Rt-n66u vpn

[MxRacer965]

I appologize if this has been covered before, but when I was initially doing searches I could not find anything on the subject of getting PPTP VPN working on the RT-N66U and thought I would share my solution. I saw that on SNB and maybe a few other sites they dinged the RT-N66U and ASUS for the VPN functionality not working and not being documented well either. The VPN was one of the major reasons I bought the router in the first place (to replace a Netgear WNR3500L model running DDWRT, again, for VPN) and to my dismay simply enabling it did not allow me to VPN to my home. After doing some searching I never did find anything that yielded the solution, but in doing some thinking I remembered having to forward port 1723 to the internal router address (192.168.1.1) for my old Netgear unit, and did the same for my new ASUS router. Bingo. Worked flawlessly on the first try after forwarding port 1723 to the router internal IP.

Hope this helps anyone looking to get VPN working on their RT-N66U. Firmware version I have is 3.0.0.3.112

 

[RMerlin]

You don't need to forward any ports. Just enable it, and it'll work out of the box, the router opens all necessary ports by default. Provided you aren't double-NATting by having a modem/router combo plugged into your RT-N66U.

There are however bugs in Asus's firmware that will cause the router to crash when accessing a remote machine over VPN if you have a USB disk plugged on your router. I fixed that bug in my custom firmware. You can also avoid that bug by using a different subnet for your VPN (for example, 192.168.2.0/24), configuring your VPN client to use the remote gateway by default if you prefer to stay with Asus's original firmware.

 

[MxRacer965]

Mine the VPN did not work out of the box after enabling and I don't have any "odd" configurations at home as mentioned. I HAD to forward port 1723 to 192.168.1.1 before it would work. nothing else I did would work.

Appreciate the heads up on the USB storage. I don't need it since I have a NAS device but others could find it useful! Just like why I posted my solution to VPN do if someone googles this issue I hope they find their solution.

 

[PatchyFog]

Thank You, MXRacer!

I got nothing but "connection refused" until I forwarded 1723 to the router's internal LAN address. After doing that it worked perfectly, so your advice was spot-on.

Yes, yes, I know you're not SUPPOSED to have to do that, but...

This was with the new 3.0.0.3.162 firmware too.

I do have a machine on DMZ, and I do NOT use the router's DHCP -- perhaps there is some sort of strange service interaction in one of these cases. Otherwise I have a pretty vanilla setup -- except my subnet is not 1 (it is 23, in honor of Max Headroom.)

 

[MxRacer965]

Glad my findings a couple weeks ago helped! I know I was beating my head against the wall for a bit trying to figure it out myself. Watched a lot of videos, searched forums, etc. and never found anyone suggesting forwarding port 1723 to the internal IP.

Hopefully others find this bit of information helpful in the future as well. I know the kindness of others in posting things like this have helped me a lot before, I'm glad I could return the favor.

 

[PatchyFog]

My theory now is that having the DMZ "on" forwards the VPN port there and the router VPN doesn't even see it. But if you put an explicit rule in, it snags the VPN port for the router to use before the DMZ machine can see (and refuse) it.

 

[MxRacer965]

That could be. I hadn't considered that. I have a machine setup on DMZ as well so that provides further support to your theory. I'm not curious enough to start reconfiguring my router though. It works, so I'm not gonna mess with it!

 

[M_mike]

I'm considering purchasing this router as I want to use it for vpn access but can someone tell me if I will be able to use it to give me internet access from my home internet connection when connected remotely. I want to make sure that when using public wifi that it is a bit more secure.

 

[MxRacer965]

If I understand your question properly, yes, it probably could do as you suggest. I use the VPN for the obvious purpose of accessing my network while traveling, but I also do it to circumvent our IT staff at work to access sites that are restricted, yet still have relevant content for work. In doing so I first VPN to my home router and disable the proxy server entry in IE. this allows me to bypass the company proxy server and routes my web connection through my home router.

If you intend to use a public wifi connection to VPN to your home and from there force your web traffic through your home first I'm not sure how or why you would necessarily do that. If I recall PPTP VPN is not secure, only authentication can be secured. Please someone correct me if I am mistaken. That or I'll just do a google search.

 

[MxRacer965]

Sorry, meant I don't believe PPTP is encrypted. Not sure that it necessarily that secure either if I remember correctly. Again, will do some more looking again when I have a little time. Been a whole since I really dug into the nuances of PPTP.

 

[M_mike]

Thanks for your reply, I was hoping to only make it a bit more secure and was looking for a router thatbwould let me do this. I had also looked at the draytek 2850 which does ipsec aswell as pptp but I'm not sure if It will allow me to vpn my internet connection.

 

[medusakeith]

You may look into DrayTek VPN and wireless lan feature.
It helps us to isolate each individual WLAN member even VPN connection.

 

[davep1976]

Hi All,

Sorry to ressurect this thread but just wanted to say thanks

After tearing my hair out for a couple of days wondering why I could'nt connect to my VPN while the DMZ was on and in use I stumbles across this forwarded port to the IP and it worked a treat!

Thanks

Dave

 

[cyber7]

Thank you!

I too have had the same problem with the buggy vpn not working, I have the 3.0.0.4.374.38_2 (Merlin build) and have had several different builds, hoping for the VPN to work correctly, now it finally works like it should, with the port forwarding 1723 to 192.168.1.1 .

I too currently have DMZ enabled for my gaming rig, but I have had the issue with VPN not working both with and without DMZ.

Thanks.

 

[paladyr]

I had been using VPN for a while without any issues, until I went out of town the past two weeks. I do not have DMZ enabled and do have some port forwarding rules setup. I have the latest official firmware as of today and after setting up port forwarding for 1723 it finally works again. Thanks!