OpenVPN Authorisation Failed

[Camperdownfamily]

I have had a look at my Amahi Control Panel, and my Home Domain is Amahi.net

I have tried it internally on my home network, and it sometimes resolves, but sometimes it does not - it's not reliable. I have a number of aliases set up on the server printer.amahi.net for example, never resolves, but hda.amahi.net usually resolves.

On the Amahi.org Control Panel, my OpenVPN Tester is showing green.

Taking my laptop remote by taking it to work, I can fire up the HDAConnect, login and everything seems to go fine - the A icon turns green, and it appears everything is connected. It tells me I have been assigned IP 10.8.0.6. I have then tried typing that IP address into the address bar in Internet Explorer and Chrome, but it fails to connect. I have tried pinging that IP address, and I get a ping response. I have tried putting hda.amahi.net into my browser, with the HDAConnect connected, but it doesn't resolve, and goes to amahi.net website.

I have gone through the troubleshooting pages and the wiki, but I really struggle with them because they give you a list of settings to change and things to do, little or no explanation why you might want to do them. It mentions opening up a port in the firewall, but I'm assuming that if the VPN client is connecting, that is not the problem - but it also doesn't say how to find out if the port is open in the firewall already or not.

Am I heading down the wrong path here, or why can't I get it to work so I can see the folders on my HDA from my remote laptop?

Thanks

[bigfoot65]

I have tried putting hda.amahi.net into my browser, with the HDAConnect connected, but it doesn't resolve, and goes to amahi.net website.

Try doing http://hda/. VPN should allow you do access files and the dashboard just like you do when connected normally to your network.

It mentions opening up a port in the firewall, but I'm assuming that if the VPN client is connecting, that is not the problem - but it also doesn't say how to find out if the port is open in the firewall already or not.

There are web sites that will allow you to check if a port is open on your network, such as Port Checker. There is no firewall enabled on the HDA, so it would have to be the network firewall that might be causing issues.

[Camperdownfamily]

I have tried http://hda/ in Google Chrome. It brings up the HDA dashboard, so at least that is showing that the VPN connection is working, and I can log in to the server dashboard ok.

Putting http://hda/ into Windows Explorer simply spawns Google Chrome again and opens the dashboard login.

I am not sure if I am missing something fundamental, but within the dashboard there is no file browser as far as I can see, and I can't seem to work out how to access the files structure through Windows Explorer. I have tried using the search at the top of the dashboard. I typed *.jpg and clicked on HDA, which brought up lots of hits as expected because of all the photos on my HDA. Each hit has a little folder icon alongside it which pops up 'Open' when I hover the mouse over it. The browser shows the link to be file://HDA/[Username] however, when I click on the link nothing happens. If I type the link into Windows Explorer, nothing happens.

I struggle to understand why, having got the VPN connected, it is so difficult to simply browse the folder structure on my HDA so I can load files from it and save files back to it. I use a VPN connection from home back to the server at my office (a Windows 2012 server) where getting connected and accessing the folders takes about five clicks to set up and two clicks to reconnect.

Any further ideas or advice appreciated. Thanks

[bigfoot65]

Putting http://hda/ into Windows Explorer simply spawns Google Chrome again and opens the dashboard login.

You access the shares the same as you do when inside your network.

Recommend you check out Accessing your shares.

Is this issue resolved?

[Camperdownfamily]

Unfortunately still not resolved.

I can get OpenVPN to connect to my HDA from work no problem, and the A on he task bar turns from red to green. My laptop is running Windows 7 and putting \\hda or \\hda\ into the windows address bar just comes up:

"\\hda is not accessible. You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The user name could not be found."

I have network discovery switched on, but when I click on "Network" in the left hand pane of Windows Explorer, the officer servers and other PCs on the work network show up, but HDA does not.

Somehow it's as if OpenVPN is connecting but then not providing the tunnel for Windows Explorer to see the home server.

[bigfoot65]

You might not have permission to use this network resource. Contact the administrator of this server to find out if you have access permissions. The user name could not be found."

This sounds like it could be a firewall issue with Windows 7, maybe a blocked port. You might want to search the internet for guidance regarding firewall modification.

[Epedrego]

It's as if I wrote this myself!! I am having he exact same issue. My company IT guy broke down and gave me admin access in order for my OpenVPN to connect. Thankfully he's also a Linux tinkerer and was empathetic. Now I am getting the exact same problem where it asks for a login and no matter what login I use it wil not log me in. I can see the dashboard in the browser just fine, but nada from windows explorer. I'll try asking my IT guy to clear the port and I will report back here what the out come is. Might be a week or so as I'm on vaca.

P. S. I have also tried the wikis, thanks.

P. P. S. Happy New Year!!!

[Camperdownfamily]

Hi Epedrego, and a Happy New Year too.

I spoke to our IT guys, and he suggested connecting my laptop to the internet via a wifi hotspot on my mobile to see if the VPN worked that way, because all the ports are open on a mobile wifi hotspot, so that would prove it it was the port or something else that was not working.

I got connected and I could manage to connect to all the various IP addresses on my home network through Chrome to see my printer, my router, etc. but I still couldn't get Windows Explorer to show my server under 'Network' or to access my network when I put in the IP address or the network name of my home server.

I then hit on an idea, and went to map a folder on my home server into Windows Explorer, so in the folder address box under 'Map Network Drive' I put in my server IP address, followed by a forward slash and my username folder on the server. I then got a login box (my VPN connection only works if I use the server administrator login) and I put in my normal username login for my home server - and suddenly it worked! The IP address of my home server appeared under 'Network' in Windows Explorer, the IP address typed into the Windows Explorer bar went to the root drive of my home server and all is good!

I even switched back to connecting to the internet via my work network, and everything still worked, so it was nothing to do with ports on the network!

Unfortunately, the IT guys at the office have a batch file which runs every time you log in which wipes and recreates all the mapped network drives, so I expect that the mapping will go off next time I log in, but at least now I know the solution I can just re-map the server drives.

My guess is this has something to do with the OpenVPN only allowing the server administrator to connect, rather than individual user accounts. I had asked about this once before and Bigfoot65 had recommended I should raise a Bug report, so now I know what's going on I think I will.

Hope this works for you too.

[bigfoot65]

@Camperdownfamily

Would you be willing to add some of this to the OpenVPN Troubleshooting page in the wiki?

It would help the community and we would greatly appreciate it.

[Camperdownfamily]

No problem.

I'll see if I can do something over the weekend.