Tunnels & UDP

[Silver-0-surfer]

Hi

I am in the process of setting up a radius server to do authentication for my wireless users.

RADIUS uses UDP, and the problem I am having is that on occation UDP packets sent from my NAS does not reach the server, the joys of UDP. So I was wondering, if I set up a pptp tunnel from my NAS to the server and shunt all the UDP RADIUS packets accross it, is there a better chance of my packets arriving or won't it make any difference?

 

[syntax]

Hi

I am in the process of setting up a radius server to do authentication for my wireless users.

RADIUS uses UDP, and the problem I am having is that on occation UDP packets sent from my NAS does not reach the server, the joys of UDP. So I was wondering, if I set up a pptp tunnel from my NAS to the server and shunt all the UDP RADIUS packets accross it, is there a better chance of my packets arriving or won't it make any difference?

Not much, i suppose you can monitor the tunnel then to make sure its up, but the delivery process will still be best effort..

 

[syntax]

Mybb is double posting and i cant delete this one for some reason...sorry

 

[daffy]

PPTP will use GRE to transport your packets, but they'll still be UDPish in nature. (very vague, I know. Its just too early for me to come up with a better explanation)

This won't really help you if you're worried about reliability.

I'd suggest prioritising RADIUS traffic (if you have end to end control of the network)

 

[syntax]

PPTP will use GRE to transport your packets, but they'll still be UDPish in nature. (very vague, I know. Its just too early for me to come up with a better explanation)

This won't really help you if you're worried about reliability.

I'd suggest prioritising RADIUS traffic (if you have end to end control of the network)

IE best effort/connectionless....

 

[Silver-0-surfer]

Oh well.. I guess theres no getting around that then :/ thanks

 

[daffy]

Just fix your network
Packet loss is bad. Even 1% is bad.
I've had customers demand credit for 0.2% packet loss (and they got credit too)

 

[Silver-0-surfer]

it not really that easy, these packets are crossing the internet (ADSL) which I have little control of.
Short of getting a leased line at all locations, my hands are tied.

 

[daffy]

You could try establishing an OpenVPN link (TCP) between your AP and Core.
At least its TCP, so the packets will be reliably transmitted.

 

[Silver-0-surfer]

Even UDP packets?

 

[daffy]

Yeah, because all the traffic will be encapsulated within a TCP connection.

 

[Silver-0-surfer]

Awesome, thanks I'll check that out