Some apps work with OpenVPN but not with Wireguard

[alscx 0]

I'd been using Mullvad for years, but since they disabled their port forwarding feature I started looking for other solutions. Then I subscribed to AirVPN and although it's been so far a positive experience in general (I must say for example that I'm getting better speeds in AirVPN than Mullvad) there are a couple of issues that I'd like some guidance with, if possible.

First I must say that I use OPNsense as my router/firewall. I downloaded and configured a Wireguard connection with the data I got from the generated file. It works ok. Very acceptable speeds, port forwarding also works as expected. But I've been having troubles accessing a number of sites that I really didn't expect. As for example I have a docker stack whose containers I simply can't download (ghcr.io) because of timeout errors (it gets downloaded as soon as I turn the vpn off). I noticed that I also can't access github.com due to timeout errors. Among a couple of other very known sites.

Another issue is related to specific apps.

Two examples: I use Nicotine+ (a Soulseek client) and it needs one forwarded port. When using Wireguard I noticed that although the port was correctly forwarded, people can't upload from me. In fact they see my available files and queue them, but upload speed is 10 Kib/s to 0. I tried to add a second vpn connection (OpenVPN this time) using the same preconfigured ports and it works perfectly with it, with good upload speeds.

The second app is Eppi Cinema (a streaming Android app). It doesn't require any forwarded ports. When using Wireguard it either doesn't work at all or when works, speeds are so low that it's impossible to stream. If I use OpenVPN it works perfectly.

Thing is I prefer to use Wireguard instead of OpenVPN. I noticed it is more stable and speeds are significantly higher.

Any help or suggestion would be greatly appreciated.

[OpenSourcerer 1474]

On 5/11/2025 at 7:25 PM, alscx said:

As for example I have a docker stack whose containers I simply can't download (ghcr.io) because of timeout errors (it gets downloaded as soon as I turn the vpn off). I noticed that I also can't access github.com due to timeout errors. Among a couple of other very known sites.

I've been noticing a very steep reduction in responsiveness from the whole GitHub infrastructure if connecting from a VPN server is attempted. Not to the point of timeouts, but download throughput is artificially capped at some tens of KB/s. Maybe it's evolved now and not even downloads are possible. Either way, it's on GitHub.
 

On 5/11/2025 at 7:25 PM, alscx said:

In fact they see my available files and queue them, but upload speed is 10 Kib/s to 0. I tried to add a second vpn connection (OpenVPN this time) using the same preconfigured ports and it works perfectly with it, with good upload speeds.

I'm experiencing a similar peculiar bottleneck when connecing with Wireguard on one of my Arch hosts; OpenVPN would work normally. I've since confirmed it to be on my side completely as others use the same server/port combo without issue, but I didn't dig deeper (as OpenVPN works). Is your OS Linux by any chance?

[alscx 0]

1 minute ago, OpenSourcerer said:

I've been noticing a very steep reduction in responsiveness from the whole GitHub infrastructure if connecting from a VPN server is attempted. Not to the point of timeouts, but download throughput is artificially capped at some tens of KB/s. Maybe it's evolved now and not even downloads are possible. Either way, it's on GitHub.
 
I'm experiencing a similar peculiar bottleneck when connecing with Wireguard on one of my Arch hosts; OpenVPN would work normally. I've since confirmed it to be on my side completely as others use the same server/port combo without issue, but I didn't dig deeper (as OpenVPN works). Is your OS Linux by any chance?

Hey, thank you for taking the time to have a look at this.

Yes, I use Linux. Arch Linux. Everything, from OPNsense to the arr services, nicotine, etc, run from either Proxmox VMs (OPNsense) or LXC Arch Linux containers.
I run one OpenVPN connection (that I expect to be temporary since as soon as I'm able to fix this issue I'll delete it) and two Wireguard connections on this router: One as a client to AirVPN and the other as a server to my smartphone (as a road warrior). Everything works as expected.

As for the github, it's not only github I've having troubles with... Yesterday I installed watchtower in order to automatically update my docker containers and found that it isn't working... that's the message: "Unable to update container "/qbittorrent": Error response from daemon: Get "https://ghcr.io/v2/": net/http: TLS handshake timeout. Proceeding to next." That happens with all containers and If I turn off the VPN it works immediately. It also worked when I used Mullvad.

As for the apps: I run Nicotine as a docker container (it's this project). The other app (Eppi Cinema) I remember having troubles when trying to use it with Wireguard even on the previous VPN service I used but had imagined it would be related to Wireguard, not some compatibility issue with the OS itself.

Do you have any ideas?