I have just had a T1 connection installed that uses a router and want to create a virtual private network from home to work. Earthlink says I have to tell them the port(s) that need to be turned on to do this. What ports should I tell them? Any tips or web addresses that I can go to to get more information about this?
Thanks,
David
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Well if you are going to form a VPN lan to lan tunnel using the standard cisco set-up you will require protocols 50 and 51 and port udp 500.
Otherwise as the question above states you will need to provide your VPN details.
If Earthlink is the ISP some ISP's do restrict VPN activity and would need to open up the required ports for VPN. MCI for one does and some like AOL do not allow it at all.
Hi:
Thanks for responding. As usual, something you think would be fairly straightforward is more involved. I will try and answer the above questions below.
"And, why does Earthlink need to know the ports (assuming that Earthlink is your ISP)?" The setup we have is that the office LAN is connected to a router that is connected to Earthlink. Earthlink remotely controls the router (we do not have the access codes) so I believe that the ports are opened on the router which is the reason earthlink needs to know which ones to turn on.
"Otherwise as the question above states you will need to provide your VPN details." All I want to do is to connect from my home computer which is running WinXP to my office computer that is running WinXP and vice versa if possible (I don't have a static IP address at home). I intend to use the software built into WinXP to create the VPN. I would also like to us the remote desktop feature that is also a part of WinXP.
"Well if you are going to form a VPN lan to lan tunnel using the standard cisco set-up you will require protocols 50 and 51 and port udp 500." I would guess that the answer to my question is port 500 and I should tell Earthlink to turn this port on but the "udp" prior to the 500 concerns me. I have no idea what protocols 50 and 51 mean.
So, given the above is port 500 the correct answer or is more information needed?
Thanks again,
David
> I have no idea what protocols 50 and 51 mean.
First, there is a common mistake that people use "VPN" as synonym for a secure connection.
Even if a VPN is most-likeley a secure conection, based on IPSec, and that this is the way to go, VPN as is has nothing to do with secure/encrypted connections.
Said this, I'll try to answer your questions:
protocol 50 and 51 and port 500 (udp) are used/required by IPSec.
AFAIK WinXP uses VPN based on IPSec, so these prorocols and ports are required.
Is this the answer you need?
I should have been more specific as ahoffmann stated protocols 50 and 51 and UDP 500 are used for IPSEC.
and if you have no idea what they mean and you are interested.
Protocol 50 is for Encapsulation Header (ESP) In Tunnel-mode ESP, the original IP datagram is placed in the encrypted portion of the Encapsulating Security Payload and that entire ESP frame is placed within a datagram having unencrypted IP headers. The information in the unencrypted IP headers is used to route the secure datagram from origin to destination. An unencrypted IP Routing Header might be included between the IP Header and the Encapsulating Security Payload.
Protocol 51 is for Authentication Header (AH) AH verifies the identity of the sender and the content of the packet only. Data is not encrypted.
Hi Infotrader:
I'm glad you said port 1723 because that was my first guess before contacting Experts Exchage. In the end, I asked Earthlink to turn on the following ports: 500, 1723 and 3389. I figured it wouldn't be a problem to turn on extra ports, they would be just left unused. Although, I'm sure I'll hear from someone that says that this could be a problem too :)
David
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by: ahoffmannPosted on 2004-03-14 at 09:43:54ID: 10592647
> What ports should I tell them?
all ports you need for your VPN.
But that's probably not the answer you expect. If so please give more details about your VPN.
And, why does Earthlink need to know the ports (assuming that Earthlink is your ISP)?