@SteiniPe Sorry.. there is a private key and end private key..  Just FYI.. the .ovpn file works fine with the OpenVPN client on my laptop.  It just doesn't work with the router.

  @MrHalfpint well if there is no <key> with a long encrypted line after a <cert> then im not sure how your .ovpn dile works.. there shud be a <csrt[ open and close tag with key after that.. if thete id a key mention but the key inside has no BEGIN line or an END its a fileformat setup the router cant understand.. 

  @SteiniPe Thanks for the response.  I did open the .ovpn file and there is nothing related to "ENCRYPTED" or "PRIVATE KEY" or password.

  @MrHalfpint Did you check my recent comment about this, it happened to me, the router doesn't support "BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY" if your .ovpn has that you need that .ovpn re-issued but with a "nopass" so it says "BEGIN PRIVATE KEY", after dealing with this for a while I told TP-Link they need to update these routers with firmwares that have some sort of feedback message, they claim to be working on doing something like that and update the guide here with a few scenarios but so you don't have to wait, check your .ovpn in notepad if it has the key as encrypted or not, if it is you need to ask them to give you a new .ovpn but with no password encryption.

  @Kevin_Z 

I have an AXE5400 TP-Link router.

Firmware Version:

1.1.9 Build 20231115 rel.37295(5553)

Hardware Version:

Archer AXE75 v1.0

I have been trying to connect to a VPN server (KeepSolid VPN) as OpenVpn and L2TP/IPsec.  I get nothing but "Connecting".  

The .opvn file is ony 7k in size.

The .opvn file works fine in the OpenVPN connect program on Windows 11. 

I've tried the trouble shooting up to step 5.  (modified the ovpn to TCP which worked with the OpenVpn software) 

This used to work.

(I don't think this has anything to do with the problem but I am using Starlink)

  @SteiniPe 

thanks for the reply and help. A ticket with support engineer is now raised given nord vpn ovpn doesn't start with BEGIN ENCRYPTED PRIVATE KEY

Let's see how it turns out. 

  @Sunshine 

Hi Sunshine, Kevin and anyone at TP-Link I have bought a few products from tp link and overall I like their functionality, I have a few Deco's X60 and I have two routers, the one I just had issues with and another one a slightly newer brand. It's just something I wanted to mention to TP-Link Support.

I am system administrator, I have noticed that with TP-Link products there is always this lack of verbosity or access for administrators, I have been told to replace all my TP Link with something else like Linksys etc, but I have so far been okay with TP-Link.

Out of those 3-4 things I have owned or currently own there is two things I can point out

1. If you have Deco's just remember that TP Link has no plans to allow you to switch channels, it's on the forum in different post that Deco knows best, while Zigbee disagrees and other things it may interfere with. I have come to accept that Deco is just how Deco is. Fair enough

however...

2. I am not okay with how little verbosity the router even has, think about this, If there was a "timeout message" in the System Log of the AX routers or any of your routers, you would be escaping a lot of the ticket replies here. You have ongoing tickets because your firmware doesn't fix these things. For example in my case it was "Connecting.." and it just never stops, when in reality I would like it to try then fail with "Disconnected.." and a message, If i were to goto the System > Log Id see something like "Could not connect to IP: X - Reason: Router does not support encrypted private keys (err: code)" or anything.

My 2. was resolved by Noah via Support email but as a system admin, I feel like this should have been addressed attempting to connect, instead the log showed no action, I got no action, no results, no output, nothing that would guide me "okay so encrypted private key is the culprit here, will generate a nopass one". You should be taking every client issue you see here, and put it into array of output error's and present to the end user, patch all your routers with these so that administrators have a bit more view of what is going on and how to resolve it.

If it weren't for this thread, or me posting in it, I wouldn't really know where to go. I understand 1. but I don't understand why there isn't firmware update on all your routers, addressing this ensuring "If connection fails, lets return an error message, something to go on, and maybe a link to what error 1013 means etc".

Just my two cents, otherwise im okay with these routers, they work great but just lack a bit of "Let the user know", stop the constant "Lets make it easiest for users, Router knows best, no need to let the end user know" and start informing your customers who want to see way more even a toggle switch "Verbose (for debugging purposes)".

Have a nice day :)

PS: Im leaving these thread comments to help anyone coming here stumbling on this thread with a private VPN server, so they KNOW what Noah did for me and can then help others, and also I wanted to give a bit of feedback on this, Im appreciative of Noah's help it 100% solved me.