GraemeEvans
I am trying to use my laptop to connect remotely to my desktop, which is connected (via an Ethernet cable) to the LAN in my office - so that I can drive it (from remote locations) using Windows Remote Desktop, and upload / download files when needed.
The office router is an ASUS DSL-AC68U (with a 1Gb fibre connection to the Internet). My desktop computer has Win 10 Pro, and is configured with a fixed/static IP of 192.168.50.21 on the LAN.
My laptop has Win 10 Pro, and I have installed "OpenVPN-install-2.4.8-1602-Win10.exe" on it. When used remotely, it connects to the Internet through my phone. OpenVPN GUI launches OK, and can connect remotely to the ASUS router. My laptop can then ping the router on both the VPN subnet (192.168.60.1) and on the LAN subnet (192.168.50.1). The router also shows the notebook as being connected (in its browser interface).
However, the notebook cannot see (or even ping) my desktop, or any other device on the LAN. When the notebook is connected directly to the LAN, it can ping my desktop (and drive it using Windows Remote DeskTop, access files, etc.) - no trouble.
(Clutching at straws, I have installed "OpenVPN-install-2.4.8-1602-Win10.exe" on the desktop also, and have tried pinging it on the VPN subnet too. But no joy with this either. If I understand VPNs correctly, there should be no need for the desktop to run the VPN client. Is that correct?)
Has anyone got any suggestions what to try next?
For what its worth, here is my "Asus_client.ovpn" for the laptop - which was generated by the ASUS router according to its OpenVPN config settings:
remote 121.*.*.47 ???? (Obfuscated)
float
nobind
proto udp
dev tun
sndbuf 0
rcvbuf 0
keepalive 15 60
comp-lzo adaptive
auth-user-pass
client
auth SHA1
reneg-sec 3600
remote-cert-tls server
<ca>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...= (Obfuscated)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</ca>
<cert>
-----BEGIN CERTIFICATE-----
...= (Obfuscated)
-----END CERTIFICATE-----
</cert>
<key>
-----BEGIN PRIVATE KEY-----
...= (Obfuscated)
-----END PRIVATE KEY-----
</key>
