RT-N66U VPN Server settings?

[2000wolf]

Hi there,

Regrettably I was not able to find a posting that exactly explains how to set up the VPN server of the RT-N66U and the FW FAQ doesn't help me either.

I'm able to connect my NAS via VPN using my NAS' own VPN server. But I' d prefer to use the router's VPN server...

My configuration:
Win 7 VPN client (encryption is required, MS-CHAP v2), DDNS is up and running.

My issue:
User and password are accepted but the connection is terminated due to Error 800 - VPN tunnel errors.


Do you have hints for the correct VPN Server, firewall, port forwarding or NAT Passthrough settings?

 

[RMerlin]

There's not much to it really. Enable VPN, create user/password, make sure DDNS is working, and you're all set.

However, if you had forwarded any ports for your NAS VPN, make sure to remove those forwards (1723 and GRE 47), or they will prevent you from connecting to your router's VPN. You should not create any firewall rule related to the VPN - the router handles that automatically when you enable the VPN service.

I also strongly recommend using an IP block inside your LAN's network (but outside the DHCP scope). For example, have DHCP set to 192.168.1.100-192.168.1.149, and have the VPN range to 192.168.1.200-192.168.1.209. That way, you won't need to create static routes on the VPN client.

Lastly, test the VPN from outside your network. It's not garanteed that you will be able to connect over a NAT loopback from inside the network.

 

[2000wolf]

Thank you!

I'm going to try it this weekend with your recommended default settings.

P.S.: I allways use a surfstick to avoid a NAT loopback issue.

 

[2000wolf]

Quite frustrating I still end up with Error 800.

Could you please post a screenshot of your Win 7 VPN client security settings. Maybe wrong client settings cause that VPN tunnel Error...

 

[RMerlin]

Quite frustrating I still end up with Error 800.

Could you please post a screenshot of your Win 7 VPN client security settings. Maybe wrong client settings cause that VPN tunnel Error...

I keep every VPN settings to their defaults on Windows.

Test connecting to your VPN using telnet. If you can't connect to port 1723 using telnet when outside your network, then something is wrong with your network. Either you have the wrong IP, your ISP blocks certain ports, or you are dealing with a double NAT setup (i.e. your modem NATs the connection before feeding it to the router, which re-NATs it - that won't work).

 

[2000wolf]

Thank you for your advice!

Regrettably it still doesn't work. If I allow the firewall to respond I can ping my router without any problems from outside my LAN.

I' ve found a small video on youtube: based on old FW .90 a user shows his settings on the Win 7 client and the router.
Actually nothing difficult... in the router menue he sets the MPPE encryption to 128 and in the Win 7 VPN connection he changes the encryption to maximum and the VPN dectecion from auto to PPTP.

Now with the same settings I end up with error 807. I'll google what this exactly means. Maybe the response is too slow because ping reported from 400 to 1400 ms ... but no lost packets.

So I still have no clue why I can access my NAS from outside flawlessly by simply forwarding port 1723 to it and activating the NAS' VPN server but not via the router's VPN server.

I have the option to try it with a different notebook and if that doesn't work either I won't spend too much time with that issue...

 

[2000wolf]

Obviously I'm not alone:

There are a lot of postings with unresolved problems of Win 7 users beeing unable to connect via PPTP. Seems to be a strange Win 7 problem! Sometimes it works sometimes not...

The only "solution" seems to be
- avoiding PPTP protocol
- buying a simple VPN IPsec router
- and using the Asus RT-N66U as an accesspoint due to its IMHO outstanding WLAN capabilities.

 

[somms]

Obviously I'm not alone:

There are a lot of postings with unresolved problems of Win 7 users beeing unable to connect via PPTP. Seems to be a strange Win 7 problem! Sometimes it works sometimes not...

The only "solution" seems to be
- avoiding PPTP protocol
- buying a simple VPN IPsec router
- and using the Asus RT-N66U as an accesspoint due to its IMHO outstanding WLAN capabilities.

http://i181.photobucket.com/albums/x15/somms_photo/stats.jpg

FWIW: RT-N66U works great for me as OpenVPN server after flashing Shibby's Tomato!

 

[2000wolf]

Thank you for mentioning this alternative.

However I' m going to give the cisco RV180 a try. http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/security/security-reviews/31746-cisco-rv180-vpn-router-reviewed

Let's see how the QuickVPN client will work...

 

[small_law]

Thanks for all the tips. Asus just posted new firmware on its site, 3.0.0.3.144. It's an official build. I'm going to try it tonight.

Of course, this comes after I spent last night clearing the NVRAM and messing around with my settings.

Edit: I went ahead and upgraded. Besides the fact that the UI is much faster to navigate around, I was able to register a new asuscomm.com DDNS address in under a minute and VPN seems to be working fine. I couldn't register the address beforehand. Whatever the problem was, it seems to be fixed, at least for me.