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I am trying to port forward via the r6400 to access my NAS when away from home via OpenVPN Access Server. I had this working no problem with a different brand router and access point configuration a couple of months ago. Now that I have moved to a new location, I have the Netgear r6400 as the router and another brand router configured as an access point. There should be no double NAT situation here.
Dynamic DNS is turned on in the r6400 with the FQDN of my NAS as registered with No-IP. This is working as I have access the server by FQDN through other services. OpenVPN Access Server is installed on my NAS box and needs UDP port 1194 and TCP 9443 forwarded to the NAS IP address. The TCP port shows as open from several port checking sites; however, the UDP port 1194 shows as closed.
Research indicates the Ooma Telo could use UDP port 1194 as well and I do have an Ooma Telo connected to the r6400. Just to be safe, I tried configuring the OpenVPN server to use UDP port 1195 and forwarded this port to the NAS IP address. It also shows as closed.
As a test, I configured some other ports for forwarding (like Plex 32400) and that worked as well. Other ports did not.
It appears that the r6400 has a problem forwarding certain ports. My ISP claims they are not blocking these ports.
As a test, I also tried enabling the OpenVPN service in the router. I followed the instructions to the letter and installed the Windows profile as directed in the config directory. This also did not work. However, I am more interested in connecting to the OVPN server on my NAS through port forwording as it supports iOS clients unlike the r6400 built in OVPN service.
Any ideas? I have tried the suggestions in other threads (toggling UPnP off/on, disabling completetly, etc.) I have installed the latest firmware available for the router (1.0.1.24_1.0.18). Some suggest installing open source firmware such as DD-WRT or Tomato. I have resisted that suggestion as I do not want to run the risk (small though it may be) of bricking the router.
As I said, this all worked with a different hardware setup. The problems began with the r6400.
So, it appears I have solved this issue. No matter what port checker I used, UDP port 1194 showed as closed. Many only report "open" or "closed" even though there are actually six states the port scan could report. I found a better port checker which reported the proper state as "filtered" by OpenVPN. This told me OpenVPN was trying to listen on that port even though it was not "open." Most port checkers report "closed" for the other five states that are not "open."
I then downloaded the client.ovpn profile from my access server and emailed it to myself. Tyring to get a profile directly via the OpenVPN iOS app was showing a blank OpenVPN dialog with no controls to download the profile whether I connected through tcp port 9443 (open) or udp port 1194 (filtered). I opened the .opvn file I emailed to myself in the iOS OpenVPN client and it all worked. I could access my NAS web admin page. Problem solved.
So, it appears I have solved this issue. No matter what port checker I used, UDP port 1194 showed as closed. Many only report "open" or "closed" even though there are actually six states the port scan could report. I found a better port checker which reported the proper state as "filtered" by OpenVPN. This told me OpenVPN was trying to listen on that port even though it was not "open." Most port checkers report "closed" for the other five states that are not "open."
I then downloaded the client.ovpn profile from my access server and emailed it to myself. Tyring to get a profile directly via the OpenVPN iOS app was showing a blank OpenVPN dialog with no controls to download the profile whether I connected through tcp port 9443 (open) or udp port 1194 (filtered). I opened the .opvn file I emailed to myself in the iOS OpenVPN client and it all worked. I could access my NAS web admin page. Problem solved.
