Vodafone home fibre broadband VPN setting

[seblb]

Help! I have been trying to get this to work and given up becuase Vodafone are hiding important connection details. The config I want use is the L2TP Server VPN on the Vodafine Connect Broadband Router. The settings in the router are simple enough (cool! 🐵 but getting a client to connect to it is impossible (unless it is another Vodafone HHG2500 Broadband router). So here is what I have done:

1) Setup the router's L2TP Server VPN configuration (set shared key, user and password, etc)

2) Configured and OSx and iOS client to connect on L2TP (settings quite straight forward) but both fail. The only debug details I was able to get was from the OSX connection that failed on "L2TP sent SCCRQ" - I also have the wireshark dumps from the client and router.

3) Setup other VPN clients, but no success

I spoke to the vodafone live chat team (not a great experience, so unless there is an expert there I can chat to, please do not direct me back there Vodafone). The experience was as follows (I have the chat transcript if you want it):

1) Told "since few days we are facing issues with the application, However our engineers are working to fix this"

 - I told them that "VPN" was router hardware related and not a "service" (sigh)

2) I was then directed to change my wifi setting

 - I told them the wifi had nothing to do with VPN (sigh)

3) I was then told I had to have a business account for the VPN to work

- I told them that if I plugged in my draytek router, the VPN worked so it had nothing to do with that. This was the final sitcking point and they would not budge. Form my point of view this was the only thing they could use to get rid of me, as they didnt know what they were talking about.

Since then I have discovered if you have 2 people on Vodafone with their routers (both my father in law and I are on vodafone). One setup and L2TP server and the other L2TP client. They happily connect!

Therefore, the statement that VPN is business only is also not true. Therefore there is some odd setting that a L2TP client needs to do to connect to a Vodafone HHG2500. What is this? Please can someone from Vodafone provide a faultless configuration for a client so the rest of the community can do the rest for you?

The reason I am not able to use my Vodafone router is becuase I use a draytek so I can VPN into my office (also draytek). This additional VPN config is to connect to my father in laws home to assist on all things IT. I therefore need some form of VPN client that can connect to a Vodafone Router running the L2TP VPN server. :o(

[Jayach]

I thought of saying the same as @CrimsonLiar re the added security of VPNs, but didn't want to complicate things.

As long as you are using HTTPS links, all they really do is stop your ISP knowing where you are going, and stop the destination knowing where you came from.

[Aggressor_UK]

Hi, I have recently (in fact today) switched to Vodafone and have the same problem setting up my VPN.  I have configured the L2TP server on my Vodafone Connect router and trying to connect with iOS and Android devices but nothing seems to work. Any suggestions?

[TJ]

That's very strange @Aggressor_UK 🤔 Apologies for any inconvenience this is causing, I know how frustrating it must be not being able to connect your devices.

One of the Broadband Specialists in out team will be more than happy to help get you up and running. So they can take a look into this with you, please contact us directly using the private message I've sent you.

[seblbuk]

Hi, so I have an update on this.

1. I have not managed to get anyrhing to dial into a Vodafone router
2. I have been able to get a Vodafone to connect to a Draytek 2850, here are the settings:
   
   1. On the DrayTek go to VPN and Remote Access
   2. Select IPSec General Setup
      
      1. Pre-Shared Key: [set your shared key here]
      2. Medium (AH): [selcted]
      3. High (ESP): Select 3DES and AES
      4. Press OK
   3. On the DrayTek go to VPN and Remote Access
   4. Select LAN to LAN
   5. Create a new profile
   6. Notes:
      1. If I have not mentioned a setting, it was not selected / set
      2. In this example the remote (Vodafone) network is 10.10..10.1/24
      3. In this example the local (draytek) netowrk is 11.11.11.0/24
   7. Common Settings:
      1. Enable this profile: [selected]
      2. VPN Dial-Out Through: WAN1 First
      3. Netbios Naming Packet: Pass
      4. Multicast via VPN: Block
      5. Call Direction: Dial In
      6. Idle Timeout: 0 Seconds
   8. Dial-Out Setting (not used but added here for completeness)
      1. IPSec Tunnel: [selected]
      2. Server IP/Host Name for VPN: [Vodafone router address]
   9. Dial-In Settings:
      1. IPSec Tunnel: [selected]
      2. VJ Compression: On
   10. Gre over IPSec Settings
       1. Nothing selected here
   11. TCP/IP Network Settings
       1. My WAN IP: 0.0.0.0
       2. Remote Gateway IP: 10.10.10.1
       3. Remote Network IP: 10.10.10.0
       4. Remote Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
       5. Local Network IP: 11.11.11.1
       6. Local Network Mask: 255.255.255.0
       7. RIP Direction: Disabled
       8. From first subnet to remote network, you have to do: Router
   12. On the Vodafone Router
       1. I will be honest here, I have forgotten the exact settings and the router will not let me acess the admin page over the VPN so this is from an old mail I sent to my father in law (see very first post on this thread 🐵
       2. Goto: http://10.10.10.1
       3. The password is vodafone (unless you have changed it)
       4. Top right, select the drop down and select "Expert Mode"
       5. Select Settings in the red menu bar
       6. Select Configuration on the left-hand menu
       7. Change the VPN Client to IPSec, other setting are:
          1. Destination Host Name: [internet address for router]
          2. Remote Subnet IP Address: 11.11.11.0
          3. Remote Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
          4. Shared Secret: [this is the shared secret you set on the DrayTek]
          5. Press Apply

Now, in theory the Vodafone router will dial into the DrayTek, see below image for proof 🐵

[Raykf]

First off can I say I do not have a VF router so am unable to look at the VPN configs in detail. For those trying to use the VPN connectivity offered by the VF router as remote user access I do not think it will work. There are two common types of VPN connectivity provided by VPN servers, SITE to SITE and REMOTE USER ACCESS, site to site is used to connect two networks together typically for corporate offices etc. and I believe this is what the VF router is able to provide. Where remote user access is offered it would be normal for the VPN server (router with vpn) to have the ability to create and store a user list for multiple users who are authorised to access the VPN, I do not believe this exits in the VF router? Typically a remote access VPN server on a router would cope with around 32 concurrent users.