Problem of Connection Over VPN

[hhspiny]

I connect back to home router via VPN. either direct VPN via SSPT or with zerotier. I can ping the remotly host, can remote desktop. so the network works fine

The host status shows green in client.

For SSPT connection, remotly client can not establish direct connection, falls back to connect anywhere, but can connect eventually
For zerotier, the client can not establish a connection either with or without connect anywhere. force connect anywhere does work either.

 

[mirillis]

Hi hhspiny,

Please forgive us for the late reply.

Did you set the network interface on the host to the VPN tunnel (and not the physical network interface)?
There is another thread where other users had a similar problem and were able to use both direct connection and connect anywhere connection eventually.

"For zerotier, the client can not establish a connection either with or without connect anywhere. force connect anywhere does work either."
Can you describe the behavior of the client in this situation? Do you see the client window and "No signal" message?
Or does it not show the client window just the "Connecting.." popup in the app main window?

 

[hhspiny]

This seems to have been fixed in the new releases. not sure which release. it works over zerotier now. I did not touch network IF setting.

 

[hhspiny]

Actually, spoke too soon. last time I tested in home. laptop -> cell phone -> internet -> home router -> remotly server. turn on zerotier, can connect.

today in public library laptop -> library wifi -> internet -> home router -> remotely server turn on zerotier, does not connect. "connection failed" the status says "ready to connect". force connect anywhere does not help.

change network interface from default setting to zerotier virtual port --> works fine.
so, the default setting did not choose the right interface to use.

 

[mirillis]

Hi hhspiny,

"change network interface from default setting to zerotier virtual port --> works fine.
so, the default setting did not choose the right interface to use."

This is exactly what other users had to do to make it work. In fact in this scenario both network interfaces are used at the same time.
The default is used for communication with Remotly state servers and the other one is used for transferring all remote connection data (audio/video/control etc.).

There is even a more complex setup when the public network where client is performs deep packet inspection.
In this case (P2P is totally blocked) it may be necessary to enable "Enforce TLS for all inbound and outbound connections" to make Connect Anywhere work.

 

[hhspiny]

changing to zerotier virtual port network interface made it work in public wifi

 

[mirillis]

changing to zerotier virtual port network interface made it work in public wifi

Does P2P direct connection work in this configuration?

 

[hhspiny]

Yes. No need for connect anywhere.

 

[Vince Vega]

Yesterday, I started having reverse problem: when my VPN (NordVPN) is enabled on the router, Remotly can't log in from my laptop.

I've found that if I disable VPN, then connect to the desktop and reenable VPN, then the connection stays and works fine (Remotly finds P2P short circuit within the router network even if its gate is VPN). So the only problem is that Remotly stopped logging in when VPN is active.

Any ideas? I hope it's not "intended".

 

[mirillis]

Yesterday, I started having reverse problem: when my VPN (NordVPN) is enabled on the router, Remotly can't log in from my laptop.

I've found that if I disable VPN, then connect to the desktop and reenable VPN, then the connection stays and works fine (Remotly finds P2P short circuit within the router network even if its gate is VPN). So the only problem is that Remotly stopped logging in when VPN is active.

Any ideas? I hope it's not "intended".

Hi Vince,

It's definitely not intended. it looks like Remotly is trying to use the VPN that tunnels P2P traffic also for login. Do you see two network interfaces in Settings->Network? You should see both the physical interface an the VPN. If you only see the VPN it might cause problems.

PS. Does remotly.com website work for you when the login in the app does not work?

 

[Vince Vega]

Hi,

Today the application logs in without issues. Maybe there was something on NordVPN's side.

The original issue was that Remotly couldn't log in over VPN, but if you log in and connect with VPN disabled, you can then re-enable VPN and P2P would still work. But today everything works right away.