Need a VPN cookbook for 871W router

May 06, 2010 4 Replies
J

I need to have my Mac laptop access my LAN from remote wi-fi/mobile networks. The Mac does have "Cisco VPN" capabilities.



I would greatly appreciate a pointer to some cookbook on what needs to be done to set this up. (or some config that works).


Is it correct that Cisco VPN uses port 1723 with the IP/GRE protocol ? How does the router itself intercept incoming GRE connection request ? Via NAT entry pointing to the router's own IP address ?



In terms of authentication, if I already have a minimal radius server on the Cisco, is this enough to authenticate VPN clients ? Or do I need a more sophisticated server on another machine ?



In terms of DHCP, will the router issue the client an IP address, or would DHCP request from the remote client make it to the lan and served by the LAN's own DHCP server ?


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R

Are you sure this "Cisco VPN" on the Mac is in fact that port 1723 with the IP/GRE protocol? (commonly known as PPTP)

It is possible to configure PPTP on a Cisco, and I could show you how, but it would not surprise me if that is not what the Mac is actually trying to use...

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J

The Mac offers the following VPN options:

L2TP over IPsec PPTP Cisco IPsec

I *assume* that the Cisco IPsec is the one that would have the best chance of working on a 871W router.

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R

Probably. I don't know what config it assumes, though. Maybe you can find documentation on the Apple website.

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D

Cisco IPSec is an implementation that is supposed to work just like the 'Cisco IPSec VPN Client' software that Cisco makes (but did such a poor job porting it to the Mac in the past, so Apple must have partnered with them to do a working one).

Following any of the guides for Cisco VPN Client to IOS config should get you there.

I haven't done this though, since I have VPNTracker licenses, which can be setup to work with just about anything & everything with very little effort.

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