How To Create A Vpn Connection In Windows Server 2012
How to install VPN on Windows Server 2019 using Routing and Remote Access
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In this blog article we are discussing about How to install and configure a VPN on Windows Server 2019 using Routing and Remote Access server role. A VPN is short form of virtual private network, which gives us a privacy, anonymity and security over public internet. A VPN service masks our ISP IP so your online actions are virtually untraceable. A VPN can also be used to connect computers to isolated remote computer networks that is usually inaccessible, by using the Internet or another intermediate network. Another Use of VPN is the client computers can browse websites through VPN server even if they are in the restricted internal network.
Routing and Remote Access Service is a Windows proprietary server role, that supports remote user or site-to-site connectivity by using virtual private network (VPN) or dial-up connections. So using RRAS we can convert a regular Windows Server as VPN server. Microsoft RRAS server and VPN client supports PPTP, L2TP/IPSec, SSTP and IKEv2 based VPN connection.
By default the VPN connections are made using PPTP which is a VPN Point-to-Point Tunnelling Protocol. We can also convert our VPN server to support SSTP. The PPTP protocol connection are established over TCP port 1723. PPTP also uses GRE and it supports encryption keys up to 128-bits. PPTP is a very fast VPN protocol and very easy to setup. Its supported by most operating systems like windows, Mac and Linux PC and android and IOS mobile devices.
System Configuration We Used.
Used Windows server 2019 which is covert as a VPN SSTP server.
Used Windows 10 client PC for connecting to Windows VPN server 2019.
Another thing is we are settings up VPN on windows server 2019 which only have one Network interface and its configured with Static Public IP address not NAT enabled. So this blog article can be implemented on Most of VPS ( Virtual Private Server) provided by Hosting Providers or with the Cloud Windows VMs.
Since its a VPS server, we only have RDP access using the VPS public IP address. So lets get started.
Here I have divided the whole steps in to different parts. Lets get started. Even though we are performing the install on Windows server 2019, you can refer this article for Windows server 2016 and windows server 2012.
Part:1 Install Remote Access Server role on Windows Server 2019
Log into the Windows Server 2019 > Click Windows Start Icon >> Click Server Manager.
Click Add Roles And Features
Click Next
Choose the Installation Type as " Role based or feature based installation and click Next.
From Server selection, choose "select a server from the server pool" and click Next.
From Server Role choose " Remote Access" and click Next.
Leave Features section as it is and click Next.
Click Next on Remote Access section.
Under Role Services choose "Direct Access and VPN (RAS) and Routing and click Next. A popup window will appear for confirming the features that need to be installed for Direct Access and VPN. Confirm it by clicking "Add Features".
Under Web Server Role (IIS) Section click Next.
Under IIS Role services section leave the default one and Click Next.
Under Final Confirmation section click Install.
The Remote Access server role install will start automatically and normally it will get completed with in few Minutes. Once the installation succeeded click close.
Part:2 Create Additional Loopback Network Adaptor On Windows Server 2019
Its for skipping the error while running Configuring Remote Access Wizard and the error will be like below.
Less than two network interfaces were detected on this machine. For standard VPN server configuration at least two network interfaces need to be installed. Please use custom configuration path instead.
Under Server Manager click Tools >> Computer Management.
From Computer Management window Click Device Manager >> Click VM name from Right side.
Under Actions tab >> Click "Add legacy Hardware"
A add Hardware wizard will open and click Next.
Choose option " Install the hardware that I manually select from a list " and click Next.
Choose "Network Adaptors" and click Next.
Choose "Microsoft" as Manufacturer and " Microsoft KM-TEST Loopback Adaptor " as Model. Click Next.
Confirm the Install by clicking Next.
Once the install got completed close the install wizard by clicking Finish.
Now, we can confirm the new network adaptor install from the Computer Management panel itself. For that click Device Manager >> Click VM name >> Expand Network Adaptors, there we can see the newly added LoopBack Network adaptor available.
Part:3 Configuring Remote Access Service on VPN Server.
From Server Manager Choose Remote Access >> Right click the Server name >> Choose Remote Access Management.
Under "Direct Access And VPN" Click "Run the Remote Access Setup Wizard"
The Configure remote Access wizard will open Click "Deploy VPN only"
In the Routing and Remote Access Console , right click server name and choose " configure and Enable routing and remote access " option.
Click Next on Routing and Remote access server setup wizard.
Choose Virtual private network( VPN) access and NAT option. Click Next.
In the select Network Interface section, choose the network adaptor where our public IP configured and click Next.
In the IP address Assigned section, choose " from a specified range of address" and Click Next. Here we are trying to define the private IP address that server give to remote VPN click PC after successful connection.
Click New button.
Give the starting and ending private IP range in the corresponding fields. Click Ok. We are giving IPs starting from 192.168.3.150 to 192.168.3.160.
Now we will see the assigned range and click Next.
