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Forum Discussion
Enabling VPN service on a NETGEAR router using a MAC OS computer
Hello, I am trying to enable VPN Service on my MR60 Router with Firmware Version V1.1.7.134_2.0.65. I followed this knowledge base https://kb.netgear.com/25389/Enabling-VPN-service-on-a-NET...
I tried to test the ports from my Macbook. I was able to telnet to router port 23 but not 22. Am I confusing myself?
nc -vz <router_ip_address> 23
Connection to <router_ip_address> port 23 [tcp/telnet] succeeded!
nc -vz <router_ip_address> 22
nc: connectx to <router_ip_address> port 22 (tcp) failed: Connection refused
Am I confusing myself?
Maybe.
The VPN tunnel uses one set of ports, the applications use a different set. If you are accessing services on the NANO (like Telnet), that application traffic goes through the tunnel. Both TCP and UDP will go through that tunnel. The ports used by the applications (22,23, whatever) are NOT the same as the ports used to create the tunnel connection.
So you want to use
- the default ports for the both TAP and TUN in the OpenVPN settings on both the router and the OpenVPN client on the Macbook
- UDP for the tunnel itself (whether you are using TAP or TUN).
Once the VPN tunnel is established, you connect to the Nano using the same commands you'd use at home. So just run ssh from terminal to check it (or your usual telnet client if you want to use telnet for some reason).
You can't really test this with nc when the MacBook connected to your home network, because you can't tell whether the traffic is going through the tunnel or not. It is best to set up a hotspot on your phone, and then connect the macbook to your phone - so the traffic runs over the internet through the phone's mobile data connection.