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    no communication between VPN and Client LAN

    Scheduled Pinned Locked Moved OpenVPN
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    • K
      Knausepeter
      last edited by

      Yes, that's what I thought.
      So once to make sure:

      -in the server configuration I enter under "IPv4 local network/s" all the total reachable local networks of all clients that I want to connect later.

      config_server.PNG

      -In the respective CSO I then enter the corresponding local network address under "IPv4 remote Network/s".

      config_cso.PNG

      correct?

      I have now reduced the configuration so that the pfSense in the office is set as the default gateway of the PC and at my second location a router connects as OpenVPN client, and has the network 192.168.15.0/24 under it with one PC.

      Under Status -> OpenVPN -> Routing tables I also see the correct routes.

      routingtable.PNG

      if i traceroute from the PC inside the office to the VPN client of the remote Router, i can see the first hop is the pfSense(client) and then nothing comes afterwards.

      traceroute.PNG

      the same if i try to traceroute to the Server (172.16.0.1) BUT this worked when the Server was configured as peer-to-peer. I was able to ping from both local networks into the VPN but not through it.

      What am i missing?

      Thanks for all help.

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      • V
        viragomann @Knausepeter
        last edited by

        @knausepeter said in no communication between VPN and Client LAN:

        correct?

        No. The CSO are only new server settings for a specific client.

        That means you have to add specific tunnel network for this client first of all. Accordingly to the servers topology use a /30 mask or a single IP.
        At local networks enter the networks you want to access from the client. If you're have subnet topology you will have to enter the servers tunnel network to enable communication with the other clients.
        In the "Remote Networks" box enter the 10.200.104.0/24 so that OpenVPN can set the proper routes.

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        • K
          Knausepeter
          last edited by Knausepeter

          sorry, I do not fully understand.

          Which part so far is wrong? The server or the CSO config?

          for the CSO config, i now have 2 client, each with one local network:

          first client: LAN: 10.200.104.0/24 - VPN: 172.16.0.253
          cso_starlink.PNG

          second client: LAN: 192.168.15.0/24 - VPN: 172.16.0.250
          cso_test.PNG

          the server has no LAN attached to it, it is just the central point.
          config_server.PNG

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          • V
            viragomann @Knausepeter
            last edited by

            @knausepeter said in no communication between VPN and Client LAN:

            for the CSO config, i now have 2 client, each with one local network:

            Why two?
            You need a CSO only for the local network with the Starlink connection, but not for access server clients.

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            • K
              Knausepeter @viragomann
              last edited by Knausepeter

              @viragomann

              Why two?

              You need a CSO only for the local network with the Starlink connection, but not for access server clients.

              i made a new picture:
              Untitled Document.png

              This is the current configuration as it is currently set up. i have my main network (10.200.104.0) and a remote network (192.168.15.0) later i will add many more remote networks that should all communicate with the main network but not with each other. These do not exist yet, but will be added in the future.

              The smartphone should also be part of the VPN for service purposes, to get to the web interfaces in case of emergency (not mandatory but nice) could be an Android phone with OpenVPN connect app.

              You can see in this picture, that i set the local pfSense as Standard gateway to sort out sources of error. And i changed the IP-Range of the VPN as mentioned above.

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              • V
                viragomann @Knausepeter
                last edited by

                @knausepeter
                With regard to your obvious troubles with CSO I want to repeat my suggestion from an upper post to put that VPN connection behind which you want to access servicse on a separate server.
                Otherwise apart from CSO you need to enable communication between all VPN clients connected to the server, which might not be desired. It is not possible this way to control the traffic between the clients with firewall rules on pfSense, cause it doesn't pass the filter part.

                What are your concerns on running multiple OpenVPN servers?

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                • K
                  Knausepeter @viragomann
                  last edited by Knausepeter

                  @viragomann said in no communication between VPN and Client LAN:

                  What are your concerns on running multiple OpenVPN servers?

                  this whole setup will be much bigger in the future, i will explain what is planned in the future.

                  right now we have a Router at our local office that manages the local network as well as providing an openVPN server for all remote sites over the first internet connection. this is working fine.
                  Now my boss wants a second path for communication in case something happens to the first path like a power outage (we have emergency power but in case of a local power outage we would still have no internet).

                  Now my boss read something about pfSense and was excited and bought a starlink dish and a super expensive server for the second VPN server.

