Using AMTM scripts on your devices through VPN when you leave home - Guide

[elorimer]

I am not
Looking for a way of doing it.
Thanks.

Same deal. Say there is a computer or NAS on your LAN which is sharing files, and for this purpose say it is a Windows (CIFS or Samba) share. From another computer on your LAN you want to see that share and the files within it. First make sure you can do that. If you then connect from another computer outside the LAN over OpenVPN, you should be able to access that share the same way.

 

[Amwjujo]

To spell it out, not sure what client you are using for RDP, but let's say you are using the standard Windows client within your LAN. The computer field will be the LAN IP of the computer you are going to connect to. I'm assuming that works. Then, from a computer outside your LAN, if you connect to the router's OpenVPN server, you will use that same LAN IP as the computer field, and it should work the same. The LAN or Both setting for the OpenVPN server will add a route from your client computer to the LAN, including the LAN IP of the computer you want to RDP into.

You assumed correct ( sorry o forgot to mention) I am using standard windows rdp. I have tried to access it as I normally do it now over my lan: computer name and windows credential. You are saying I should do it with the IP of the computer I want to access - 192.168.1.27 ?
Thank you.
Edit: ignore that. I just checked remote desktop from my mobile and it works.... probably something wrong with my laptop rdp setup.

 

[Amwjujo]

Same deal. Say there is a computer or NAS on your LAN which is sharing files, and for this purpose say it is a Windows (CIFS or Samba) share. From another computer on your LAN you want to see that share and the files within it. First make sure you can do that. If you then connect from another computer outside the LAN over OpenVPN, you should be able to access that share the same way.

I do have some shared files(old photos and videos) from a PC that runs windows 10 and is used as a plex media server and I normally access these on my lan from network & sharing location. Is this the way it should work over vpn as well? The shared directories should normally show there?
That means is something wrong with my vpn setup....
Thank you for your time.

 

[elorimer]

You are saying I should do it with the IP of the computer I want to access - 192.168.1.27 ?

Yes. Give the computer you want to access a static reservation to freeze the IP. Takes a bit of complexity out.

 

[elorimer]

I do have some shared files(old photos and videos) from a PC that runs windows 10 and is used as a plex media server and I normally access these on my lan from network & sharing location. Is this the way it should work over vpn as well? The shared directories should normally show there?

So these are two different things.

For the plex server, if you check the remote access box you don't need OpenVPN--the server will serve up the photos and videos through port forwarding. If you uncheck the remote access box, then you can make the OpenVPN connection and connect at plex.tv.

From the network in File Explorer, it should work the same as within the LAN after making the OpenVPN connection.

 

[Amwjujo]

I was after the file explorer option, but having it tested from my android phone, it seems it works. That means is something wrong with my laptop network discovery settings - I'll look into that.
I would like to ask one more thing.
If I only want to access my work place (rt66_b1) just for router upgrades and some small files transfer, it will be ok just to set up a vpn server on that router and use rdp to do these tasks? Having the vpn server on all the time will impact the router performance as is quite an old model with limited resources. The router is running Diversion, Skynet & Unbound as well.
Am I asking as I don't think is necessary to link this router with the one from my home - RT86U.
Any suggestions?
Thank you.

 

[Amwjujo]

Eureka
Finally i got it working for both Android and Windows laptop.
While from Android I was able to access local network, browse folders and use RDP from my windows laptop I could've only access the network and that's it - I also had adds displayed in browser while I was connected to the VPN server.
What did the trick:
I set up the second server in TAP mode and kept the Server 1 in TUN mode.
Server 1 is being accessed by my mobile phone (Android) as it seems the OpenVpn client does not support TAP mode - everything works perfect.
Server 2 is being accessed by my windows client and now I can browse my local network and make use of RDP as well.

This is my current configuration:

Server 1:

VPN access - LAN only
Interface Type - TUN
Protocol - UDP
Server Port - 1194 default
Authorization mode - TLS
Username/Password Auth - Yes
Username/Pass Auth Only - No
Advertise DNS to clients - Yes
Compression - Disable

Server 2:

VPN access - LAN only
Interface Type - TAP
Protocol - UDP
Server Port - 1195
Authorization mode - TLS
Username/Password Auth - Yes
Username/Pass Auth Only - No
Allocate from DHCP - Yes
Advertise DNS to clients - Yes
Compression - Disable

Hope this will help someone else looking to do the same thing.
Any other suggestions are always welcomed
Thank you all for your time and support.

 

[elorimer]

TAP is generally disfavored in this application and is rarely necessary. You should be able to use RDP from a Windows client without issue over a TUN if you use the IP address. It is disfavored because it is Layer 2 and transmits a lot of unnecessary traffic over the tunnel. Particularly over a cellular connection, that eats into your data plan. Android and iOS don't allow it without root access for security reasons.

The ads are a question of which DNS server your client is looking to and you can adjust that separately.

If you want a TL;DR description of my setup you can find it here: VPN instructions for a newbie

 

[elorimer]

If I only want to access my work place (rt66_b1) just for router upgrades and some small files transfer, it will be ok just to set up a vpn server on that router and use rdp to do these tasks?

Sure. But be careful doing router upgrades and other sorts of fiddling when you don't have physical access to the router. It is a good idea to set up both servers, so if in your fiddling you bork one, you can connect to the other and fix the first.

Also, I don't quite follow RDP in this context. For the router, you will do the firmware upgrades through the webGUI and use WinScp or putty for the amtm stuff. for file transfer (I assume from something else on the network you will do some form of network sharing of a folder. I don't know that you need to go all the way to taking over the whole remote computer.

 

[Amwjujo]

Also, I don't quite follow RDP in this context

The remote computer is a TILL at my workplace and I want to be capable of controlling the screen to generate sales reports at the end of the day .
I do have physical access to the router, while i am at work .... mostly every day .
Thank you for explainig.
I will try to test now your configuration from the other post.