SoftEther VPN Server

[pschmehl]

My first post in this forum - http://www.snbforums.com/threads/need-advice-on-vpn-routers.34672/ - discussed my need to find a vpn router. My needs are very simple. I am the only user. I need to connect remotely to view and manage one security cam. When I connect, no one will be using the computer that the VPN server is running on.

I decided to install SoftEther VPN - https://www.softether.org/ - and use L2TP over IPSec to create a VPN tunnel to my home network. Installing and configuring it was very simple. I won't detail it here, because they have excellent tutorials that do that - https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howto

It's open source and completely free (provided by a Japanese university) and available for Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux. It even includes a free dynamic dns service, which makes getting up and running very simple.

There was one catch that I either missed or was neglected in the docs. After I setup the virtual VPN host and the L2TP over IPSec tunnel, I could connect and authenticate but then the connection was dropped. It turns out you have to create a bridge between the virtual VPN adapter and the physical adapter of the machine that's running the server.

I can now connect to my VPN server from the internet using my Mac and my iPhone, which is very convenient.

A note for those who aren't too familiar with L2TP over IPSec. You have to open 3 UDP ports on your firewall (or forward them on your router); 500 udp, 1701 udp and 4500 udp.

For those of you who don't have high demand issues, or have a box that isn't being heavily used, this might be the solution to a low cost VPN alternative.​

 

[nayr]

Thank you very much, I tried suggesting SoftEther as an alternative but people couldn't figure it out and I dont need to run it my self personally so I gave up pointing it out as an option.

Glad someone managed to get it up and working all by them selves, great work.

a tip since you have more than one device, create 2 logins.. username: mac and iphone, then generate really long random passwords and store them on the device.. this way even you dont really know the passphrase offhand, it cant be brute forced and authorization is per-device.. so when someone jacks your iphone you can simply set a new password, locking out the old phone and granting access to new replacement w/out mucking w/other devices that didnt get lost/stolen.. this strategy scales very well and dont require changing passwords on a half dozen devices because you lost faith in one of em.

especially since portable iDevices are some of the most pilfered electronics known to man.

 

[FrankOceanXray]

Does not say about Win10 Pro. Compatible?

 

[GKL]

My first post in this forum - Need advice on VPN routers - discussed my need to find a vpn router. My needs are very simple. I am the only user. I need to connect remotely to view and manage one security cam. When I connect, no one will be using the computer that the VPN server is running on.

I decided to install SoftEther VPN - SoftEther VPN Project - SoftEther VPN Project - and use L2TP over IPSec to create a VPN tunnel to my home network. Installing and configuring it was very simple. I won't detail it here, because they have excellent tutorials that do that - Tutorials - SoftEther VPN Project

It's open source and completely free (provided by a Japanese university) and available for Windows, Mac and Unix/Linux. It even includes a free dynamic dns service, which makes getting up and running very simple.

There was one catch that I either missed or was neglected in the docs. After I setup the virtual VPN host and the L2TP over IPSec tunnel, I could connect and authenticate but then the connection was dropped. It turns out you have to create a bridge between the virtual VPN adapter and the physical adapter of the machine that's running the server.

I can now connect to my VPN server from the internet using my Mac and my iPhone, which is very convenient.

A note for those who aren't too familiar with L2TP over IPSec. You have to open 3 UDP ports on your firewall (or forward them on your router); 500 udp, 1701 udp and 4500 udp.

For those of you who don't have high demand issues, or have a box that isn't being heavily used, this might be the solution to a low cost VPN alternative. ​

I downloaded and installed the Softether software and I have been trying for hours to get a connection between my windows phone and the Softether server on my laptop and after I know I can remotely access the Softether server from my windows phone I'll then hook up my IP camera and try to connect to that from my windows phone.

I'm trying to get an L2TP with IPsec connection between my windows phone VPN client and the Softether server, at first I was getting error code 1460 on my windows phone, tried changing some things now I keep getting error message 720 on my windows phone.

I know Softether should work with windows phones because I read of others being able to do it.

Please, does anyone know how to fix windows phone error 720 ?

I don't have any idea whether settings need to be changed in my Softether setup, or in my router setup, or on my laptop computer, or on the windows phone, or a combination of any of those. I could have router settings wrong or incomplete, when you are new at this and router directions are very basic it's almost a guessing game as what info to plug in where.

I am very new at VPN and router configuring, but I have tried searching the web and reading a lot to try to figure this out on my own before bothering anyone with more questions, but I still am not even sure what to check first.

I already saw their help page at https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howto/9.L2TPIPsec_Setup_Guide_for_SoftEther_VPN_Server/1.Setup_L2TP////IPsec_VPN_Server_on_SoftEther_VPN_Server , but maybe my router is not set up right.