OpenVPN Support Forum

Hi everyone,

I have a Linksys WRT1900 router, which comes with OpenVPN. I want to use it to Remote Desktop into my office computer (I have a small business) or as an alternative, map a network drive from my office NAS fileserver so I can access work files from home.

I configured the router, added OpenVPN GUI to my home computer and I'm able to successfully connect into my office network (GUI shows a green light and says connected). I can confirm that I am connected because if I launch a browser on my home computer and type the office router's LAN IP address I can get into it's control panel. Same for my NAS fileserver and even the office printer. I can access all of their web-based control panels no problem.

However, I cannot get Remote Desktop to connect and also I am not able to map a network drive. Here's what I have tried:

REMOTE ACCESS
- I tried connecting using UDP and TCP and neither makes a difference

REMOTE DESKTOP
- I made sure that RDP is turned on in my office computer (I know it is because I used to connect directly via an open port). Still, I double checked and it's on.
- I tried connecting using the PC's name: BOSS. RDP says it cannot find the computer.
- I tried connecting using the PC's IP: 192.168.1.51. RDP says it cannot find the computer.

NETWORK MAP
- I tried mapping a network drive using \\server\clients and Windows couldn't find the folder, even though that is what it's called on my office network. I also just tried \\server and that didn't work either
- I tried mapping a network location using \\server\clients, the NAS LAN IP, and my office network's WAN IP and none worked

Finally, I tried downloading OpenVPN Connect and importing the .ovpn file from the router. It imported successfully, but when I tried to make a connection it came back with User Authentication Failed every time. I know I am entering the username and password correctly because I double-checked it on the router and I can connect via GUI.

Any assistance you can provide me is sincerely appreciated.

Regards,

Jose

Hi everyone,

I want to take a minute and update my post with how I solved the issue in case this helps someone else (it seems that there are a ton of these posts here an other places online).

Doing some research I found a post somewhere that explained that when the remote computer connects into OpenVPN it looks at the LAN as a WAN. So, entering a local IP or attempting to map a local device doesn't work because OpenVPN looks for that IP or network drive in the WAN, not the LAN (I hope I explained this correctly).

The post suggested editing the remote computer's Hosts file in Windows and adding the LAN IP addresses you're trying to reach. In my case, I added the following at the bottom of the file:

192.168.1.30 Server
192.168.1.51 Boss

I saved the file, restarted the computer, and reconnected to my network via OpenVPN and bingo! I was able to map my server both by IP address or by entering \\Server in the Map Drive dialog windows.

After that initial piece of success, I was still not able to reach my desktop to RPD. So, at the suggestion of a friend I reset Windows Firewall back to default policy. You do this by clicking on Advanced Settings in the firewall control panel, then clicking on Restore Default Policy on the right panel. That turned off Remote Desktop and reset it's policies.

I went to Remote Desktop in Settings and turned it back on and voila! I was able to RDP via OpenVPN both by entering my desktop's IP address or \\Boss into the RDP dialog window.

Hope this helps someone else.

Jose

Wow .. you learned to edit hosts ... hope this is not your day job.