Plusnet blocking Open VPN port 1194 TCP and UDP

[#1]

I recently tried to unsuccessfully to set up an Open VPN server behind my plusnet hub one router by trying to forward incoming connections on port 1194 to my VPN server on my LAN.

I found the following problems:

1. There is no Open VPN port forwarding rules to select amongst the preset options listed in the plusnet hub one routers menu.

2. I was able to enter 1194 manually for the incoming and local ports, but found that even when I did this and used an open port checking tool that 1194 still remained closed.

3. I also logged into my plusnet account online as there is a firewall option (not to be confused with the firewall on the hub one router) and set this to OFF which should in theory open all ports to the router. Using the port checking tool port 1194 still remains closed.

4. I phoned plusnet technical support who said port forwarding in general is not something they support and were unable to offer any help.

Thinking the plusnet hub one router may be faulty or just too restricted for needs I bought a new router, an ASUS DSL-AC68U to completely replace it.

Once I'd set the ASUS router up and got the basic internet settings working correctly I went into the port forwarding rules to set up port 1194 again. A port checking tool confirmed that port 1194 still remains closed.

I have tried forwarding other ports like port 5000 TCP and this shows as open with the port checking tool, which confirms that my method for port forwarding is working.

Conclusion is that plusnet is just totally blocking any connections on port 1194.

If anyone has a different experience or can offer a suggestion please do. 

[#2]

I use OpenVPN on PlusNet - I have 1194 UDP open and it works fine.

 Note you have to drop and reconnect the PPP session for the PlusNet Firewall changes to take effect - it could be that.

Can you see the connection attempt in your router firewall logs ?

[#3]

My Openvpn server works well via PN.

Port 1194 UDP.

I know other PN customers have had no problem using Openvpn with TCP .

[#4]

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@flanzm wrote:

I use OpenVPN on PlusNet - I have 1194 UDP open and it works fine.

 Note you have to drop and reconnect the PPP session for the PlusNet Firewall changes to take effect - it could be that.

Can you see the connection attempt in your router firewall logs ?

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Do you have the plusnet firewall set to OFF or LOW?

Will check my logs when I get home

[#5]

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@RichardB wrote:

My Openvpn server works well via PN.

Port 1194 UDP.

I know other PN customers have had no problem using Openvpn with TCP .

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Are you using your own router or the plusnet one?

[#6]

Hi,

I use Open VPN server on a raspberry pi with no issues but saying that I've setup my VPN not to use the default port, so the port forwarding rule has my chosen port and not 1194 and it is set to UDP only.

I'd check the firewall setting in the members centre and make sure it set to LOW.

Home > Member Centre > Connection Settings > Set My Broadband Firewall

Please note most port checkers only check if TCP ports are open Open VPN is usually UDP.

Dan.

[#7]

My PlusNet firewall is OFF - would rather control it myself.

[#8]

Looking through some other posts https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Blocked-Ports/td-p/1553048

I can confirm that as well as port 1194, I am not able to open 8082 and 8080 either.

[#9]

Did you check the state of the ON firewall as suggested by Dan_the_van in post 6?

Dan even provided a link....

[#10]

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@massive wrote:

Are you using your own router or the plusnet one?

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I use my own router a TP link archer c7 and an open reach modem.

I have not used a vanilla hub one.

I bought a hub one pre loaded with openwrt/lede for my parents PN connection, from the well known auction site.

I also installed an  Openvpn server on the router.

No problems connecting to the server using port 1194 and UDP.

If you have an open reach modem you could use a PC to establish the PPPoe connection to PN and test port 1194.

Richard

[#11]

@massive 

What is the Firewall log file reporting when you attempt to connect?

Troubleshooting >Event Log >Cateragory drop down select Firewall

Dan

[#12]

Here's the error I get all the time

Sep 18 16:12:38 vpnserver1[29000]: 193.201.132.244:11778 TLS: Initial packet from [AF_INET]193.201.132.244:11778 (via [AF_INET]150.143.118.12%ppp0), sid=9576ff2b d2678840
Sep 18 16:13:38 vpnserver1[29000]: 193.201.132.244:11778 TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity)
Sep 18 16:13:38 vpnserver1[29000]: 193.201.132.244:11778 TLS Error: TLS handshake failed
Sep 18 16:13:38 vpnserver1[29000]: 193.201.132.244:11778 SIGUSR1[soft,tls-error] received, client-instance restarting

[#13]

Hi,

Clearly this is a network related issue, what you haven't indicated is which platform have you installed OpenVPN? (Windows 10, Windows server etc ?)

1). Have you check that system where VPN is installed for a firewall and are the ports you require are open?

2). With Port Forwarding you can only test a port is open if the device you connect to is turned on and there is an application listening for a connection on the defined port. I use http://www.canyouseeme.org/

3). Running netstat command should provide the answer if the ports are listening.

3). You can test a TCP port will accept connection using telnet on your local lan. example telnet 192.168.1.200 8080, you'll get a connection refused message if the connection can not be made. You can not use telnet for UDP testing.

 4). Have you looked on OpenVPN site for help? Open VPN TLS error

On my Hub One I have port forwarded TCP connections on 8080, 8081 and 8082 with no issues.

Dan.

[#14]

As I previously stated in my original post:

I have tried forwarding other ports like port 5000 TCP and this shows as open with the port checking tool, which confirms that my method for port forwarding is working

As a work around I am actually able to access my VPN over TCP port 443, but I want it to be UDP 1194 (I've also tried TCP 1194, but that is blocked too)

In answer to some of your questions:

1. There is no firewall on my VPN server

2. This is not true

[#15]

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@massive wrote:

1. There is no firewall on my VPN server

What OS are you running on the Raspberry Pi? Are you sure there are no iptables rules configured?

2. This is not true

In my experience it is.

@massive wrote:

Looking through some other posts https://community.plus.net/t5/My-Router/Blocked-Ports/td-p/1553048

I can confirm that as well as port 1194, I am not able to open 8082 and 8080 either.

In the instance you've linked to, the issue is almost certainly due to misconfiguration of the user's network as evidenced in my closing post.

Like others in this thread, I have successfully forwarded ports 8080, 8082 and 1194 using my Plusnet FTTC connection in the past without experiencing any issues