OpenVPN Access server blocked by school

I have a OpenVPN access server setup from my own computer in a VM. I want to basically access unrestricted browsing through my phone at school connected to my home virtual machine VPN. I tried port forwarding but when I get to school, I cannot connect to the VPN. I made sure this was the case as I turned on cellular data and the VPN worked. So I know it is the problem with the school Wi-Fi. My theory is that they can detect OpenVPN traffic, both on TCP and UDP; 443 and 1194. How may I get around this?

I have heard some people suggest using ngrok.io or remote.it to bypass it. First, would these even work and second, if so, are there other free alternatives that are reliable for bypassing the school detection? An advanced method also works, I know my way around networking, just please be free, that is the whole point of this as I don’t have enough funds to buy a VPN especially with the monthly subscription model.

FYI dude, this Subreddit is for the Subscription VPN called “Private Internet Access” or “PIA” for short. The advice here to use Wireguard is through confusion since with the PIA app you can use OpenVPN or Wireguard as the Protocol through which you connect to PIA’s VPN.

I’m not sure you’ll get the help that you’re looking for here.

Change to Wireguard.

Try the OpenVPN scramble patch? https://www.tunnelblick.net/cOpenvpn\_xorpatch.html

Unrelated to this sub. You need to try a different port on the server. Someone suggested 53, but you could also try 443 or 80. You might also need to try TCP instead of UDP. These days, though, firewalls are sophisticated enough to “verify” that a type of traffic meets the protocol’s guidelines. This can easily defeat this type of workaround, so if that’s the case at your school, it’s unlikely you’ll be able to get around it.

I thought it is for anybody who seeks anymonous internet browsing.

Can I setup Wireguard like using VirtualBox. For OpenVPN, I just attach the VHD and it works, I dont want to have to download a Ubuntu image and apt install and then have dependencies break. Is there a prepackaged wireguard server?

Exposing port 53 can cause router and internal network damage? Idk, just based off of somethings u should never port forward guide.

Whilst you are welcome to pose this question here, as this is a forum for discussing VPN’s. The logo is of PIA and the last line of the “About” says “Provided by Private Internet Access” and most of the posts here are about PIA.

Hence why I suggested that you may not get the help you’re looking for here. Worth a try though.

FWIW, I also use an OpenVPN tunnel to connect to my home network when remote. And I don’t know how to answer your question.

Like another person said, the Network admin probably blocked all UDP connections. Guess you could test this by trying another VPN service?

It’s not going to help. Your network admin has likely blocked all UDP ports.

Oh, no idea, I just use Windows and the Windows PIA app.

You’d be fine as you’re doing all the traffic through it. What is happening is they are either blocking VPN IPs or blocking VPN traffic. When you’re phone says “im just looking for IP addresses through port 53” their network firewalls or configs be like “sure np my dude”. So just setup your PIA app with remote IP as 53 using OpenVPN. What are you trying to do on your network? Realistically if you just want to control some things you can install a VNC server on it and use your phone as a remote connection to it. Real VNC is free for non commercial use.

Which TCP ports arent usally blocked?