Hello, I'm facing a strange issue with my Keenetic router and I hope someone can help or has experienced something similar. I'm trying to share my phone's VPN connection with my Keenetic router via USB tethering. Since direct VPN sharing over USB isn't possible, I'm using the Easy Proxy app on my phone to create a SOCKS5 proxy. My goal is to configure this SOCKS5 proxy on the Keenetic router so that all connected devices can use the VPN through the proxy.
Here’s the problem: When I enter any proxy address (even an invalid one like 1.2.3.4:9999), Keenetic always shows "Connected (IP address 172.20.12.1)" in the proxy settings. Even though it says "Connected", I know for sure that the connection isn't actually established, especially when using invalid addresses. When I try to connect to the SOCKS5 proxy generated by Easy Proxy (while USB tethering is active), Keenetic keeps showing "Connection failed" in practice, but still displays "Connected" in the status. I suspect that 172.20.12.1 is some kind of internal routing address used by Keenetic, but I’m not sure why it always shows as connected without validating the proxy server.
My setup: Phone with USB tethering enabled and VPN active, Easy Proxy app running SOCKS5 server, Keenetic router (latest firmware). I’m trying to configure Keenetic to route traffic through the SOCKS5 proxy.
What I've tried: Tested with both valid and invalid proxy addresses — always shows "Connected". Checked IP on client devices — no traffic seems to go through the proxy. Updated Keenetic firmware to the latest version. Reviewed system logs but couldn't find clear error messages regarding proxy failures.
Has anyone experienced this issue where Keenetic's proxy settings always display "Connected" regardless of the actual connection status? Is there a proper way to route VPN traffic from a phone to Keenetic via SOCKS5 over USB tethering? Is there any way to force Keenetic to validate the proxy connection instead of just marking it as connected? Could this be a firmware-related bug or limitation?
Any advice, workaround, or insight would be greatly appreciated! Thanks in advance.
