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tonty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
20
0
I'm connecting to 10.6 server via VPN from a mac also running 10.6. But I'm not getting assigned an external IP address by the server.
I've got 'Send all traffic' checked on the client, but when I go to whatismyip.com it tells me that my IP address hasn't changed

I'm in the US and the server is in the UK.
 

mikes63737

macrumors 65816
Jul 26, 2005
1,154
339
You will not be assigned a public IP address, rather a private one assigned by the remote server. When you visit whatismyip.com you should receive the VPN server's IP address if everything is configured correctly.

Sorry I can't be more helpful, as I have never used Mac OS X Server, but I have set up VPNs on Windows Server.
 

tonty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
20
0
OK, this is clearer now.

The server is within a LAN and behind a router. The router is the one with the public IP that I want assigned to the client.

Is this possible?
 

etchtech09

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2010
55
1
Does the server show that you are connected?

Also, can you check the logs on the client machine (and possibly the server) to see if there was an issue routing traffic?

Finally, it sounds like you want a proxy server not a vpn server. Unless I miss my guess, you are looking to get a UK ip address and not connected to the same network as the 10.6 Server. That is the purpose of a proxy server and not the specific purpose of a vpn server.
 

naples98

macrumors member
Sep 9, 2008
95
3
Houston
Can you explain what exactly you are trying to do and why you think you need the router's public ip address?

Remember that two machines can not share the same ip address so if you want the router's ip address for your client machine then the router's ip address has to change.

Good point etchtech. It sounds like you are looking for a proxy server, not a vpn server.
 

assembled

macrumors regular
Jan 12, 2009
116
0
London
Does the server show that you are connected?

Also, can you check the logs on the client machine (and possibly the server) to see if there was an issue routing traffic?

Finally, it sounds like you want a proxy server not a vpn server. Unless I miss my guess, you are looking to get a UK ip address and not connected to the same network as the 10.6 Server. That is the purpose of a proxy server and not the specific purpose of a vpn server.

no, you have interpreted a bad question incorrectly.

The OP says "assigned an IP" where he means to have an exit IP.

It is possible to configure a VPN server and client so that all traffic is routed over the VPN tunnel (apart from the traffic to the VPN server), this is called "full tunnel" instead of what most people use which is "split tunnel".

The exit IP is a function of NAT on the exit router. If there is only a single public IP address on the router, then it would be shared by all outbound traffic, even traffic that has arrived via a tunnel. If there are multiple public IP addresses, it might (depending on the VPN server and/or router) to "assign" specific exit addresses to specific clients.
 

etchtech09

macrumors member
Jun 25, 2010
55
1
no, you have interpreted a bad question incorrectly.

The OP says "assigned an IP" where he means to have an exit IP.

It is possible to configure a VPN server and client so that all traffic is routed over the VPN tunnel (apart from the traffic to the VPN server), this is called "full tunnel" instead of what most people use which is "split tunnel".

The exit IP is a function of NAT on the exit router. If there is only a single public IP address on the router, then it would be shared by all outbound traffic, even traffic that has arrived via a tunnel. If there are multiple public IP addresses, it might (depending on the VPN server and/or router) to "assign" specific exit addresses to specific clients.

I do agree with your explanation, but my previous statement is still good.

The OP said they connected to the VPN server and still had the same IP address, but they wanted the new IP address (External IP as show on whatismyip.com). This COULD imply that the OP is just trying to get the UK IP address, and not form a network with the 10.6 Server to use the various resources of said network. It COULD also imply, as you stated, that the OP is just using the wrong jargon in the their explanation and they do want to connect to the network of the 10.6 Server.

Either way, my first two questions are valid troubleshooting steps to resolve the issue that they originally posted about.
 
Last edited:

tonty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
20
0
ok, apologies if my terminology here is a little awry.

I want all my network traffic from the US client to go via the UK server as I need a UK IP adddress. When I connect the VPN, I see the IP address assigned to the client is actually a 10.0.0.xx address, not the 214.n.n.n address that I expected.

I also have a strongVPN account which gives me a UK IP, this works fine. But when I try to configure my own VPN server to do the same thing, I don't get the UK IP address.
 

Winni

macrumors 68040
Oct 15, 2008
3,207
1,196
Germany.
ok, apologies if my terminology here is a little awry.

I want all my network traffic from the US client to go via the UK server as I need a UK IP adddress. When I connect the VPN, I see the IP address assigned to the client is actually a 10.0.0.xx address, not the 214.n.n.n address that I expected.

I also have a strongVPN account which gives me a UK IP, this works fine. But when I try to configure my own VPN server to do the same thing, I don't get the UK IP address.

You will NOT see the server's public IP address on your client. The 10.0.0.0/8 network is a private network, so I guess that your VPN connection works fine and that the VPN server assigned this address to your machine.

However, when you you try to connect to the Internet from your client machine, the traffic should be routed through the VPN server and the VPN server will probably masquerade this 10.0.0.x address with its own public IP address. So even though you see a 10.0.0.x address on your own computer, servers on the Internet will see you with the VPN server's 214.x.x.x address that you mentioned -- the VPN server basically acts as a proxy server for you.

However, without knowing your network setup, this is just guess work based upon standard principles.
 

tonty

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Aug 24, 2010
20
0
You will NOT see the server's public IP address on your client. The 10.0.0.0/8 network is a private network, so I guess that your VPN connection works fine and that the VPN server assigned this address to your machine.

However, when you you try to connect to the Internet from your client machine, the traffic should be routed through the VPN server and the VPN server will probably masquerade this 10.0.0.x address with its own public IP address. So even though you see a 10.0.0.x address on your own computer, servers on the Internet will see you with the VPN server's 214.x.x.x address that you mentioned -- the VPN server basically acts as a proxy server for you.

However, without knowing your network setup, this is just guess work based upon standard principles.

ok, that's clear. But, when I browse, I'm still showing a US IP address (using whatismyip.com as reference)
 
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