No access to USB HDD with VPN server (BE88u), internal HDD´s from Server and RDP works without problems

[Denny_m]

Hello.

I bought the ASUS BE88U as a successor to my AX86U.

I have everything set up now and everything works great except for one problem.

If I'm outside the WiFi and connect to the Open VPN server via my smartphone, I can access my home server and the HDDs connected to it and also the remote desktop.

Internet access via the active Open VPN client also works.

But I cannot access the HDD connected via USB via SMB.

When I'm at home there are no problems with the WiFi.

This worked without any problems with the ASUS RT-AX86U.

Can anyone say what this could be?

Firmware is: 3006.102.3

Best regards

 

[jzchen]

*Current router is GT-BE98 Pro*

I have not tried to access anything on my local network from the WAN side. If I wanted to I would create a VPN for example using ASUS Instant Guard then try to access the USB HDD, as the router will show it "thinks" you are local.

I have had trouble over the years accessing the USB HDD via Samba (is that what you mean by SMB?) even on my local LAN. I ever since enable Guest Login for it, (and ASUSwrt always shows a tiny blinking warning in the upper right that this is ill advised,) but that is what I always do since.

If you somehow get a pop-up asking for login credentials, while it is technically supposed to be the same as what you set up to log into ASUSwrt, it is sometimes just admin admin. (This can pop up even with Guest login enabled from experience)....

 

[Denny_m]

Hello.

Sorry for the late reply.
So far I have never had any problems with access with the AX86u. That's why it should actually work here without any problems.

My setup currently looks like this:

ISP -> Fritz.Box 5490 with port forwarding on the BE88u (is also set up on both devices)

I connect to the smartphone on the BE88u via OpenVPN server. The dial-in works without any problems.
In the OpenVPN server settings is:

Client will use VPN to access -> Both

If I set it to Internet, no devices on the network can be reached
With the LAN setting I can access the Internet and sometimes my LAN clients.

On Both I can only partially access the LAN clients.

Here is a list of what is available and what is not:

Windows Remote Desktop to the home server -> accessible
Network video recorder via APP -> accessible
Hard drives that are connected to the server via USB -> accessible via SMB
Hard drive connected to the BE88u -> not accessible
All devices can be reached via SSH (Rasperry Pi Pihole, TV receiver...)
No device can be reached via browser login to the web interface. Not even devices that can be reached via SSH.

Could it be that this is a bug?

With my AX86u everything worked without any problems.

 

[jzchen]

Bug, or security leak, I wouldn't know. I believe there was security issues with AiCloud and I suspect a more recent firmware patched it, but caused your issue.

It may take ASUS a while to fix and my goal is to suggest a temporary alternative...

 

[Denny_m]

Hello.

I've been testing a bit over the last few days and have found that the problem only occurs when I access the OpenVPN server with my smartphone via the mobile data connection...

As soon as I'm on any WiFi, I can easily access all of my devices in the home network with OpenVPN connected.

Could this be a problem with IPV6?
I only get an IPV6 address with my smartphone and I always have IPV4 on the WLAN.

I've already tested several settings in the ASUS router and unfortunately I couldn't get it right. It also doesn't work with IPV6 disabled.