Scenario: Two Balance Ones, call them Alpha and Beta.
Beta (local side) is used to provide access to a NAS on Alpha (remote side).
PepVPN connection needs to be established from Alpha to Beta. Whereby connection from Alpha to Beta is an Outgoing.
Reason - Outgoing connection gets full speed of either Upload or Download capabilities of service.
If instead an Incoming connection is made (Beta to Alpha), it goes through service providers remote server, which is then Throttled to less than 1/3rd of full speed of either Upload or Download. *Have no idea as to why. Service provider insists there is no throttling. But numerous testing show otherwise. *
Thus far, setting up PepVPN connection between Alpha and Beta has resulted in what appears to be Incoming connection, (instead of Outgoing connection as expected); which results in drastically reduced connection speeds.
Alpha is setup with IP address of Beta. Beta does not have the IP address of Alpha (Remote Host field is let blank on Beta PepVPN setup), because Alpha’s IP address may or may not be valid.
Testing via SSH Tunnel (Outgoing) from Remote system (Alpha side) to Local system (Beta side) provides full speed of either Upload Or Download capabilities of service. If the reverse is done (Incoming) Local to Remote, then speed of either Upload or Download is throttled to less than 1/3rd.
How do I force PepVPN to establish connection in a particular direction, so as to avoid service providers remote server, similar to Testing done via SSH Tunnel?
Alpha (remote Balance One) has WAN-1 and Mobile
Beta (local Balance One) has WAN-1
No Bonding is being used.
WAN-1 of Alpha (remote Balance One) is being throttled for Incoming connections regardless of whether data is being Uploaded or Downloaded.
Incoming Connections have to go through ISP’s centrally located Remote Access server, regardless of whether data is being Uploaded or Downloaded. It appears Throttling is being done either by ISP’s Remote Access server or by company that connects ISP’s server to Internet.
Whereas, Outgoing Connections go through ISP’s regional Gateways (different from Remote Access server), regardless of whether data is being Uploaded or Downloaded.
The Throttling is not due to use of Balance One. Testing with a different brand / model / type of router shows same problem with throttling by ISP’s Remote Access (Incoming made connections). The Throttling appears to be based on per IP Address basis for the Incoming connections through Remote Access Server.
What I need to know is how to force Alpha (remote Balance One) to make an Outgoing PepVPN connection to Beta (local Balance One) so that PepVPN connection does not go through ISP’s Remote Access server. Currently it looks like two Balance One’s communicate with each other, then Balance One on Beta side establishes connection to Balance One on Alpha side, thus making an Incoming connection.
For testing, I have done this using a SSH Tunnel by establishing SSH connection from Alpha side to Beta side, thus making an Outgoing connection which goes through ISP’s regional Gateway - the connection is not throttled.
If I do reverse, make SSH connection from Beta side to Alpha side, thus making an Incoming connection which goes through ISP’s Remote Access Server, the connection is throttled.
I have tried two things to see if it would make a difference.
Tried using custom port, instead of default port to see if ISP was triggering Throttling based on commonly used VPN ports for Incoming traffic through Remote Access server.
Made no difference, still 1/3rd speeds of Outgoing.
Setup an Outbound Rule to block Balance One Router of Beta (local side) from connecting to current WAN-1 IP Address of Alpha (remote side).
PepVPN connection was established and worked.
Balance One of Alpha side showed status of PepVPN.
Balance One of Beta side did not show a status for a PepVPN connection.
Made no difference, still 1/3rd speeds of Outgoing.