Softether VPN on OpenWRT?

Steve - AK0M

Has anyone set up Softether VPN server on an OpenWRT router and using it to access their radio remotely? I am looking for a how-to guide.

Would OpenVPN server be a better alternative? It looks more complex and less versatile to me.

Steve - AK0M

Ha Gei

Well i have not done that yet, but according to what i read after googling a bit, it seems to be fairly the same as if you set it up on a RPI or similar linux based system.

I seen no real difference in complexity, other that the need of a router with a simple port forwarding rule in front of the softethernet server software.

Harry

DL9NDW

Gord-VA7GP

The main issue you're likely to face: Flex Radio "Discovery".

When you set up your VPN, the "discovery" packets emitted by your Flex Radio probably won't be communicated to SmartSDR, and you'll see the "No Radios Found" message. I think there are three solutions:

1) use SmartLink. This only comes into play to find / connect your Radio to SmartSDR. You may be hoping to avoid SmartLink with your VPN, but possibly you won't. But at least it's out of the picture once the connection between SmartSDR and Radio are established.

2) You may be able to configure your VPN to "insert" your remote connection into the DHCP range you currently use. In this case, "Discovery" is not traversing different subnets, and SmartSDR will hook up to your Flex radio just fine. However, this is an advanced configuration and may not be supported by all VPNs. I don't know about OpenVPN on your OpenWRT (nor DD-WRT).

3) You may be able to "add-on" a module to to support mDNS / UDP Discovery stuff between subnets.

4) You may be able to perform some advanced firewall configuration to allow Discovery across subnets. This comes up often when folks want to use their Apple TV or Chromecast.

But in any event, you should see reasonable performance with your OpenVPN. I might suggest simply getting the basics going, as in Step 1 - with SmartLink. It's probably not what you are after, but it proves that you've got your VPN tunnel, and you can see the resulting SmartSDR performance. After that is working, and you like it, you can begin the arduous task of getting automatic discovery working and remove SmartLink.

It is for this very reason that folks are asking SmartSDR to allow direct IP-address entry for your radio, so there is no reliance on either Discovery nor SmartLink. Apparently the Mac version allows direct IP-entry for the radio and it works well. Seems like a straightforward addition to Windows version of SmartSDR...

Steve - AK0M

Hi Gord, thanks for your comments. It’s important to note that I am not thinking OpenVPN; rather, Softether VPN on OpenWRT router firmware. Softether VPN supports the Flex UDP discovery packets and will operate as a L2 VPN, as I understand it. OpenVPN supposedly can also be configured to support those packets I think but is much more complex to set up to do this and much lower performance overall.

I also use Mac and iOS SmartSDR. It does not support direct IP addressing for remote access to my knowledge. That requirement is baked into the Flex firmware for using SmartLink and independent of client.

I am pursuing the VPN solution to circumvent the need to use SmartLink in the future for remote access. The latest SmartLink failure occurred just after I left home for two weeks and was hoping to use SmartLink for remote access while traveling. I was unable to be local to perform the firmware update and lost use of my rig for two weeks. Pretty disappointing especially for a problem that has happened before and that could have been averted. But a VPN solution should eliminate that dependence on SmartLink. Softether VPN looks like the best solution, I just hope to get it running in my OpenWRT router rather than have to set up a Pi just for this.

Steve AK0M