Access device IP information (with NordVPN) remotely

VPN
1

Hi all. I’d like to preface this post with IP stuff not being my strongest subject. But I’ll do my best to explain my setup and question, and please forgive me for any terminology mistakes.

I have fiber internet, going into the optical network terminal, going into my gateway eero Pro 6, with another eero Pro 6 further away in the house.

I have a Mac mini that has NordVPN installed on it. (Yes, I’m aware of installing it on a computer vs at the router level, this is not concerning to me for the usage of that computer) This Mac mini typically connects to the eero Pro 6 on the other side of the house, not the gateway. (That’s good, it’s much closer to the non-gateway) I endeavor to leave it connected to the VPN at all times.

Unfortunately, we have some shaky power situations here, so sometimes we get some complimentary “turn it off and on agains.” Luckily, everything comes back up really nicely. The eeros get restarted and reconnected no problem, the Mac mini comes up and gets automatically logged back in with appropriate applications firing up, and all is good…with the exception of, when NordVPN reconnects, it goes to a different IP each time. I tried to go down a whole static IP road to see if I could get some more stability here, but my ISP isn’t enthusiastic about that because I’m not a business and don’t super need one. Fair enough, really.

Alright so now we’re getting to the crux of the question - I need to be able to access that Mac mini remotely, and to do that, I need to know the IP it’s getting when it reconnects to NordVPN.

The only IP address I see for that Mac mini within the eero app is its 192.168.x.x value, which tends to be the same between reboots and changes very infrequently. But that’s not the IP address the VPN is giving it.

Is there any way to reference or interpret, within the eero app, what the IP address is that NordVPN is assigning?

I hope I’ve explained this acceptably…if there are any questions I can answer (beyond “yo why don’t you fix your power?”) I’d be happy to, and thank you for reading this far!

2

Why not just use a Dynamic DNS service? A client will run on your Mac and you’ll always be able to connect back to it using a memorable name.

3

You would need to buy a static IP address from NordVPN on your NordVPN account.

That is the only way you could guarantee the same IP through NordVPN each time.

The EERO will have no effect on the NordVPN IP address. This is assigned by NordVPN at server level.

4

I have this exact same set-up. Mac Mini with NordVPN on an eero network, and the Mac Mini randomly restarts a lot for no good reason. And I regularly remotely connect to it.

Here’s the good news - Nord doesn’t effect anything. As far as remote connections, just use your regular ISP IP address. And to get into your Mac inside the network, tell your Mac to use DHCP with a manual address and use eero’s port forwarding. I have it turned on for SSH, VNC, and SMB… for each of the ways I connect to it.

So if my public address was 1.2.3.4 and I want to SSH to my Mac Mini. I can tell my Mac to use 192.168.4.47 for its IP address (just make sure that address isn’t in use by something else). Then go to eero’s port forwarding and make up some higher unused port number, let’s say 12345 (again, random number) and tell it to point that port to 192.168.4.47 port 22 (the official port for SSH). And that’s it. I can then go to the terminal on a remote machine and type “ssh [email protected] -p 12345” and that logs me in.

5

You really should consider adding a UPS (uninterruptible power supply) into the mix. Those shaky power situations can cause hardware issues down the line. Plus it would stop all the restarts and might make this issue easier to manage long term.

6

You can use dynamic DNS services (Eero has one included with Plus), but I would recommend Tailscale. It’s a mesh private networking service, and it Just Works. You can use it in combination with Nord or another VPN if you choose, as they accomplish different solutions.

7

Dedicated NordVPN IP addresses – Live Chat, VPN Setup, Troubleshooting | NordVPN Customer Support

8

The IP that you’re seeing in Nord VPN is the VPN IP (inside the Virtual Private Network), the 192.168.0.0/16 IP you see is most likely your eero network IP.

Keep in mind that eero and Nord VPN each setup a private network with their own private IP address space.

For your purpose, it would be easiest to setup Dynamic DNS (there are many free services) and point Nord VPN to that.

9

There’s Dynamic DNS services that are free that accomplish the same thing.

10

Oh, sick! Thank you very much :slight_smile:

11

Yoooo that is AWESOME!!! This sounds extremely doable for me and I can’t wait to try it out tomorrow. Thank you SO much for taking the time!!! The detailed write up is incredibly helpful and easy to understand!

12

This is great advice. I’d only add that a free DDNS can make it easier to find your network if your public changes

13

That’s kind of what I do as well. I just made a subdomain on my personal website (home.mysite.com) that always points to my home network. I do have to update it every few months when the IP address changes, though with the Eero app, even if I’m not home, I can look up the current address.