Unable to Remote Desktop after connecting via VPN

Post your questions about SoftEther VPN software here. Please answer questions if you can afford.
Post Reply
russellg99
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 3:39 pm

Unable to Remote Desktop after connecting via VPN

Post by russellg99 » Mon Apr 29, 2019 8:40 pm

I'm running SoftEther VPN Server 4.0 on a Windows 10 PC and trying to set it up so I can Remote Desktop into the same machine. I can connect to the VPN server with no problem but Remote Desktop to the local IP of the same machine just times out.

In SoftEther VPN Server, I've enabled L2TP and created a Local Bridge between the Virtual Hub and the LAN adapter. There's only one Virtual Hub and only one LAN adapter to choose from, and the LAN adapter is an Intel Ethernet card, not WiFi.

After connecting my iPhone to the server PC via VPN (and with WiFi disabled, so I'm going over the mobile phone network only), I can ping the PC's local IP address (192.168.1.2) but Remote Desktop to the same IP times out.

However, if I join the iPhone to the same WiFi network that the server PC is on, I can Remote Desktop to the PC's local IP with no problem - so I believe Remote Desktop on both the iPhone and the PC are fine in general. I can also Remote Desktop from outside the LAN if I forward port 3389 to the PC, but obviously that's what I'm trying to avoid by using a VPN.

Any ideas? Thanks!
Russell
Last edited by russellg99 on Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:17 pm, edited 1 time in total.

centeredki69
Posts: 329
Joined: Wed Sep 18, 2013 1:49 pm

Re: Unable to Remote Desktop after connecting via VPN

Post by centeredki69 » Tue Apr 30, 2019 2:01 pm

Hello Russellg,

You said " I've enabled L2TP and created a Local Bridge between the VPN server and the LAN adapter. (There's only one VPN server and only one LAN adapter to choose from.)"

Do you mean between the "VIRTUAL HUB' and the LAN adapter?

Is the LAN adapter you are using for the local bridge a hard wired NIC or WiFi?

Is the server PC physical hardware or a Virtual machine?

russellg99
Posts: 7
Joined: Sat Feb 23, 2019 3:39 pm

Re: Unable to Remote Desktop after connecting via VPN

Post by russellg99 » Tue Apr 30, 2019 4:28 pm

centeredki69 wrote:
Tue Apr 30, 2019 2:01 pm
Do you mean between the "VIRTUAL HUB' and the LAN adapter?
Sorry, yes, I meant Virtual Hub.
Is the LAN adapter you are using for the local bridge a hard wired NIC or WiFi?
Hard wired NIC.
Is the server PC physical hardware or a Virtual machine?
Physical hardware.

Thanks - I've updated my original post to include this info.

Also, I seem to have gotten Remote Desktop working again, although I'm not sure why. I actually had this working once before, when I had Hyper-V installed on the PC. At that time, there was an extra LAN adapter called "vEthernet (Default Switch) - Hyper-V Virtual Ethernet Adapter", and I discovered that Remote Desktop only worked if I created a local bridge in SoftEther VPN Server for both the Intel NIC as well as this virtual adapter created by Hyper-V. I removed Hyper-V from my system since I don't currently use it (and removed the bridge for it as well), and that apparently caused Remote Desktop to stop working. Last night I remembered that, and out of desperation, I reinstalled Hyper-V and recreated the bridge for the virtual adapter. Voila! It works again. Seems like this should work even with just my normal NIC, so I'd still like to figure this out, but at least it's working.

Thanks,
Russell

Post Reply