SoftEther VPN User Forum

Hi Guys,

I've browsed the boards before asking this, and although a lot of people had similar issues to myself, I couldn't quite find a response for the same issue I have. Although I am very tech savvy I am very new to VPN so I apologise for any ignorance in this field.

I have a readynas 104 set up in a property next door. It is connected to a virgin superhub via ethernet and it is accessible on the internal network just by using SMB or AFP.

What I am trying to do is access this same NAS drive from the property next door without the need to run a huge cable between the houses.

The readynas came with the softether bundle addon included, so I have installed this addon and the server software installed correctly.

I then downloaded the server manager onto the PC and began setting it up. The setup I went for was an L2TP/IPSec setup as outlined in https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howt ... VPN_Server and I followed this article closely.

Now in order to make any modifications to this server via the server manager, I have to enter the external IP address 82.XX.XX.XX. The VPN appears to be running, I have added a user account to connect to, and there appears to be no errors from the server manager.

Where I really get the issue, is when trying to connect to the VPN externally.

I am looking to connect my mac to the VPN so used the instructions as outlined in https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howt ... ient_Setup

The computer seems to think about it, then rejects the connection on the grounds that the VPN server was not responding. The software on the VPN is working correctly, because if I enable a local bridge I am able to connect to the VPN via the internal IP address 192.168.0.3 (which the readynas is located on).

All my attempts to connect externally seem to have been problematic. I have disabled the router firewall and opened ports 1701, 500 and 4500 as I have read somewhere that they need to be open.

Am I missing something obvious here? This is advertised as an easy setup, and although I can't say the instructions were difficult, I am having not much success.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

PS. I can use the server manager to connect to the external IP address, however this only works when I remain on that network. As soon as I go to the other property, the settings entered in server manager, no longer connect.

Any guesses? Do I have to have a local bridge set up for this configuration. I notice when local bridge is on I can connect to the nas drives internal IP via VPN, but nothing works externally.

I've opened the ports i've read on other threads and forwarded them on to the internal IP of the NAS, but the mac will still not connect. I've also disabled vpnazure as someone else in the past indicated this could be a problem.

When i'm connecting to the VPN, the server name is just the global ip?

Update :

Managed to sign in to the device from the alternate house using softether vpn client, so I can now confirm the ports appear to be ok. Obviously it is recommended on this sites documentation to use the built in mac vpn adapter client, as softether client for mac has little to no interface. Would there be any reason why if I am following the right steps that a mac wont be able to join the VPN.

Can't help but feel i'm doing something wrong from the mac, as even the server manager when i've virtually mounted it via wine bottler will work on the mac, but the mac's built in client just keeps advising the VPN is not responding.

I've the same problem with a Readynas 516 and Android and MacOs clients.

Conections with windows clients using Softether software are working fine, but you must know this clients are using diferent ports that L2TP/IpSec connections.

Tomorrow I'll upload more information, I wasted tons of time with this.

The ports 500 & 4500 UDP are mandatory as you can see on ethersoft documentation https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howt ... VPN_Server.

I have that ports opened on firewall and forwarded tho the server. From outside the lan, ports seems opened and working:
[attachment=0]Captura de pantalla 2015-12-10 11.15.55.png[/attachment]

I've opened port 1701 also, because it appears on tech documentation (IpSec).

On the other hand I have working the server with just one listener on port 5555. Using VPN client from windows machines theres no problem conecting to VPN.

I read a lot of information about ports and protocols, but at the moment I cant reach a solution for L2TP conns.

Regards.

On the macos client side, the log seems like this:

[attachment=0]Captura de pantalla 2015-12-11 09.32.31.png[/attachment]

The client can't connect, and I cant see errors on server log. So what i think is that the client is not reaching the server on some port.

Please show a server log.