QN85 TV not connecting to PC via Samsung Easy Connection when internet has VPN

[TG20]

Activated VPN at the router. Everything in my home network stills works fine, EXCEPT the Samsung Easy Connection from a Win 11 PC to the TV.   

• The PC is listed on the TV's screen and selectable.  So the TV "sees" the PC.
• However the TV does not establish the connection to the PC and gives an error message to make sure the PC is turned on.  
• I can successfully ping the TV (wifi) and the PC over the home network. 
• Only one network in my home covering both wired and WiFi from the same router.
• NOTE - If I disable the VPN at the router Samsung Easy Connection works fine from the PC the the TV.  
•  To clarify, VPN software is NOT installed on the windows PC.  

This just makes no sense as there wasn't any changes to the internal network! 

The setup is (Internet ---to Router with VPN) then  to (internal Network).    PC  and TV on the internal network. TV and PC addresses are 192.168.0.xxx with the numbers in the xxx portion being the only difference.  

Is there a setting within Easy Connection that has to be adjusted?  I just don't understand how something external to my home network is impacting Easy Connection.  

Any help on this would be greatly appreciated.  Thanks!

[SocietyGirl]

VPN changes the IP address, so likely confuses the TV. Also, some VPNs' can hide from routers, change MAC/IP address frequently etc.
Thing is, the point of a VPN is (kinda) to hide a device - now you want to do the opposite and find/connect to it.

Why do you need the VPN on for local connections?

[TG20]

Hi,

The VPN is NOT on for local connections. Nothing on my internal network has any VPN software.  I'm not going outside of my home network.  I'm just trying to display my PC screen on the Samsung TV.    

The VPN is on the router at the entry point from the public internet to my home. The TV and the PC each has their own internal LAN IP address (as noted in my post above) which does not change whether the VPN is active or disabled.  

Thinking about this.... does the Samsung TV firmware make a connection to a Samsung server for any reason before trying to connect to the local PC?   If the TV's firmware is going out to the public internet then trying to come back in to get to the PC, I can see how that could cause the problem.      

[SocietyGirl]

Unsure on your final point, but the VPN is blocking something. Perhaps the TV sends some info about itself to Samsung to authenticate the use of the remote display app?

[TG20 · Accepted solution]

I think you hit directly on the issue. 

• The Samsung TV is logged into my Samsung account. 
• The Samsung Easy Connection App on the PC is also logged into my Samsung account.
• I expect the TV is checking with a Samsung server to verify the selected device (in this case my Windows PC) has the Easy Connection app active and logged into the same Samsung account. I expect this is a security feature to make sure the Easy Connection app on the PC does not inadvertently try to connect to a neighbor's Samsung TV via WiFi/Bluetooth!
• However the Samsung server can't reach the PC for verification from the public internet as it is behind a VPN router.  
• Basically it appears that Samsung's server can't validate both sides of the proposed connection (TV & PC) so it fails with an error message to have the user make sure the PC is turned on.  

To be clear, this is just a guess, but the only one I can think of that makes any sense. 

[CEO-ROK]

Easy. Just turn off vpn. Solved. 

[TG20]

When I'm home that's exactly what I do. However I don't want the rest of the family logging into the router as I'm sure someone will be thinking "I wonder what this setting does..." then I'll get a call about the internet or gaming not working.