SoftEther Questions (And other VPN options)

carstensdj

carstensdj

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Hi All,

I am looking at setting up a nationwide VPN between my office PC's (JHB Office and CPT office) and my various sites. The client software at the sites should be able to see the PC's at the office running the server software, over the internet and via a "local address".

From a previous thread of mine, a few options were suggested which include:

- Comodo Unite
- LogMeIn Hamachi
- OpenVPN
- SoftEther

I have taken a look at SoftEther as it is open source and seems to have alot in terms of ways to set it up / features etc...

This weekend i logged into my SoftEther server at work (through the SoftEther DNS) and could connect fine to my VPN, but could not ping any of the local addresses of any of my machines at the office even though i was connected to the VPN. Does anyone know how to get the correct IP assigned to me for when i log into the office VPN? It's giving me a 169.xxx.xxx.xxx instead of 192.168.1.xxx and i suspect this is why i cant ping any of my machines at the office while connected to my VPN. Assistance would be GREATLY appreciated!

Secondly, of the above listed products (or any others you may know about), what would you recommend i use to implement this VPN solution. Thanks!
 
Try allocating a free static IP address in the correct range for the vpn virtual network adapter. It sounds like your client might not be able to contact a DHCP server on your LAN for some reason.

You shouldn't need to use a second NIC on the VPN server unless it is also your internet gateway or some such. The setup I had was Firewall listening on static external IP >> Port forward to VPN Server static IP on LAN.

I also had a couple of issues with the port numbers as 443 was already forwarded on my firewall and the VPN server I couldn't connect on 5555 as suggested in the Softether documentation. In the end I forwarded 5555 from the firewall to 443 on the vpn server and since then it has worked like a charm.
 
InvisibleJim said:
Try allocating a free static IP address in the correct range for the vpn virtual network adapter. It sounds like your client might not be able to contact a DHCP server on your LAN for some reason.

You shouldn't need to use a second NIC on the VPN server unless it is also your internet gateway or some such. The setup I had was Firewall listening on static external IP >> Port forward to VPN Server static IP on LAN.

I also had a couple of issues with the port numbers as 443 was already forwarded on my firewall and the VPN server I couldn't connect on 5555 as suggested in the Softether documentation. In the end I forwarded 5555 from the firewall to 443 on the vpn server and since then it has worked like a charm.
Click to expand...
Thanks for the input. Very much appreciated.

I am able to connect to my SoftEther server through port 5555 with no problems, only problem is not being able to ping any of my office devices on their "local" (office) IP's, even when connected to VPN.

As you suggested, i have assigned my VPN adapter (at home) a static address which fits in with my office network, but still no luck.
 
Can you try configuring to connect on 443? 5555 should work but like I said, I had a few funny problems with that and I came to the conclusion that one of Softether's current quirks is that it works better on 443.
 
Sorry to hear that.

You can connect fine to the VPN server but the server program isn't communicating with the local network?

Maybe have a look at the Local Bridge settings on the server and see if there is anything amiss there.
 
InvisibleJim said:
Sorry to hear that.

You can connect fine to the VPN server but the server program isn't communicating with the local network?

Maybe have a look at the Local Bridge settings on the server and see if there is anything amiss there.
Click to expand...

Thanks, read up on it and needed to bridge my virtual adapter to my ether adapter on the server side. Then added some routes on my client side in cmd and all works. Thanks for your assistance
 
Glad you came right. Would like to here how you find the site-to-site performance when you have that up and running.
 
carstensdj said:
Yea sure. I'll let you know how my project comes along as i implement it and if it works/performs...
Click to expand...

Quite curious to hear how you are finding the solution - performance/stability wise.

I have a client who currently uses MWeb ADSL Multi-Site with VPN but the price they are paying to have all sites linked up vs what they actually need/use is becoming quite high.

SoftEther is quite high up on the list of potential alternatives, so would be nice to get some real-world feedback prior to setting up the test environment.
 
Flidiot said:
Quite curious to hear how you are finding the solution - performance/stability wise.

I have a client who currently uses MWeb ADSL Multi-Site with VPN but the price they are paying to have all sites linked up vs what they actually need/use is becoming quite high.

SoftEther is quite high up on the list of potential alternatives, so would be nice to get some real-world feedback prior to setting up the test environment.
Click to expand...

Hey Flidiot,

So far i am finding SoftEther great and not that difficult to setup at all. To make my particular solution work i have had to bridge network adapters in Windows and then manually add routes between different ranges etc in CMD, but nothing which was too difficult at all. Guess it all depends on your IT knowledge (of which mine is just above average, but i am NO IT guru... lol)

I have been extremely busy lately between home life, work life etc, so haven't had much time to get this whole solution working as i would have liked, but i slowly add things and test things when i have the time.

So far i have 1x Server and 3x clients connected in a little VPN over a mix of 3G and ADSL and it's working great!
 
carstensdj said:
Hey Flidiot,

So far i am finding SoftEther great and not that difficult to setup at all. To make my particular solution work i have had to bridge network adapters in Windows and then manually add routes between different ranges etc in CMD, but nothing which was too difficult at all. Guess it all depends on your IT knowledge (of which mine is just above average, but i am NO IT guru... lol)

I have been extremely busy lately between home life, work life etc, so haven't had much time to get this whole solution working as i would have liked, but i slowly add things and test things when i have the time.

So far i have 1x Server and 3x clients connected in a little VPN over a mix of 3G and ADSL and it's working great!
Click to expand...

Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious about something - how are you utilising it at the moment? Do you have a client running on a server at each site? Or just certain users that VPN into the server at main office?

I am wondering how it would function if the "main" server was setup as the SoftEther server and having each sub-site connect to it by using Routing and Remote Access. It should work, in theory... Itching to get it setup in a test environment now :erm:
 
Flidiot said:
Thanks for the feedback.

I am curious about something - how are you utilising it at the moment? Do you have a client running on a server at each site? Or just certain users that VPN into the server at main office?

I am wondering how it would function if the "main" server was setup as the SoftEther server and having each sub-site connect to it by using Routing and Remote Access. It should work, in theory... Itching to get it setup in a test environment now :erm:
Click to expand...
The way that i've got it setup is as follows:

SERVER: I've put the Server software (SoftEther) on a PC of mine at work which runs Windows 7 PRO x86 and set it up as a Virtual Hub with a few users which i have made. Softether also allows you to setup a FREE DNS name for your Virtual Hub/Server, which i have done and tied to this PC at work.

CLIENT 1: On my laptop i have installed just the client piece of the SoftEther software onto it and connected that to my Server at the office via the DNS name, port 5555 and a Pre-Setup Username and Password

CLIENT 2: My home desktop is also setup as a client, pointing to my work server in the same manner as my laptop but using a different login credential

CLIENT3: One of our smaller sites which is not very active... I have put a 3G modem on the machine at this site and have connected that PC to my Server at the office in the same manner as i did with client 1 & 2.

I work alot with CCTV and security, so it's very lekker to be at home, connect to my VPN and then view or work on any of my DVR's, NVR's or Cameras directly as if it was plugged into my LAN. I can also access all my work files, quotes etc etc on my mapped backup drive from home, as if i was sitting in the office...
 
Hello gurus

I need your assistance and guidance on a scenario below (please bear with me for the long story below as I would like to give as much details as possible)

At our small office we have a Linux Ubuntu server on which we have installed about 3 Windows virtual machines to run our various applications.
On one Windows 2003 Server VM I have a DB Server - which I access via an application which is mapped to a LoopBack IP address (192.168.30.2). I have installed the same application to access the DB Server on a remote laptop.
And therefore I have installed SoftEther VPN Server on the Windows 2003 Server VM to achieve this goal.
I have configured the SoftEther VPN server to use the virtual DHCP in order to assign the IP address in a range of 192.168.30.xx to all the connecting clients to the server. In addition I have created a bridge between the Virtual Hub and the loopback adapter on the SoftEther Server.

I am able to ping the DB Server using the loopback IP address (192.168.30.2) and can also be able to access the shared folders on the Windows 2003 server machine remotely from my laptop (I installed SoftEther Client on my laptop).
However when trying to access the DB Server on the remote Windows 2003 server using the DB application locally from my laptop (which is configured to connect using IP 192.168.30.2) I am unable to connect.

Could you please assist and advice where I could be going wrong.
Thanks in advance
 
Genie1 said:
Hello gurus

I need your assistance and guidance on a scenario below (please bear with me for the long story below as I would like to give as much details as possible)

At our small office we have a Linux Ubuntu server on which we have installed about 3 Windows virtual machines to run our various applications.
On one Windows 2003 Server VM I have a DB Server - which I access via an application which is mapped to a LoopBack IP address (192.168.30.2). I have installed the same application to access the DB Server on a remote laptop.
And therefore I have installed SoftEther VPN Server on the Windows 2003 Server VM to achieve this goal.
I have configured the SoftEther VPN server to use the virtual DHCP in order to assign the IP address in a range of 192.168.30.xx to all the connecting clients to the server. In addition I have created a bridge between the Virtual Hub and the loopback adapter on the SoftEther Server.

I am able to ping the DB Server using the loopback IP address (192.168.30.2) and can also be able to access the shared folders on the Windows 2003 server machine remotely from my laptop (I installed SoftEther Client on my laptop).
However when trying to access the DB Server on the remote Windows 2003 server using the DB application locally from my laptop (which is configured to connect using IP 192.168.30.2) I am unable to connect.

Could you please assist and advice where I could be going wrong.
Thanks in advance
Click to expand...

Hey Genie1, wow,you lost me a little there. My IT knowledge as far as DB Server etc goes is very limited...

However, i'm sure that we can figure something out through discussion relating to network settings, routing, firewalls etc... I didnt quite understand the part which i have highlighted, please explain in a different way if possible?
 
Hi Carstensdj & Iteology

As request to elaborate more on my scenario above (post #18).
I have a mini SAP system (runs on an Oracle DB) which is installed on the Windows 2003 Server which I am running as one of the VM on the Linux Ubuntu server.

To be able to interact with the mini SAP system I had to create a Loopback adapter (with static IP add: 192.168.30.2) on the Win 2003 server VM machine. To interact with the SAP system I use the SAP Logon Pad (a SAP presentation layer software) which is configured to connect to the SAP system via IP 192.168.30.2 (see screenshot below).

I am trying to interact with the mini SAP system from a local machine using SAP Logon Pad installed on the local machine. I have configured the SAP Logon Pad on the local machine to be the same IP address as the Loopback Adapter on the remote SAP Server system - however I am failing to connect remotely.
When I ping the loopback (192.168.30.2) I get the response and also when I access the shared files on the server via Windows Explorer using the IP address 192.168.30.2 I am able to interact with the server.

I hope the illustrated architecture below will shed some more clarity on the scenario.

SoftEther_Architecture.jpg
 
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