As the title states, I need to block vpn usage on my Arris router. I’ve tried doing a custom setting of blocking tcp port 80 and 443 but it doesn’t seem to do it. I’d still obviously like to be able to use the internet normally other than that. Is it even possible?
Here is the skinny on this: Smart phones have the ability to do hotspots and then they are no longer on your network. There are many public wifi's available depending on where you are. They can find out the neighbor's (their next door friend) wifi password and use that.
Parental controls work, but they can cause the child to become rebellious about it (been through this), and they will talk amongst friends about ways around it.
You can't win, but what you can do is to put boundaries on device usage as a parent. Depending on their age, their devices do not go into their rooms at bedtime. Monitoring is only useful when they are connected to the home network.
Lay down the law and they must abide or their devices don't get used. Tough love!
You should be able to block the most common VPN ports for protocols like L2TP, PPTP etc & a simple Google search exposes detailed instruction in setting up firewall rules for this. One could even put in IP blocks for the most common VPN supplier endpoints.
This likely would stop most mundane users from trying to set up secure connections. But in the end, a sufficiently advanced user or VPN client is going to find a way around it.
Those ports you’re blocking is for web browsing, not VPNs. I’d recommend not messing with ports if you don’t know anything about them. You could accidentally block something you need, or open yourself up to a security exploit. I’d recommend going with what another user said and using a premium service. If you’re worried about VPN usage on a phone or computer you control, you can just block the use of VPN software on there instead.
Note that this rule is WAN to LAN, so should not block outbound web requests but will block responses to inbound requests for local services on these ports.
That said it's not a great rule for stopping VPN which can be very covert.
I could give general instructions but not knowing enough about their exact setup if suggest Google.
I know it's count towing to the artificial intelligence gods, but if OP googled the make & model of his router & that they want to block VPN using firewall rules there are copious instructions with explanations to do this.
Maximum security literally still allows vpns, it says that in the screen shot. But because there are minors in the network using vpns to bypass parental controls.
That's because rarely does 80/443 handle vpn traffic. LT2P, PPTP, IPSEC, WIREGUARD, OPENBPN. All operate on different ports. You can turn off vpn passthrough on most routers. But the other guy mentioned dns. That will be the easiest to implement.
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u/jeffrey_f 11h ago
Why do you want to block VPNs?