MX64 and server access

[sschiang]

Hi all,

I have an extremely simple MX64 setup that I have not been able to get working and I am sure somebody has done this before:

Comcast Internet feed into MX64 and behind MX64 is a small LAN. I have client VPN working and also able to RDP thru VPN to our server on the LAN. What I have not yet been able to do is to access the server as a simple file server. I thought Port Forward would work but so far not. The server has a static IP and I setup a Forward rule to forward port 8000-8500 to the server static IP. I did a VPN connect to mx64:8000 or max64ip:8000, but it was rejected as unresolved. Ideas? Thanks.

[jdsilva]

If you're connected via Client VPN you shouldn't need a port forward. In that case you should just be able to hit the private IP of the server directly, assuming no other firewall rules are blocking and routing is correct. 

Are you using VPN for the file sharing? 

[sschiang]

Thanks for the reply. I am trying to access the file server through the Client VPN.

That's what I thought (be able to hit the private static IP directly) but have no luck. I thought it may be because my client VPN IP range is different then the LAN IP subnet behind the MX64, hence trying port forwarding. When I first came across this, I called Meraki support and was told both Client LAN and the LAN behind the MX need to have the same IP range, which was incorrect as MX will flag an error if I try that. I was then told the only way to do this is to set up WINS and I thought that was insane. Here we are.

[jdsilva]

Yeh definitely not. You must use different ranges for the LAN and Client VPN. And WINS is ancient... Unless you have really old clients still using netbios you also don't need that.

So are you using the private IP on the RDP then? How is that working right now?

[sschiang]

No netbios and no wins. I am not even trying to access the really small LAN, just the file server. Answer to your question is RDP connects to the file server via the same VPN and private static IP, no problem. I can even do it with an Android phone.

[PhilipDAth · Accepted solution]

Is the file server running any firewall, such as Windows Firewall or a Antivirus firewall?  If so, try turning it off for a little while to see if it is related to the issue.

[sschiang]

Hi, sorry for the late reply. I did a port scan on the Windows system (it does have Windows Firewall on). It appears that it is rejecting access to most ports. I've tried to enable various Windows Services that I think are relevant but no luck yet. It now appears your suggestion that this is a Firewall problem is correct. Thanks for the help.