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ghbarratt's avatar
ghbarratt
Aspirant
Mar 07, 2023

Unable to SSH with PuTTY with AnyConnect VPN through an Orbi 960

I installed an Orbi 960 wireless router yesterday. I can connect to my (work) AnyConnect VPN, but when I try to SSH using PuTTY it just hangs. I didn't have this probably with my previous router yesterday.

 

What do I need to do to allow SSH to a (work/AnyConnect) VPN with my Orbi 960?

3 Replies

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    Mar 07, 2023

    The Orbi router will not have a 'setting' to allow/disallow use of a specific protocol within a VPN connection.  All the router 'knows' is that some device on the network wants to send data from a specific port on the device to a specific IP address and port on the internet.  The router does this with encrypted web pages.

     

    My guess is that "something has changed" with the router replacement, although it is surprising that the connection is successful and it is only one application protocol that fails.  Do other connections to the work network succeed? (web page? telnet? FTP? mail?)

     

    I'd call the IT folks.  They must have employees changing ISPs and routers all the time.

  • ghbarratt's avatar
    ghbarratt
    Aspirant
    Mar 09, 2023
    This issue was resolved without any action from me or support.

    I had tried connecting with PuTTy about a dozen times before and it didn't work. When I was experiencing the SSH failure, other things seemed to work fine while connected to the VPN. For example I could connect to websites just fine. Then while explaining the problem on the phone to Netgear Support, I tried SSH with PuTTy again and it worked. There was no setting change. There was nothing that Netgear Support did. I didn't change anything between the last failed attempts and successful attempt to SSH. I didn't even reconnect to the router or internet. I simply retried in PuTTY and it worked when just a few minutes before it had not.

    My only guess is that there is something on my employer's network that was blocking SSH at first but then started allowing the connection. I never called my work IT Support so I assume whatever change happened through some automated process, but it must have taken at least a couple hours. Also to note is that my first SSH attempts were made about 12 hours after I had replaced my old Netgear router with my new Orbi 960 router. It seems to me that it took my failed SSH attempts to kick off the automated process that opened up the ability for me to SSH.

    I have been connecting with SSH to my employer's VPN without any trouble since that first day.