                  The problem now is, that starlink cannot provide a static IP-adress and my boss don't want any dynDNS services. So we cannot run a Server at this location over Starlink because of the changing IP-adress.

                  But we have another server somewhere else with a static IP and pfSense installed so the idea is to set up the OpenVPN server there and tunnel from here to the server as well as from all other locations to that same server so we could establish a static connection this way over that server.

                  And it's my task to realize this 😧

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                  • V
                    viragomann @Knausepeter
                    last edited by

                    @knausepeter
                    Ok, but this long story doesn't bring any change to the conditions. You have multiple sites, one of them is the main location, the others I'll call branches. All branches should be able to access services in the main location, but don't need to talk to each other.

                    Since the main location has a dynamic IP and hence cannot run the server, you want to set up a central VPN server, where the main and all branches should connect to via OpenVPN to enable the desired communication.
                    This is the server we're talking about.

                    And now my question again is, why do you want run multiple VPN servers to realize this?
                    It doensn't matter if this is an expensive hardware or not at all. An OpenVPN server doesn't need much resources, so you can also run multiple instances on a small hardware, but easier to set up the routing between the connected clients.
                    Your option is to go with CSO as I mentioned in my first post here, but that doesn't seem to be familiar to your.

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                    • K
                      Knausepeter @viragomann
                      last edited by Knausepeter

                      @viragomann said in no communication between VPN and Client LAN:

                      Ok, but this long story doesn't bring any change to the conditions. You have multiple sites, one of them is the main location, the others I'll call branches. All branches should be able to access services in the main location, but don't need to talk to each other.

                      Since the main location has a dynamic IP and hence cannot run the server, you want to set up a central VPN server, where the main and all branches should connect to via OpenVPN to enable the desired communication.

                      This is the server we're talking about.

                      Exactly!

                      And now my question again is, why do you want run multiple VPN servers to realize this?

                      The new machine runs the pfSense among other things that should replace the "old" Router that is hosting the present VPN Server. In the future the pfSense machine should run 1 server, that connects to the main Internet and the client that connects to the remote server (what i'm trying to realise right now). Then the old router goes somewhere else.

                      As soon as my setup works, all the other locations will be moved to the pfsense.

                      to get back on topic, I think I'm close to a breakthrough, I just think I entered something wrong in the CSO, it can't be that much now.

                      do i have to enter something at the clientside pfSense openVPN config?

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                      • V
                        viragomann @Knausepeter
                        last edited by

                        @knausepeter
                        Okay, however why do you still not respond to my question which I asked three times already?

                        And why put you as much time in a mediocre solution and ignoring all drawbacks?

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                        • K
                          Knausepeter
                          last edited by

                          @viragomann said in no communication between VPN and Client LAN:

                          Okay, however why do you still not respond to my question which I asked three times already?

                          why do you want run multiple VPN servers to realize this?

                          because we need a guaranteed connection and if the first internet connection fails the remote sites must fall back to the second VPN connection, this would be a lesser problem, if our second internet connection had a static ip, but since starlink hasn't a static ip, this was our solution. This whole mess what i'm trying to do here is just for the emergency case. But i think i also answered this already (no offense)

                          And why put you as much time in a mediocre solution and ignoring all drawbacks?

                          good question, i keep asking this myself for days... because i try to realise what my managing director wants... do you have a better idea? i need to utilize the new fancy hardware and starlink...

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                          • V
                            viragomann @Knausepeter
                            last edited by

                            @knausepeter
                            In order not to be misunderstood, I'm talking about running two OpenVPN servers on a unique pfSense box. This one which has a static public IP.
                            For instance you run one OpenVPN server on port 1194 for the branches and a second one as site-to-site on port 1195 for the client in the main location.

                            This way you can properly route the traffic from one VPN server to the other one as well as to the client in main location and you are able to control the traffic by filter rules.

                            K 1 Reply Last reply Reply Quote 1
                            • K
                              Knausepeter @viragomann
                              last edited by

                              @viragomann

                              In order not to be misunderstood, I'm talking about running two OpenVPN servers on a unique pfSense box. This one which has a static public IP.

                              For instance you run one OpenVPN server on port 1194 for the branches and a second one as site-to-site on port 1195 for the client in the main location.

                              Why didn't i think of this?! Didn't know, that this works that easy but it's a good point, thank you.

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