vpnd help (10.5.7 client version)

[ds128fp]

Thankfully, vpnd has been discussed here before (https://www.afp548.com/forum/viewtopic.php?forum=18&showtopic=24054). The apple support discussion page has been completely inactive in my threads.

So, I’m obvioustly trying to get a vpn server running on the normal version of os x 10.5.7. Ideally, this would be running on an older G4. Because of what I had to do to get os x installed on it (computer is below minimum specs) I thought that it might just not work, but I’m getting the same results on my macbook 2.16 also on 10.5.7.

It’s supposed to start on boot. I used an old version of iVPN (2.4b, still under BSD license) to do it, though i get identical results writing com.apple.RemoteAccessServers.plist by hand and starting the daemon or by configuring it to load at boot and then restarting on either computer.

Problem: port scan from same computer or anywhere on the network shows no open ports associated with l2tp over ipsec. All it shows are afp, ssh,

information:

The service is running separate from any tty and instantiated on boot:

$ ps ax | grep vpnd
   94   ??  Ss     0:04.39 vpnd -i com.apple.ppp.l2tp

But nothing is actually open. nmap results (run on same computer, but the results are identical run on an ubuntu box):

Interesting ports on [computer ip]:
Not shown: 997 closed ports
PORT    STATE SERVICE      VERSION
22/tcp  open  ssh          OpenSSH 5.1 (protocol 2.0)
88/tcp  open  kerberos-sec Mac OS X kerberos-sec
548/tcp open  afp          Apple AFP (name: [computer name]; protocol 3.3; Mac OS X 10.5)
Service Info: OS: Mac OS X

/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.RemoteAccessServers.plist:

<dict>
	<key>ActiveServers</key>
	<array>
		<string>com.apple.ppp.l2tp</string>
	</array>
	<key>Servers</key>
	<dict>
		<key>com.apple.ppp.l2tp</key>
		<dict>
			<key>DNS</key>
			<dict>
				<key>OfferedSearchDomains</key>
				<array/>
				<key>OfferedServerAddresses</key>
				<array/>
			</dict>
			<key>IPv4</key>
			<dict>
				<key>ConfigMethod</key>
				<string>Manual</string>
				<key>DestAddressRanges</key>
				<array>
					<string>192.168.1.210</string>
					<string>192.168.1.215</string>
				</array>
				<key>OfferedRouteAddresses</key>
				<array/>
				<key>OfferedRouteMasks</key>
				<array/>
				<key>OfferedRouteTypes</key>
				<array/>
			</dict>
			<key>Interface</key>
			<dict>
				<key>SubType</key>
				<string>L2TP</string>
				<key>Type</key>
				<string>PPP</string>
			</dict>
			<key>L2TP</key>
			<dict>
				<key>IPSecSharedSecret</key>
				<string>mySecret</string>
				<key>Transport</key>
				<string>IPSec</string>
			</dict>
			<key>PPP</key>
			<dict>
				<key>AuthenticatorProtocol</key>
				<array>
					<string>MSCHAP2</string>
				</array>
				<key>LCPEchoEnabled</key>
				<integer>1</integer>
				<key>LCPEchoFailure</key>
				<integer>5</integer>
				<key>LCPEchoInterval</key>
				<integer>60</integer>
				<key>Logfile</key>
				<string>/var/log/ppp/vpnd.log</string>
				<key>VerboseLogging</key>
				<integer>1</integer>
			</dict>
			<key>Server</key>
			<dict>
				<key>Logfile</key>
				<string>/var/log/ppp/vpnd.log</string>
				<key>MaximumSessions</key>
				<integer>128</integer>
				<key>VerboseLogging</key>
				<integer>1</integer>
			</dict>
		</dict>
	</dict>
</dict>

and today’s entry in vpnd.log, which is basically identical to every day since I’ve played with it:

#Start-Date: 2009-06-22 22:52:33 EDT
#Fields: date time s-comment
2009-06-22 22:52:33 EDT	Loading plugin /System/Library/Extensions/L2TP.ppp
2009-06-22 22:52:34 EDT	Server 'com.apple.ppp.l2tp' moved to background
2009-06-22 22:52:34 EDT	Listening for connections...

The funny thing is that iVPN’s code (and other online resources) make mention of /etc/hostconfig. Mine is here:

# This file is going away

AFPSERVER=-NO-
AUTHSERVER=-NO-
AUTOMOUNT=-YES-
NFSLOCKS=-AUTOMATIC-
NISDOMAIN=-NO-
TIMESYNC=-YES-
QTSSERVER=-NO-
WEBSERVER=-NO-
SMBSERVER=-NO-
SNMPSERVER=-NO-

which is funny, because it implies that I’m not running an afp server, which I obviously am (see above)

And it’s not a firewall issue, since I disabled it when this started acting funny since I’m always behind routers with decent firewalls anyway.

So, any ideas?

[ds128fp]

40 views and no responses, not even to tell me I’m a moron or that you think it should work?

No changes to the port scan despite reloading vpnd with and without restarting and a few apparently meaningless config changes.

Seriously, anyone? Do I just have to buy a current version of iVPN and hope for the best?

[JanC]

In a similar situation to yours, I have recently tried to load the latest version of iVPN (yes, I did buy it!) and seem to be having the same results.

Certainly vpnd is running (according to Webmin), but I haven’t yet found any indication from outside the machine (Mac Mini 1.6GHz Intel Core Duo with 2GB running 10.5.8 Client), which provides everything else for me in the way of servers (Apache, Postfix (inc amavis-new, spamassassin, clamav), Dovecot, TLS, etc, etc).

What I didn’t like was the lack of information about what iVPN was actually doing – and why it was doing it. I will persevere and let you know if I have success.

[Author]

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