Client Purchase

[gelni]

I am evaluating the trial version as a number of increasing clients are requesting to access files remotely.

I have spent far too much time looking around this forum in order to get it to work. Without a DSL router it works fine - but with one - not so.

There is a lot of talk about - do this - try that - ping here - ping there - rip - 809 - port forwarding - etc - etc - etc!!!

I can see the network - I can see the computer - the screen colour is yellow but I when I double click I can't access any of the files.

Is there a basic PLAIN English answer to setting this thing up behind a DSL Router?

On your website it says that it is easy to install - but the majority of the topics on the forum is about having problems when a router is involved!

[Pascal]

If you see the computer that is simply because the machine is known on the other network. The information about the machine is transferred using the control channel, so if you can establish a connection you will get that information.

However, the data channel (Actual carrier of the network traffic) is UDP based. UDP is not a connection oriented protocol. Because of that you do need to configure intermediary firewalls / routers to ensure that the traffic reaches it's destination. When you are adding DSL routers into it (Very common, and generally very easy to setup) remember what has to happen.

A packet originating from a client machine (192.168.0.2) behind a VPN Node (192.168.0.1) must first discover that the VPN node is it's optimal route for the destination (192.168.10.2) it wants to send the packet to. This is why you have to install a RIP client on the client machines, add a static route OR use the VPN Node as your default gateway. Otherwise, the client machine is not going to know that the packet CAN be delivered to the remote network and will simply refuse to do it.

This packet has to go through the VPN Node, be routed out onto the internet (After being encrypted, etc.) and sent to what the VPN thinks is the recipient for 192.168.10.2. This will go to the public IP address of the remote machine, who, if it's connected straight to the internet will simply pass it on to the appropriate client. If you now add a DSL router at the remote client it must do a few things.

First, it must be willing and ready to accept that packet. Otherwise, it's built in firewall (If it has one) will drop the packet and your VPN will never see it. Hence, you need to open the firewall hole.

Secondly, the packet will be arriving in an encrypted state, wrapped for the VPN. Your DSL router will not be able to understand the encrypted payload. All it will know is that this packet is destined to it on port 809 UDP. So, you need to tell it to forward that packet to a computer that will understand that packet - the VPN Node.

We do have some guides available - but the exact resolution to the problem depends on your setup and what is causing the problem. From the sound of it, all that should be necessary is for you to ensure that traffic arriving at the DSL Router on the VPN port will be forwarded to the VPN Node.