VPN problem

[kevlaw]

I have a BT Home Hub 3, and VPN setup on a server.

I have enabled a new application using port 1723 on port forwarding as well as enabling PPTP.

I have found the public IP address of the router using a site that tells you what it is (don't know if that is right, but it's the only way I knew of doing it). 

When I try to connect to the public IP address the client machine can't find it.  As a test I have made sure that inward pings are allowed on the router, but when I try to ping the public IP all packets are lost.

I'm probably doing something pretty basic wrong, but does anyone know what it may be?

[Pastieb]

which vpn product are you using?if it is the one built in to win7/8 you made need to make a new rule in the software firewall.
Sheilds up on grc.com can tell you if the port is open on the router/firewall.

[Burkem5]

HI there kevlaw

Are you trying to ping the hub public IP from a device connected to that hub?

What happens if you ping this from a site such as network-tools.com or ping.eu ?

Thanks

Burkem5

[kevlaw]

Thanks both.

I was trying from on the internal network, and a ping from ping.eu does indeed get a response.

Shields Up!! reported that the router did not respond to the UPnP probes.

Indeed, running a port check on ping.eu shows the port 1723 as being 'closed', so I guess that is the problem, but I have defined an 'application' of 'VPN' with a port of 1723, and a bit of experimentation has left me none the wiser!

[Burkem5]

Hi Kevlaw, 

Can you go into the Business network section of the hub and assign a local static IP (and take a note of the IP) to the device that you want to open the port forwarding to,   then can you set the port forwarding against that IP rather than the device.

Then reboot both the router and device and try the port scan again,  if that does not work then go into the hub menu.

Then click Troubleshooting and then event log,  then select firewall from the drop down.

Now all you need to do is search for the IP (ctrl + f then fire in the IP) and look for "allowed" or "blocked"

If its allowed on the router and the port scan then you are ok

If its blocked on the port scan and allowed on the router then the router is letting the data through and something behind the router is blocking it.

If its blocked on both then double check your set up. 

Bear in mind that only TCP ports will show in this log and not UDP ports.

Hope this helps

Burkem5

[kevlaw]

Thank you.

I followed your instructions, and it indicated a problem on the PC, so I temporarily turned off the firewall, and that did then show the port as open.

Unfortunately, I still couldn't connect, getting an error 800 saying the VPN tunnels failed, so still no success.

I apreciate that may be beyond the scope of a BT forum!