OpenVPN not connecting in school

Hi! New to this community, I have created an OpenVPN server at home that works perfectly on outside networks, but whenever I’m in school I can’t connect, if I open up mobile hotspot and connect my computer to it, the vpn works fine, but when I’m on the school network(s) it won’t connect.

I don’t know if you need any more information but if you do, let me know.

Thanks in advance.

[EDIT] It is routed on port 53503, but I have alredy tried port 443.

[UPDATE] I’m now using wireguard, and according to the wireguard software, it says that it’s connected but I can’t access my home router or NAS or anything on my home network.

Sounds like your school is blocking the port or protocols.

I have the same issue with my school. Your school is blocking the usage of it. If you are on a mobile device and don’t mind using your cell service, turn the vpn on when your device is not connected to the school internet and when the vpn is on, turn the internet on again. For me every time I leave my phone off it resets so you may have to rinse and repeat every time you want to use it

First try to ping the server from school. If there is a ping try OpenVPN on different ports: TCP 443(make sure it’s TCP), TCP 80 or UDP 53. You can start the server on all of them at once, just make sure subnets are different and routing is set up correctly for all of internal OpenVPN subnets.

try wireguard. if that doesnt work try turning openvpn into an obfuscated vpn (i use stunnel) and set the port to 443 again (stunnel default is 8443, which may work anyways if it’s just a protocol block).

Wireguard uses a different protocol so that might already be enough.

Blocking ports seems wierd, that would basically be every thinkable port…(?)

Blocking protocols then seems correct, will look into it.

Can’t really do that, feels like my school is in a bunker so cellular reception is no bueno xD

First problem, timeouts when I ping. D:

Hi, after 7 days I’ve succesfully configured wireguard and I have gotten rid of OpenVPN, on monday I will be able to test the vpn to see if it works but so far it’s working when on other networks!

Not that weird. They may simply have 443 and 80 open, then block everything else with a deny all (and exceptions for specific systems they may need). They can also filter what you get to over 80/443. If someone running a network doesn’t want to let you get somewhere, they can generally pull it off if they know what they’re doing.

As a computer technician for a public school I can almost guarantee that your school is blocking VPN connections.

My school is next to a hospital and dead zone for cell service so I feel you. If it is possible, try to use cellular

Most consumer router/firewalls are configured out of the box to not respond to ping. Unless you’ve enabled it I wouldn’t read too much into the lack of a ping reply.

Yes, my go-to approach is to use mobile hotspot on my phone and connect to the VPN

No guarantee that this will work, but you could try setting the Wireguard connections to use port 53 and/or port 123. If it still doesn’t work, they may be blocking the Wireguard protocol as well. If this is the case, you could try using OpenVPN over stunnel (using valid certificates and your own domain, as DDNS domains are often blocked) or Trojan-GFW.

Are you using a device without cellular connection for when you want to browse blocked websites?

Once again, I’ve configured it and all, but I’ll be able to test it in a couple of hours.

[UPDATE] Still won’t work…

Have you tried getting open vpn website to email you the link to the vpn?

Not sure what to do. You might be stuck with using the vpn only on your phone