L2tp also?

Mtk vpn client is L2tp also?

Yes. Both ExpressVPN app and MikroTik set to use L2TP. However it might be that the specific settings of the L2TP setup on MikroTik are somewhat different.

When I try to stream the stream provider detects that I am using VPN/proxy and blocks me.

Both ExpressVPN app and MikroTik set to use L2TP. However it might be that the specific settings of the L2TP setup on MikroTik are somewhat different.

How does the blocking look like? Do you get any error message somehow or the stream simply does not get through? Or does it start and in a few moments it is stopped?

As you are sure that the VPN assigns the same outer address to you regardless whether you run the L2TP client on your PC or on Mikrotik, the only explanation which comes to my mind is that it is not the streaming service which blocks you but merely an incorrect handling of frame/packet size.

L2TP/IPsec adds some overhead bytes (quite a lot of them) to the original plaintext packet, and if already the original packet was using the maximum permitted size of an Ethernet frame, it would not fit to another Ethernet frame after encapsulation into the L2TP/IPsec envelope. When the L2TP tunnel interface is up directly at the PC, this is not a problem as the TCP stack knows that already when opening the socket on that interface for transmission, but when the application sends the stream out from a normal Ethernet interface and the limitation of maximum packet size takes place further on the path (in this case, in your Mikrotik), the mechanism of MSS reduction may not work properly due to wrong firewall configuration or due to an issue of the Mikrotik software you use, and the packets won't get through from the LAN to the L2TP tunnel already at the Mikrotik.

What Mikrotik software version do you run?

Hi.

This post of you comes somewhat late as I already purchased an ASUS router to support Open VPN with lzo and I am running it in this VPN protocol.

I can assure you one more time that with my old router the L2TP is tunneling the traffic but Netflix detects it. With OpenVPN they cannot.