Inbound VPN

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2009 Posts: 6

I am trying to vpn into my home network from my work network.

First the sticky requested information

1. Location: Denver, CO
2. ISP: Comcast cable modem
3. Upload/ Download Speeds: 2Mb down, 5Mb up
4. Modem: Terayon TJ715x modem
5. Router: Linksys RTP300 firmware version 5.01.04
6. Network Setup: Modem --> RTP300 --> PCs running Win XP Media Center
7. Issue: I want to vpn into my home system from work.
8. Voip Test: I'll post the text results at the bottom since I do not think they apply to my question.

I see the wisdom of the sticky. Running through the 8 topics covered just about everything. I'll add the following. 1) My company IT is not preventing me from setting up this VPN. 2) I have used the Remote Access features of the router. 3) I regularly vpn from Home to work. 4) When I initiate the vpn from work, I get a server not available error.

So, what is stopping me from setting up the VPN to my home?

Thanks for your help.

As promised, the results of the speed test.

Speed test statistics
---------------------
Download speed: 5034904 bps
Upload speed: 2087312 bps
Quality of service: 62 %
Download test type: socket
Upload test type: socket
Maximum download pause: 18 ms
Average download pause: 2 ms
Minimum round trip time to server: 33 ms
Average round trip time to server: 81 ms

Voip test statistics
--------------------
Jitter: you --> server: 5.1 ms
Jitter: server --> you: 3.5 ms
Packet loss: you --> server: 0.0 %
Packet loss: server --> you: 0.0 %
Packet discards: 0.0 %
Packets out of order: 0.0 %
Number of supported Voip lines: 35
Estimated MOS score: 4.1

Posts: 656 · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 9:25 pm Post subject:

When you say VPN from work to your house, do you actually mean Remote Desktop, VNC, or do you actually have a VPN server running in your house? I am assuming you mean Remote Desktop since you only show Windows XP PC connected to the RTP300.

In any scenario when a service is being hosted behind the NAT of any router, you cannot access it until you configure port forwarding in the router. This is how NAT hides your internal PC's from the internet to keep you safe.

When you attempt to access your Public IP address, the WAN of the router has no idea where the service is on the LAN unless you tell it. So for Remote Desktop, you will need to configure port forwarding in the RTP300 for TCP port 3389 to the private IP address of the computer that is hosting the Remote Desktop connection.

Now when accessing your Public IP or Dynamic DNS name from the Remote Desktop client, the request will hit the WAN side of the router and the NAT translations in the port forwarding will know that the destination for a TCP request on port 3389 goes to the private IP assigned to your PC.

Also make sure the Remote Desktop is set up to accept connections on your PC. This can be tested from another PC within your LAN.

Posts: 831 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 831

If you are running VNC, use the following:

Protocol Port Start Port End Port Map
TCP.......... 5500....... 5500...... 5500
TCP...........5800....... 5800...... 5800
TCP........ 5900....... 5900...... 5900

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2009 Posts: 6

In answer to your question, yes, Remote Desktop or VNC is the ultimate goal. I have forwarded ports 3389 (Remote Desktop) and 5900 (VNC) already. Neither client gets a chance to startup.

When I VPN to the office, I enable the vpn connection, login, then either VNC or just go straight to the network drives. That is why I think the problem is setting up the VPN on the home side. When I enable the connection from work to home, I get a 'server does not exist' error. (I think it is error 800, but that is putting a lot of trust in my memory.)

Also, I do not have a VPN server, unless the RTP300 will do that for me.

I've seen other forum posts about the RTP300 not supporting inbound VPN, but those were dated 2005, so I'm hoping it is a setting failure on my part, not a feature failure on the part of the router.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2009 Posts: 6

ed56,

I set up the forwarding you suggested. I had only forwarded 5900.

Posts: 831 · Vonage Forum Evangelist Joined: Jun 08, 2007 Posts: 831

jblight wrote:

ed56,

I set up the forwarding you suggested. I had only forwarded 5800.

5800 should get you VNC browser access inside your internal network, and probably from the external network (http://xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx:5800)

The other two ports give you the VNC client access:

5500 - Listening Client
5800 - Java Applet Server (browser access)
5900 - Server

Posts: 656 · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 10:30 pm Post subject:

I think your missing the point. A corporate office will require you to access a VPN connection to access local resources such as file shares, databases, web services, printer etc... A VPN is Virtual Private Network. It allows you be be on the offices local area network while not physically being in the office. This is done by creating a secure and encrypted tunnel between a virtual created network interface on your computer and the VPN server at the office which will assign you a private IP and apply firewall polices that will allow only you to access certain internal resources.

When accessing a home network from the internet, this is not needed. While some people may utilize a home network this way for security purposes, this is by far not the norm and it not used by standard home users. So you do not have a VPN server and the RT300 is not a VPN server.

So the question is this. Do you have more then 1 PC in your house? If so, can you access the PC hosting the Remote Desktop connection or VNC from the other PC on the same LAN? If not, you don't have these services set up on your PC and before you can access them from outside your LAN, they need to be set up and tested from inside your LAN.

If your only trying you access files, you can set up a basic home user VPN connection called Hamachi. It is free. You install it on the computer acting as the server and create a network name. Then you install it on the client PC and join the network you created. You can then use the server IP from the clent PC to access anything such as file shares, Remote Desktop, VNC, printers, hosting game server, etc... just as if you were on a PC connected to your LAN. Using this method does not require any Port Forwarding in the router since the Hamachi client creates a tunnel. This is fairly simple to set up but still may be difficult for a basic user.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2009 Posts: 6

VTM-

I do understand why VPNs are used, and I'm not about to open my personal world up to an unsecured network connection. I also get your point about security not being the norm for home users. If home users were secure I would get a lot less spam. Smile

If the RTP300 will not allow me to set up a VPN, that answers my questions. Not the way I wanted it to, but at least I know I have to find a new router that will allow me to set up a secure connection.

To answer your paragraph 3 question, I have 2 computers and an iPod touch. I can Remote Desktop and VNC freely between all 3 platforms inside mi casa. This project was started by my fantasy of VNCing from my iPod to my home network from any random WAP. I thought establishing the concept from the office would be a good place to start.

I tried Hamachi as a simple replacement for ftp and wasn't impressed, but that was a couple years ago.

Posts: 656 · Posted: Thu Jan 15, 2009 11:43 pm Post subject:

Well the RTP300 is not a VPN server. If you want a router that can act as a VPN server, you need an actual VPN router that is meant for that. What you must of heard what that there was issues with VPN clients accessing VPN servers from behind the RTP300. Some routers are known to act up with certain types of L2TP or IPSec VPN connections mainly due to issues with the GRE protocol. But this would be going from your PC to a VPN server at work. What you want to do is not possible with the RTP300 because that is not a feature of it nor is it a feature with most routers. Only specific routers that are called VPN routers can do what you want.

Linksys, Netgear, and D-link make both wired and wireless VPN routers that are fairly inexpensive and good for home office type use.

Posts: 6 · New Forum Member Joined: Jan 16, 2009 Posts: 6

VTM-

Thanks for that. Not the answer I was looking for, but such is the case all to often in life.

Do you have any suggestions for Vonage supplied routers? I can always put my Voip router behind, but because phone calls are important i would prefer to avoid the QOS settings and leave my Vonage router in front.

Again, thanks.