Pfsense VM and OpenVNP..... Maybe port issues?

[pm1961]

Help please Unraiders.... !

I have a query relating to making OpenVPN work again through a newly installed pfsense VM.

The short story....

Is that OpenVPN worked fine through my Netgear router.... and now it doesn’t when using pfsense in a VM and I think it's a port issue.

The long story.......

Before, I had a perfectly functioning network of two unraid boxes in my loft and a variety of windows pcs around the house. Unraid1 is my NAS with various dockers including OpenVPN. Unraid2 is a recent acquisition to experiment with, and learn about, VM’s.

LAN duties and Internet access was through a conventional Netgear router.

All was well..... access locally and remotely was flawless. External access was using OpenVPN and DuckDNS and worked a treat. External client access worked fine across all OS..... windows.... iPad.... and android phone..... happy days....

Until...... I decided to give pfsense a try on my new VM server and relieve the Netgear machine of all duties bar wireless access.

The Netgear was successfully relieved of DHCP duties and reconfigured as a wireless AP.

Pfsense was duly installed as a VM on box 2 and works beautifully on the LAN.

The WAN also works fine with regards to internet access and the old Netgear box on WiFi duty, so all is well inside the house.

With the original OpenVPN docker still on box 1, I thought it would be a simple case of port forwarding 1194 on pfsense....... well, that didn’t work.....

I then removed OpenVPN from box 1 and installed it on box2 (which has the pfsense VM on it). That didn’t work either......

So, I removed that docker and tried the built in version of OpenVPN in pfsense.

And that doesn’t work either....

On the pfsense dashboard, all is “green”... the dynamic DNS is reporting my WAN address as it always has. The services tab is showing that OpenVPN is also running fine.

The common problem from all the client log files is a “TLS timeout” comment...

So, my thought was that port 1194 wasn’t opening correctly......

But, I can’t see anything wrong with what I’ve done.

I’ve run out of ideas, so I’d welcome fresh eyes and any ideas please.

Just as an aside, I can’t get ( and have never been able to get) any of the web based Port Checkers to work on my machines. Not only do they tell me that 1194 is closed, but they tell me that EVERY port I try is closed (even when AVG and firewall is turned off)  Yet the machine happily works away on the internet, does emails, Remote Desktop etc etc......

Many thanks,

Paul

 

 

 

Edited February 27, 2020 by pm1961

[pm1961]

Is there anybody out there running pfsense in a VM and openVPN willing to share their setup with me please?
 

Paul

[1812]

I use to run pfsense in a vm and also used openvpn(the built in). Anytime I didn’t follow a guide to set it up, I would always screw up something, usually with firewall certificates, or user certificates not linked to the correct server cert. the same goes with port forwarding, easy to misconfigure as the labels and descriptors are not always intuitive.

so my first question would be did you follow a guide or go commando in setting up the vm? Same question with the poet forward?

 

i currently use sophos in a vm so I don’t have anything I can directly share. But I think my older pfsense vm is still on the server if you wanted me to look at some settings.

 

also your ip is visible in the second picture.

Edited February 27, 2020 by 1812

[pm1961]

Hi 1812,

 

Thanks for the reply....

 

Yes, I followed the guides I found on the internet in conjunction with the supplied wizards..... Also, I followed SpaceinvaderOne's tutorial, but he didn't go on to show the OpenVPN bit....

 

I've given up with trying to get the integrated OpenVPN working for now.... I'll try again with the docker....

 

I'm convinced the problem is the port forwarding but I can't see it.......

 

Thanks for the heads up with the ip address!