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    Strange VPN Problem - VPN Only Allows Access to PFSense on LAN Subnet

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved General pfSense Questions
    19 Posts 4 Posters 1.4k Views
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    • J
      Jake Biker @Jarhead
      last edited by

      @Jarhead

      I wish :)

      Nope I can reach them the intended way inside the LAN - they are mostly our own devices IOT - no firewalls

      THanks for reply ! :)

      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
      • stephenw10S
        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
        last edited by stephenw10

        Yup you might need to NAT the VPN client traffic to the LAN address to get past that.

        ...or if they have no default route.

        J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
        • J
          Jake Biker @stephenw10
          last edited by

          @stephenw10

          Surely the VPN wizard would set up the NAT?

          1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
          • stephenw10S
            stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
            last edited by

            It will NAT traffic out of the WAN but not the LAN. That is just routed by default. The requires the devices on LAN to reply to traffic from the tunnel subnet which they may block or not be able to.

            Switch outbound NAT to hybrid mode.
            Add a rule to NAT traffic from the tunnel subnet to the LAN subnet NAT'd to the LAN interface address.

            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
            • J
              Jake Biker @stephenw10
              last edited by

              @stephenw10 HI mate - that doesn't seem to work

              Interface : OpenVPN
              Source OpenVPN Client Subnet
              Sourtce Port Any
              Designation LAN Subnets
              NAT Address LAN Address

              ?? Please excuse Virtualisation engineer right on edge of comfort zone :)

              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
              • stephenw10S
                stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                last edited by

                The NAT rule should be on the LAN interface. That is where it needs to be applied outbound.

                J 2 Replies Last reply Reply Quote 0
                • J
                  Jake Biker @stephenw10
                  last edited by

                  @stephenw10

                  Thanks Stephen - I will try this.

                  Can I ask - why does this just "work" on all my other installs ? :)

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                  • stephenw10S
                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                    last edited by

                    It will work 'out of the box' as long as the hosts on LAN are able to respond to connections from the tunnel subnet.

                    If those hosts have an invalid default route they can only respond to connection from inside their own subnet.

                    If they have any sort of filtering they may block connections from outside their own subnet.

                    Both are quite common for IoT type devices.

                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                    • J
                      Jake Biker @stephenw10
                      last edited by

                      @stephenw10 Thanks mate --

                      We make those IOT devices, and they don't behave like this usually...

                      Anyway - this PFsense was originally a 2.3 32 bit device, I remapped the ports and moved it to 2.72 - all the VPN's are up and the multi-wan is working all fine.

                      Maybe this is a hangover from the migration from the old 32bit variant PFsense. XML?

                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                      • stephenw10S
                        stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                        last edited by

                        It shouldn't be.

                        Are you policy routing traffic via a gateway group somewhere?

                        One thing that could be an issue is the negate networks rule. The behaviour of that has changed a few times since 2.0. A very old install might have negated the policy routing automatically but a 2.7.2 install will not. If it is applied to OpenVPN clients for example they will not reach the LAN without a bypass rule.

                        J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                        • J
                          Jake Biker @stephenw10
                          last edited by

                          @stephenw10

                          There are static routes - I need to look at these - should be able to do some work on this tomorrow.
                          Was thinking about virtualising the config - and bashing at it offline trying to suss it,

                          NightlySharkN 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                          • NightlySharkN
                            NightlyShark @Jake Biker
                            last edited by NightlyShark

                            @Jake-Biker What did you enter here:
                            a176e700-9021-4bca-9fc5-da852414e0dc-image.png
                            ?
                            Here?
                            3b39aab3-e88b-489c-9e53-8f3c763746a4-image.png

                            J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                            • stephenw10S
                              stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                              last edited by

                              No policy routing though? No gateway set on any firewall rules?

                              1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                              • J
                                Jake Biker @NightlyShark
                                last edited by

                                @NightlyShark 192.168.1.0/24

                                1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                • J
                                  Jake Biker @stephenw10
                                  last edited by

                                  @stephenw10

                                  Finally got some time to fix these two problems once and for all.

                                  I noticed that I was able to ping some IP's on the LAN Subnet from the VPN.

                                  But not others.

                                  I created a NAT Rule.

                                  Outbound
                                  Interface LAN
                                  IP both
                                  Proto ANY
                                  Source Manually Entered VPN Subnet
                                  Dest LAN Subnets
                                  Translation LAN Address

                                  This works ...

                                  On all IP addresses .
                                  I tested local pings to make sure the gear was really available on ICMP and it was .. then I knew I had to fix it.

                                  Thanks Stephen - I don't understand why this works and it didn't from scratch.

                                  But ..all good.

                                  THANKS!

                                  1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                  • stephenw10S
                                    stephenw10 Netgate Administrator
                                    last edited by

                                    Ah, nice. That implies some devices on the LAN are blocking connections from outside their subnet. That's common for Windows firewall for example. The NAT rule makes all connections from VPN clients appear to come from the LAN IP address so hosts allow it.

                                    J 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 0
                                    • J
                                      Jake Biker @stephenw10
                                      last edited by

                                      @stephenw10
                                      I need to go on a dang course :) :)

                                      I am great with Virt and Linux and MS - but I suck at firewalls :)

                                      Thanks mate :)

                                      1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
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