NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Nighthawk R760P VPN Connects, but I can't connect to local PCs
Hello,
I have a Nighthawk R760P. My goal is to be able to remotely connect to a Windows shared folder from my Android phone and/or from my MacBook Pro when I am not on my home network, and also to be able to connect via Remote Desktop.
I can do all of the above when all devices are connected, locally, to the Nighthawk router, but it is not working when connecting remotely through OpenVPN.
To be clear, I can successfully connect to the router with OpenVPN, but oncr that connection is established, I cannot connect to the Windows shared folder or even ping the IP address of the PC with the shared folder.
One thing I noticed that struck me as odd is that when I connect with OpenVPN, I'm assigned the IP 192.168.254.2, but my home network is 192.168.1.1 and locally connected devices are 192.168.1.X. Is that a problem? I don't understand how a .254. IP can communicate with a .1. IP.
The "Use a VPN Tunnel on Your Windows Comouter" section of the manual seems to indicate that different IP ranges are actually necessary, but I'm not sure that applies to my scenario.
When I enabled the VPN service in Advaced Setup, I left the default settings (UDP/12973, UDP/12974). I have also tried the "All sites on the internet & Home Network" as well as the "Home Network only" options. Neither has worked. I currently have "Home Network only" set.
Hoping someone can help me get this working. Thank you!
I have a Nighthawk R760P. My goal is to be able to remotely connect to a Windows shared folder from my Android phone and/or from my MacBook Pro when I am not on my home network, and also to be able to connect via Remote Desktop.
I can do all of the above when all devices are connected, locally, to the Nighthawk router, but it is not working when connecting remotely through OpenVPN.
To be clear, I can successfully connect to the router with OpenVPN, but oncr that connection is established, I cannot connect to the Windows shared folder or even ping the IP address of the PC with the shared folder.
One thing I noticed that struck me as odd is that when I connect with OpenVPN, I'm assigned the IP 192.168.254.2, but my home network is 192.168.1.1 and locally connected devices are 192.168.1.X. Is that a problem? I don't understand how a .254. IP can communicate with a .1. IP.
The "Use a VPN Tunnel on Your Windows Comouter" section of the manual seems to indicate that different IP ranges are actually necessary, but I'm not sure that applies to my scenario.
When I enabled the VPN service in Advaced Setup, I left the default settings (UDP/12973, UDP/12974). I have also tried the "All sites on the internet & Home Network" as well as the "Home Network only" options. Neither has worked. I currently have "Home Network only" set.
Hoping someone can help me get this working. Thank you!
10 Replies
oACGo wrote:
I have a Nighthawk R760P.Not something that I can find in the Netgear catalogue. Not even anything R76XX.
I can't tell if you have tried this already, but manuals are always a good place to start.
Visit the support pages:
Support | NETGEAR
Feed in your model number and check the documentation for your hardware.
Look for the model number on the label on the device.
A quick search for OpenVPN could help to pin down what you can and can't do with it.If you haven't tried it already, there is a lot here:
Search - NETGEAR Communities – OpenVPN
Just another user with time on their hands.
- My mistake, sorry. It's the R7960P. I have indeed read the manual (referenced it in my post) and numerous community posts, but I could find a clear answer about my situation. Hoping someone can help me solve it. Thanks!
You have run head on into an IP address conflict. The 192.168.1.x range of IP addresses is the most common in use on local networks. When the local network your are tunneling into has locally assigned IP addresses that are the same as assigned addresses at the remote location you have a conflict. When that happens, the 192.168.254.2 is often the default address assigned to the remote device.
Many times at the remote location you are connecting from, you have internet access yet you do not have authority to change the 192.168.1.1 IP address range assigned by the DHCP server.
The best solution is to set up your home DHCP server to assign IP addresses from a range that is not likely to conflict with whatever you run into at the remote location.
Set up your home LAN setting pool to assign addresses from the 192.168.4.x range as an example. If you have devices on your home network with fixed IP addresses, you will have to move them to the 192.168.4.x pool also.
Buried somewhere on the OpenVPN website is a paragraph or two recommending methods for setting up a local network to avoid IP address conflicts between the two networks you are tunneling between. I use Open VPN to connect back to my home from a lot of different remote locations. My home router and all network devices are assigned IP addresses that start with 10.55.x.x.
