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    MTU issue? unable transmit large data

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
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    • W
      wjs
      last edited by

      I've got openVPN running successfully. I can see all of the machines on the local network and communicate with them.

      The problem occurs when I try any kind of 'heavy' ssh traffic or 'heavy' samba traffic.
      With ssh I am able to log in and run basic commands (uptime, cd, top) without issue.  If I try an ls of a large directory I get maybe 1/3 through the listing and the output hangs(the location is fairly reproducible) it will continue eventually and takes about 2 minutes to run the entire command (according to the time command). If i run the same command and pipe the output to something off screen it takes less than 1 second to complete.

      With samba shares I can generally navigate through them but if I arrive at a folder with a large amount of (usually) large files everything slows way down, almost as if its hanging temporarily like with ssh. If I try to open a file i am unable to and the explorer window often becomes unresponsive.

      My research has led me to believe that it could be an issue with mtu size although I do not see mtu errors in the logs.

      Any help or advice would be greatly appreciated!!

      Setup:
      'road warrior' laptop(currently not firewalled) talking to a wrt54gl running ddwrt. This 'ap' is doing little more than dhcp; there is no wan connection to it. Its mtu size is set at 1500. The wifi is plugged into the wan port on a pfsense box. This box acts as a vpn endpoint for secure wifi access to the lan. There is another pfsense box with active wan points which provides internet access and other services to the lan.

      wifi clients -> wifi ap -> pfsense box 1 ->{lan servers, hardwired desktops} <-pfsense box 2 <-{internet}

      I can post logs/configs as needed.

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      • W
        wjs
        last edited by

        Well i've been doing some more research…
        I am able to pull down large files (linux iso's, etc) at a speed reasonable for my wan connections via http.
        Skype works just fine. As does Google talk.

        I am unable to use windows remote desktop to connect to computers on the lan through the vpn.

        so what do ssh, samba and rdc have in common that http and skype don't?

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        • W
          wjs
          last edited by

          I've found people with similar problems but from several years ago.
          see this thread:
          http://openvpn.net/archive/openvpn-users/2003-09/msg00038.html

          I've tried their suggestions about mtu sizes with no luck.

          does anyone have a working openvpn road warrior setup they would like to share?

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          • C
            chazers18
            last edited by

            i know that RDP is a TCP program and untill Pfsense is upgraded with a Wan Accelerator any thing that is "TCP Chatty" is going to be slower than ideal.

            i do have a working config but it is just the same as some of the Vanilla configs out there.

            also i have dual wans so i have the fail over retry config here

            float
            port 1194
            dev tun
            dev-node vpn
            #dev-node ovpn <-ovpn is the name of the renamed interface
            proto tcp-client
            remote ip.ad.dr.ess 1194
            remote ip.ad.dr.ess  1194
            resolv-retry 30
            ping 10
            persist-tun
            persist-key
            tls-client
            ca ca.crt
            cert cert.crt
            key key.key
            ns-cert-type server
            #comp-lzo <- to enable remove the #
            pull
            verb 4

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            • GruensFroeschliG
              GruensFroeschli
              last edited by

              @wjs:

              does anyone have a working openvpn road warrior setup they would like to share?

              pfSense config autocreated by the GUI:

              $ less /var/etc/openvpn_server0.conf
              writepid /var/run/openvpn_server0.pid
              #user nobody
              #group nobody
              daemon
              keepalive 10 60
              ping-timer-rem
              persist-tun
              persist-key
              dev tun
              proto tcp-server
              cipher BF-CBC
              up /etc/rc.filter_configure
              down /etc/rc.filter_configure
              server 10.0.3.0 255.255.255.0
              client-config-dir /var/etc/openvpn_csc
              lport 1194
              push "dhcp-option DISABLE-NBT"
              ca /var/etc/openvpn_server0.ca
              cert /var/etc/openvpn_server0.cert
              key /var/etc/openvpn_server0.key
              dh /var/etc/openvpn_server0.dh
              comp-lzo
              persist-remote-ip
              float
              push "route 10.0.0.0 255.255.254.0"

              windows-client:
              client
              dev tun
              proto tcp
              remote myserver.mydomain.internet 1194
              resolv-retry infinite
              nobind
              persist-key
              persist-tun
              ca ca.crt
              cert dskt6624.crt
              key dskt6624.key
              ns-cert-type server
              cipher BF-CBC
              comp-lzo
              verb 3

              We do what we must, because we can.

              Asking questions the smart way: http://www.catb.org/esr/faqs/smart-questions.html

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              • W
                wjs
                last edited by

                Thanks chazers18 and GruensFroeschli for your replies.

                I don't see any major differences between your posts and mine. I'm thinking that I might have miss-configured something in the routing or nating on one of the boxes.

                As a follow up, RDC also 'kinda works'. I can connect to one machine (of the two that I tried so far). That being said the connection is unusable; it drops in and out, doesn't hardly refresh, and is unresponsive to input.

                I am thinking about merging the functionality of the two machines to see if that fixes this. It should simplify things at least…

                Oh well, wish me luck.

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