[Solved] Cannot get to the internet through a bridged VPN

liquidsmoke

Hi,
I am trying to configure a VPN server at home to allow all traffic (including internet) to use the server internet connection. The server (192.168.1.2) is connected to the internet at home through a router (192.168.1.1). The router is also the DNS server. Currently I have the VPN operational. The client is getting a 192.168.1.200 address and can ping all the machines on the 192.168.1.x network, however internet traffic is not working, i.e i cannot ping google and tracert does not work. DNS appears to be working ok.

I am using windows server 2008 r2 as the server and client. I think it might be a routing problem, but in my mind, the client machine is just like being on the 192.168.1.x network so it should just use the 192.168.1.1 as default gateway and happy days? Or maybe not...hopefully someone can help 🙂

Please see my config below:

port 443
proto tcp
dev tap
dev-node tap-bridge
ca ca.crt
cert server.crt
key server.key  # This file should be kept secret
dh dh1024.pem
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
server-bridge 192.168.1.2 255.255.255.0 192.168.1.200 192.168.1.254
push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"
push "dhcp-option DNS 192.168.1.1"
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3

liquidsmoke

Debbie,
Thanks for the reply. I have not added any routing onto the gateway (it's a BT Homehub). As the gateway on the server side LAN is 192.168.1.1, then surely I wouldn't need to do this as everything is still on that same 192.168.1.x subnet? I can ping 192.168.1.1 from the remote VPN client once connected. I can see how I would need routing if using TUN routing type, but not TAP bridged?

I hear you but I'm not fussed about using the common IP subnets as there will only ever be a single client connected to the VPN.

The IP forwarding requirement is news to me. Can you tell me the reg key to edit? Maybe you could also help me to understand why I need this; as everything is on the same logical network, as long as the VPN client is using the correct gateway then it should work surely? Evidently I am wrong, but I would love to know why 🙂

Many thanks!

liquidsmoke

Hey - yeah i could ping the homehub with the client...

So I just figured this out. It's pretty simple and seems to now be working by magic. So here is the secret ingredient for anyone else trying to get a Win 2008 R2 to work as a server in bridged mode: You must simply enable the basic IPv4 router with the basic default options. You can do this by running the Routing and Remote Access wizard and choosing the custom option. Add the role first if you don't have it already. Then it magically works. By default it shows IPv4 forwarding enabled which I think is the only thing it's really doing. I'm still not entirely sure why this is required as everything is on the same network but hey...

Further more the reg key detailed elsewhere on the web for Win7 is still not enabled.
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Value: IPEnableRouter

Good luck.