Quick Tips to Solve your VPN Problem at Home

This article will list down some quick tips to solve your VPN problem at home, so you might take a look if you are facing this problem. As we know, VPN is a way to connect 2 networks securely over the Internet with encryption, such as connecting your company computer from home network back to company network.

You might feel frustrated if the VPN is not working at home after trying to connect to company network even with correct VPN login information by using company computer/notebook. So what could be the problem? Most of the time the problem lies on your home router (if you have one). Here is what you can do:

Enable VPN Pass-Through on Home Router

If you have home router that works with hide NAT or PAT feature (so that you only need one public IP in your home network to access Internet), either it’s wired or wireless, you need to enable VPN pass-through for the VPN to work. Basically VPN pass-through feature will allow the VPN traffic to go through the router to Internet without blocking. Most of the routers would support these VPN pass-through features:

VPN pass-through for IPSec
VPN pass-through for PPTP
VPN pass-through for L2TP

Check what kind of VPN you use and enable the pass-through on router. If not sure, then test one-by-one or enable all. Here is an example on how I enable IPsec pass-through:

VPN pass-through

Open VPN Ports or Protocols on Firewall

Also you need to open VPN ports or protocols on router (with firewall feature enabled) or other firewall in your home network. Here are the ports or protocols that you need to open on firewall:

IPsec VPN – protocol 50 (ESP), protocol 51 (AH), UDP 500 (IKE)
PPTP – TCP 1723, protocol 47 (GRE)
L2TP – UDP 1701, UDP 500 (IKE), UDP 4500 (NAT-T)

If still having problem, then check with your company’s VPN administrator to get more helps.

If your router does not support above VPN features, go ahead to check out these vpn routers. Happy VPN troubleshooting!

Related Articles:

Ten things you should know about troubleshooting VPN connections
VPN Troubleshooting
Windows VPN troubleshooting: A learning guide

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