AirVPN prevents port-forwarding to work correctly from the router

[cooperz 0]

Hi there,

I'm currently in the process of evaluating AirVPN, so I got a 1 month membership to test it.

My current setup is the following: I have an Airport Extreme router and a number of computers behind it.

The machine that is running the AirVPN is a Mac Mini (running 10.7). On this machine I have a number of services that I would like to access from the outside world not via the VPN connections, as well as some traffic that I would like to have mostly through VPN.

In general, all the traffic that originates from the Mac Mini should go from VPN, but if it's local traffic (192.168.1.x - router is .1, mac mini is .12), it should not go through it.

As an example, I have remote access via SSH on that machine (port 22), that is mapped via port forwarding from the router on port 50022.

If i try to ssh into the machine from another local machine, it works no problem. however, if I try to connect onto the machine via the internet IP, using port forwarding (connect from the outside world on port 50022), I cannot do it, as long as openvpn is working.

I know that AirVPN is supporting port forwarding as well, but then I would have to worry about figuring out the new IP every time I reconnect.

It is important that I can still honour the existing mapped forwarded ports and that I am not forced to use everything through AirVPN.

Any suggestions?

Regards,

A.

[Staff 9972]

I know that AirVPN is supporting port forwarding as well, but then I would have to worry about figuring out the new IP every time I reconnect.

Hello!

This is not a problem, every server has a unique exit-IP address, so you don't have to worry about it as long as you don't change VPN server. Just configure your sshd to listen to another port (because you can't forward ports lower than 2049).

It is important that I can still honour the existing mapped forwarded ports and that I am not forced to use everything through AirVPN.

This requires traffic splitting, a feature not supported by OpenVPN client. Alternatively force your sshd to bind to your physical interface, if you don't want it to run behind the VPN.

Kind regards

[cooperz 0]

Thanks for the info. I can work with that. The fact that the IP only changes when the server changes is great.

Also, just as a comment:

I do not have to change the port on which sshd binds (22), from what it looks like (which is great), as long as the outside port is over 2048.

that makes things easier.

It takes a bit of work, but I think I can work with this setup.

Regards,

A.