Connecting to Fortinet VPN Server through Orbi Wifi

[BradJessup]

I just purchased and installed a new RBK50 Orbi Wifi Router and Satellite.

It is working great. Good coverage, solid internet connection with numerous devices.

However, when I tried to connect using a Fortinet VPN Client on a Windows 7 PC to my work VPN server (Fortinet VPN SSL Port 442) it won't connect. I was using a Linksys wifi router previously that connected to VPN fine with no weird settings required.

I tried searching for answers but found none. I noticed the "Enable VPN service" toggle button in Orbi settings. However it looked like it was for setting up a local VPN server and allowing others to connect to "my" network. This is not what I want. I want to simply run a VPN client on my local device and connect to a remote VPN server but the Orbi seems to be blocking it. 

When I try to ping the VPN server (gate2.gallium.com) it can't find the host. Though I could ping the FTP server (sftp.gallium.com) on the same domain fine.

So in the end I tried selecting that "Enable VPN server" button and then my VPN client worked. Why? And how do I lock down the Orbi VPN server so my local network is not VPN accessible but I can still VPN out?

Thanks.

[tomsliwowski]

What error are you getting?

My desktop which is wired to the sattelite uses a Fortinet SSL VPN for work and I have not had any issues. Tonight I can try using my laptop and connecting via WiFi and see if I have a similar issue.

[BradJessup]

As for errors,

On my laptop (connected to Orbi via wifi) when I tried to connect using Fortinet Client a popup appears saying somethnig vague like "could not establish VPN connection". 

On both my laptop and desktop (connected to Orbi via ethernet cable) when I tried to ping the VPN server it returned immediately with "Ping request could not find host gate2.gallium.com. Please check the name and try again."

The odd thing is, when I selected the Enable VPN Service a popup appeared saying I should set Dynamic DNS or a Static IP. I closed the popup (and did not set Dynamic DNS or Statis IP) and the Enable VPN Service still showed selected. Then I was using the VPN for a while. Then decided to turn it off to see if VPN still worked (and get the error message to put here). I went into Orbi settings and the Enable button was off now. I then tried conencting to VPN and it worked fine. Weird.

So as far as I can tell, VPN Service is not on yet my VPN client is now working fine. Maybe attempting to turn VPN service on opened up a port that the VPN client needed which is now still open.

Anyway, I guess my problem is solved, though I don't know how I solved it.

[tomsliwowski]

Just as an FYI, the "Enable VPN Service" option is to make your router an OpenVPN endpoint. It's not a setting to allow outbound VPN sessions.