In the Do you want to setup this server to work with a radius server question section, select "No, use Routing and Remote Access to authenticate connection requests" and Click next.
Click Finish on Completing the Routing and Remote Access server setup wizard.
Click Ok.
This completes the configuration of Routing and Remote Access Server. Now we can see a green up arrow next to server hostname and which shows the Routing and Remote access server service started successfully.
Part:4 Allow Remote Access to our VPN server through Public Network Adaptor.
For maintain the access to the VPN server over remote desktop we need to allow the remote access port over our public network adaptor itself through routing and remote access properties section. Otherwise we will loss the access to the server through remote desktop because we only have one Network interface available on server for both VPN traffic and for the remote access.
In the Routing and Remote Access Manager , Expand Server name >> Expand IPv4 >> Choose NAT >> Right Click Our Public Network Adaptor and choose Properties.
Select " Remote Access" , A pop up window will appear, in the Private Address filed give our server public IP address and click OK. After that click Apply and OK.
If you have different RDP port, you need to create a new allow rule by clicking add option.
Part:5 Allow VPN remote access for the Users.
In this part we are giving a existing user on VPN server for remote access. Then only if we give the logins of these server users to remote VPN clients, they can successfully connect to server through VPN.
Go to the Computer Management Section >> Expand Local users and Groups >> Choose Users >> Right click a user where we wish to give VPN access and choose properties.
Under "Dial- In" tab >> Choose "Allow Access". Click Apply and Ok.
Part:6 Allow VPN ports on Windows Firewall.
In this part we are allowing the ports used by the VPN server for communication on windows firewall. Otherwise the remote VPN clients won't be able to communicate with the VPN server. Below are the ports we need to allow in VP server firewall.
- For PPTP: 1723 TCP and Protocol 47 GRE (also known as PPTP Pass-through
- For L2TP over IPSEC: 1701 TCP and 500 UDP
- For SSTP: 443 TCP
Now issue below power shell commands to allow ports in windows firewall.
Now if we look at the windows firewall inbound section , we can see the ports are allowed.
This Completes the PPTP VPN server setup on Windows server 2019. Now Lets Proceed with the Remote VPN Client on Windows 7 PC setup and Try to Establish a VPN server connection.
Step:7 Test VPN Connection.
Open Network and Sharing Center of your local PC/Laptop. Click on 'Set up a new Connection or Network'. Please note the screenshots are from a Windows 7 PC.
Click onConnect to a workplace.
Click on Usemy Internet connection (VPN)
Enter IP address of VPN server (External network's Primary/static IP which has Internet connection) and click on next.
Enter the user login details of VPN server, the user we created in VPN server or existing one with enabled VPN access and click on Connect.
Now you can see the client machine is trying to connect to the VPN server. Normally the connections are established using PPTP protocol. After successful connection, you can see a new VPN network adapter is created in Client PC Network adapters section.
If you right click on the VPN Network adapter and select "Properties" , you can see many tabs with different settings. Below are the default settings of my Client PC VPN network Adapter.
Refer below screenshots if you have any issues with VPN connection from client side.
Two other ways to confirm the VPN connection is successful is go back to VPN server 2019 and Open Routing and Remote Access Manager >> From there Expand our server name >> Choose Remote Access client, and in the right side we can see a active connection.
Another option to confirm the successful VPN connection is , open a browser in Windows 7 PC and search the what is my IP and it will show the public ISP IP as VPN server IP. Which means all the internet traffic from client side is routing through our VPN server.
This Concludes the settings up PPTP VPN on Windows server 2019. I hope this blog article is informative. Leave your thoughts in the comment box.
If you are Looking to Convert our PPTP VPN to support SSTP refer our below article.
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How To Create A Vpn Connection In Windows Server 2012
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6 Comments
Hello. I followed this guide to create a VPN network from my clients to our server, but despite all the configurations have been properly completed, the clients are not able to connect nor by SSTP SSL or PPTP. They will not reach out the server public ip address.
Is it possible to get some assistance to get this working?
Thanks in advance.
Okay, we can together find out what causing the issue. Email me the details and error.
Hi thanks for the guide, I have a successful connection to the VPN server however I am unable to connect to anything beyond. Is this a routing issue? Any idea what I should look out for?
Many Thanks,
Hi Mark, Most probably routing issue. My suggestion is check your local network settings from your PC and make sure there is no Network conflict.
Hi,
How do I set this up with machine that is behind our company firewall and is configured with private IP address (access to internet and internal resources). So, basically I can't configure public IP on this server, we need to use NAT, Firewall public IP -> Windows VPN server private IP. Also, can I use any private IP address for "Address range assignment" or do IPs need to be in the same network as the servers NIC? Thanks, 1st time trying to set this up.
okay, try to choose your private interface which is connected to your Firewall public IP while selecting interface and see if that works.
Also you can use any private IP range in the IP address Assigned section.