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Forum Discussion
Nighthawk r7500 vpn setup
I'm new to VPN but learn quickly. I'm trying to setup VPN on my router for a layer of security for my home. I am getting error messeges with openVPN. Following the instructions on the router, many for...
After reading a LOT of information I decided to sell my R7500 and buy a R7000P I flashed it with DD-WRT and was done in about an hour... Super easy. I'm not sure why Netgear does not have more functionality built in the standard interface. Thank you all for the replies.
We probably need a bit more info to really help you, but I've set up the VPN server on both the 7000 and 7500 routers, using both stock Netgear firmware as well as Tomato and DD-WRT 3rd-party firmwares. Netgear makes it fairly easy in the stock firmware, especially if you're just using a mobile device/smartphone. So what is the client device, do you already have a dynamic DNS provider for your ISP's internet connection (Netgear has the stock one I think serviced by No IP so you can choose a subdomain in the "mynetgear.com" DNS zone).
In Advanced > Advanced Setup > VPN Service > Enable VPN Service, I choose UDP for both TUN and TAP modes using the default ports 12973 and 12974, and I choose to forward all sites on internet *and* LAN through the VPN for maximum privacy when using the VPN on a public wi-fi AP.
Once those settings are applied, click the "For Smart Phone" button to download the OpenVPN (.ovpn) file--if you're on your phone already, just save this somewhere (locally, cloud storage, etc.) for access momentarily, & if you're on a desktop computer, you'll need to save it and then transfer it to your phone by whatever means necessary.
Next, install the OpenVPN app on your mobile device, after which you'll copy or import that .ovpn file on the phone into the OpenVPN mobile app. In iOS, this can be done through the shart sheet menu, selecing copy to OpenVPN--for example, if the .ovpn file is in Dropbox, select it and select share extension > copy to OpenVPN. OpenVPN app should ask you to confirm the import by hitting a green plus button, if my memory serves. Once imported, you can test it by tapping the toggle in the app to connect to the VPN. At this point, the VPN profile will have also been adding into your Settings app under the VPN section, so you can toggle it on/off there OR from the OpenVPN app.
Doing this on a desktop OS is roughly similar.
I am setting this up on a PC connected to the router in hopes to have the entire network using the VPN tunnel. I am on Win 10 and have performed these steps to a tee:
Step 1: Select the Enable VPN Service check box and click the Apply button.
Step 2: Download the client utility from http://openvpn.net/index.php/download/community-downloads.html and install it on the devices where you want to run the VPN client.
Currently IOS and Android clients are not supported.
Step 3:
Click the proper button below to download the configuration files for your VPN clients.
For Windows For non-Windows
Step 4: Unzip the configuration files you have just downloaded and copy them to the folder where the VPN client is installed on your devices. For a client device with Windows 64-bit system, the VPN client is installed at "C:\Program files\OpenVPN\config" by default.
Step 5: For a client device with Windows, you need to modify the VPN interface name to "NETGEAR-VPN". The VPN interface usually has a Device Name as "TAP-Windows Adapter".
Step 6: Client utility must be installed and run by a user who has administrative privileges.
Step 7: For help connecting using OpenVPN clients, please refer to http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/documentation/howto.html#quick
Note: if you want to make any change in Advanced Configurations section, please make the changes before you download the configuration files in Step 3.
Advanced Configurations
Service Type UDP TCP
Service Port
12974
Clients will use this VPN connection to access _Auto _X_ All sites on the Internet & Home _Network Home Network only
At this point I have the following installed in the OpenVPN config dir:
ca.crt
client.crt
client.key
client.ovpn
I run the gui interface with admin privs and get this message every time:
Mon Nov 06 22:45:30 2017 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
I am just trying to set this up as a client letting the server do it's thing. What am I missing here?
I believe the Windows VPN client needs to be TAP, so you have the VPN server set to TAP on the router, right?
Searching that error seems to bring up a host of different problems/suggestions on the web.
One thing you could try is using a consolidated .ovpn file that contains all the necessary certificates embedded inline in the body. I've had good luck with those, rather than the separate client, server, certificat authority, key, etc. cert files. http://permalink.gmane.org/gmane.network.openvpn.user/32469
After reading a LOT of information I decided to sell my R7500 and buy a R7000P I flashed it with DD-WRT and was done in about an hour... Super easy. I'm not sure why Netgear does not have more functionality built in the standard interface. Thank you all for the replies.
That's funny you mention that--I had a 7000 running stock Netgear FW and had no problem setting up and using its VPN server either. Since getting my 7500, I set up the primary VPN on that, then flashed DD-WRT on my 7000 to use it as a wireless repeater bridge and set up a secondary VPN on that.
While the VPN was relatively easy to get working on DD-WRT initially, I found it was not redirecting web traffic through the VPN. I had to do a bit of research and mucking around to get it to redirect all traffic (both LAN and WAN) through the VPN, unlike Netgear's implementation that just worked. So you might want to make sure your web traffic is going through the VPN properly.