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I hate it. I always get these messages. But thats over now.

I told you that my NAS connects to the internet through a secure, encrypted, anonymous openVPN-tunnel. But it is hard to find pure non-filtered internet at german telecommunication providers. So they cut my payed wire everyday for a view minutes. You recognize that for example when you play a online-game with friends and around midnight all the germans are suddenly kicked out the game.

Why my VPN gets disconnected every day

My internet gets disconnected, then my Synology NAS tries to reconnect the VPN-tunnel while there is no internet and then my NAS unfortunately surrenders. And then it has it's unsafe, easily "survailable" connection to the world till i fix it manually.

The solution

I installed a cron-job that checks every five minutes if the VPN is connected, and if it isn't, it tries to reconnect.

How to set up a VPN reconnect script

Login to your NAS via ssh.
You’ll need your conf_id and your conf_name. So read your VPN-configuration like this:

cat /usr/syno/etc/synovpnclient/openvpn/ovpnclient.conf

Your conf_id is in the first line. It looks something like o1234567890123.

Now create a new script and open it with the text-editor vi:

touch /usr/openVPNreconnect
chmod +x /usr/openVPNreconnect
vi /usr/openVPNreconnect

Now hit a to start the editor mode and paste the following code block into it:

if echo `ifconfig tun0` | grep -q "00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00-00"
then
        echo "VPN is running"
else
        echo conf_id=YOURCONFID > /usr/syno/etc/synovpnclient/vpnc_connecting
        echo conf_name=YOUR_VPN_NAME >> /usr/syno/etc/synovpnclient/vpnc_connecting
        echo proto=openvpn >> /usr/syno/etc/synovpnclient/vpnc_connecting
        synovpnc reconnect --protocol=openvpn --name=YOUR_VPN_NAME
fi
exit 0

Replace YOURCONFID and YOUR_VPN_NAME with your stuff and save the file bei hitting ESC and then type :wq and hit ENTER.

Thats it. Type the following into your command line and see whats happening.

/usr/openVPNreconnect

How to set up a cronjob for your VPN reconnect script

Just backup your current cronjob-file:

cp /etc/crontab /root/crontab.bak

open your active cronjob file

vi /etc/crontab

hit a to edit your file. Add a new line to it with this:

*/5 *   *   *   *   root    /usr/openVPNreconnect

Now hit ESC, type :wq, hit ENTER, and restart your cron-deamon by using this command:

/usr/syno/sbin/synoservicectl --restart crond

Your done!

Open your DSM5 admin panel, go to system settings, disconnect your VPN and let the magic happen.