Anywhere Access in WSE2012 with RT-AC87R

[DRepke]

I am running a Windows Server 2012 Essentials "home server" as a domain controller. I recently replaced my Linksys EA-4500 router with an ASUS RT-AC87R and have not been able to get "Anywhere Access" working. Using uPNP to set it up does NOT work nor does manually forwarding ports 80 and 443. Either option worked fine with my Linksys router.

With the ASUS router, I receive error messages that "Anywhere Access is blocked", "Port-Forwarding is not configured correctly" (which it is) and "There may be more than one router on your network" (which there is NOT).

Is anyone else having these issues? Any help in resolving these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

 

[latinkreationz]

I am running a Windows Server 2012 Essentials "home server" as a domain controller. I recently replaced my Linksys EA-4500 router with an ASUS RT-AC87R and have not been able to get "Anywhere Access" working. Using uPNP to set it up does NOT work nor does manually forwarding ports 80 and 443. Either option worked fine with my Linksys router.

With the ASUS router, I receive error messages that "Anywhere Access is blocked", "Port-Forwarding is not configured correctly" (which it is) and "There may be more than one router on your network" (which there is NOT).

Is anyone else having these issues? Any help in resolving these issues would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I'm also running WSE 2012 and ran into the same issue coming from a Linksys Router. First things first, you'll need to telnet into the router to open ports below 1024 to be used. AI Cloud uses port 443 so make sure that is turned off. The easiest way is to enable Telnet Client under Add/Remove Features and then use the CMD prompt(Admin Level). Run the following commands:

nvram set upnp_min_port_int=1
nvram set upnp_min_port_ext=1
nvram commit
reboot

Once you do that, rerun the Anywhere Access. Don't set the port forwards manually, let Anywhere Access do it. Also, you won't wont be able to access the server using the public IP when connected internally. I've read mixed information as to why or why it doesn't work; something to do with NAT Loopback. It's been hit or miss for me.

Let me know if you need more clarification.

 

[DRepke]

Thanks for the quick response, latinkreationz. Before trying the steps you provided, I have a couple of questions:
1. I assume that a router "reset" would be required to remove your settings if I choose to do so. Correct?
2. From what you said about AI Cloud, I assume that I would NOT be able to use it at all after making these changes... That I would have to use Anywhere Access to access the server from outside my network?
3. I'm curious... Which Linksys router did you have to do this on? My previous router was a Linksys EA-4500 and it did not have any issues with Anywhere Access.

Thanks again for your help.

 

[DRepke]

latinkreationz... I tried your procedure and could NOT get it to work.

Here are the steps I tried:
1. I opened my ASUS RT-AC87N router's webpage and, under the WAN tab, turned off "port forwarding" and deleted the two entries under "port forwarding" that I previously entered manually for TCP ports 80 and 443.
2. I made sure that uPNP was turned ON (which it already was).
3. I turned OFF the only two options available under the "AICloud 2.0" tab: "Cloud Disk" and "Smart Access".
4. I opened WSE2012 "Server Manager" and added the "Telnet Client" feature.
5. I opened an "administrative" command prompt and entered "Telnet" to open the Telnet client.
6. At the "Microsoft Telnet" prompt, I entered "nvram set upnp_min_port_int=1" as per your instructions and immediately received an error message as follows:
Microsoft Telnet> nvram set upnp_min_port_int=1
Invalid Command. type ?/help for help

Apparently telnet does not like the "nvram" part of the statement. Did I do something wrong? Any ideas about what to do now?

Thanks, again, for your help. I'll be anxiously awaiting your reply.

 

[AdvHomeServer]

http://advancedhomeserver.com/windows-server-2012-r2-essentials-anywhere-access/

They don't like me plugging my book here, but your question needs a good reply. The link above is the most popular article I wrote. Maybe something in it can provide assistance.

Anywhere Access is an SSL based VPN solution that is designed for outside the network access.

Good luck.

 

[latinkreationz]

latinkreationz... I tried your procedure and could NOT get it to work.

Here are the steps I tried:
1. I opened my ASUS RT-AC87N router's webpage and, under the WAN tab, turned off "port forwarding" and deleted the two entries under "port forwarding" that I previously entered manually for TCP ports 80 and 443.
2. I made sure that uPNP was turned ON (which it already was).
3. I turned OFF the only two options available under the "AICloud 2.0" tab: "Cloud Disk" and "Smart Access".
4. I opened WSE2012 "Server Manager" and added the "Telnet Client" feature.
5. I opened an "administrative" command prompt and entered "Telnet" to open the Telnet client.
6. At the "Microsoft Telnet" prompt, I entered "nvram set upnp_min_port_int=1" as per your instructions and immediately received an error message as follows:
Microsoft Telnet> nvram set upnp_min_port_int=1
Invalid Command. type ?/help for help

Apparently telnet does not like the "nvram" part of the statement. Did I do something wrong? Any ideas about what to do now?

Thanks, again, for your help. I'll be anxiously awaiting your reply.

The Linksys routers I have used were from EA4500 and up.

You have to telnet into the router. So at the CMD prompt type "telnet yourRouterIPaddress" without the quotes. The login and password are the same you use to log in to the web-based gui.

Once logged into the router, you can run the commands I provided. As far as AICloud, you won't be able to access both since AICloud is setup to use the same ports WSE2012 is set to use. Someone may know a workaround for AICloud. It wasn't anything I cared to use so I can't help there.

Hitting the reset button will erase all settings and bring your router back to factory defaults. Let me know if you get it to work or need further clarification.

 

[DRepke]

I did finally figure out on my own that I had to telnet to the router to access its nvram. Then I was able to enter the list of commands you sent me. After doing that, I did finally get the "Anywhere Access" Repair button to successfully set up "Anywhere Access". At least, it said that it was property configured. However, I still have NOT been able to get it to work either from within my home network OR from outside of my network. I haven't done any more "playing around" with it for the past week or so.

I'll take a look at the link you sent me about your book and I'll trying doing some more "playing around" with the settings this week. I had starting using AICloud which looked promising until I disabled the settings trying to set up "Anywhere Access".

I just ran into another problem this morning that I now think is also related to the ASUS RT-AC87R router I'm using: My wife just left for a trip to Poland with her mother and, before she left, I was trying to show her how to use my DLink DIR-510 Travel Router to connect her Windows Smartphone and Kindle Fire "securely" to WiFi hotspots on her trip... But I could not get it to connect to the internet. I've used that travel router three or four times previously with local hotspots and even with my home network without any issues with my previous Linksys EA-4500 router. But after trying to get it to connect with my home network for a couple of hours this morning WITHOUT success, I finally realized that it was most likely my ASUS router's security that was causing the problem. Now I have to try to figure out that issue too.

It was definitely easier and more straight forward to get things like this to work with my Linksys EA-4500.

Thanks again for your help. I'll let you know if I ever get these things working properly with the ASUS router.