Simple perhaps but how are they conected? I suspect the WAN of the balance 20 is connected to the 192.168.1.x LAN? If so then NAT is getting in the way.
Assuming this topology you would need to make two changes, firstly turn off NAT on the WAn of the balance 20 so that it is using IP Forwarding. Then add a static route to the router that is the default gateway of the 192.168.1.x LAN so it knows how to route traffic back to 192.168.11.x via the Balance 20 WAN IP.
Ah OK.
So you need WAN1 of Balance 20 to have a static IP (eg 192.168.1.254) and change the WAN to IP forwarding from NAT. Then you need to add a static route on the CISCO router for 192.168.11.0/24 with a next hop of 192.168.1.254 (or whatever you have set the WAN of the peplink 20 to.
When you change WAN1 to IP forwarding all traffic will be allowed to pass between the 192.168.1.x and the 192.168.11.x network, if you don’t want that you will need to set firewall rules to block unwanted traffic.
is it strictly necessary that the WAN1 of the peplink is in Static IP?
Because we would need to use peplink in hundreds of networks of our customers and we would be interested in bringing a configuration ready for everyone.
You understand that if I can keep the Dhcp Client somehow it’s much easier for installers
It doesn’t need to be statically assigned - you could use a DHCP reservation on the CISCO for the balance WAN IP, but if you add a static route to the CISCO to enable traffic to route back from the 192.168.1.0 network to the 192.168.11.0 network, then by its very nature the balance 20 wan IP can’t change otherwise the static route becomes invalid.
The other option is to use a routing protocol so that the Balance 20 automatically updates the CISCO when its IP changes. With RIP enabled on the WAN, the balance 20 could have a dynamic WAN IP as it would afvertise what Routes are available to the CISCO (and so the CISCO would know what its IP address is).
However potentially getting a static route and static IP (or DHCP reservation) configured will be less painful than ensuring the CISCO has RIP configured correctly… guess it depends on your deployments.
Thanks for your information, you are helping us a lot
Our plan is to distribute many peplink balance 20, and our intent is to simplify installations as much as possible.
the project is very simple: create a subnet from the customer and install our server and our software.
We must avoid touching the customer’s LAN network.
I carefully read your explanation. We thought that setting up DHCP reservation on the customer’s cisco is not a great idea … we do not want to touch the customer’s network and routers.
let’s proceed with changing the WAN of the peplink balance20 in IPFORWARDING. Now let’s do a trial … thanks
Ah. Is it only ever a single server behind the Balance 20? If it is just a single device then you could potentially use IP Passthrough on the Balance. That would turn the balance into a transparent bridge so your server would get an IP of 192.168.1.x even though it is on the LAN of the Balance.
The thing I’m not sure about is if the balance 20 supports IP passthrough. I know the SOHO does…
Seems the Balance 20 does not support IP Passthrough.
You either need a BR1 or a SOHO to be able to use IP passthrough on a wired WAN. If you used IP passthrough your Server would get the IP address assigned to the WAN of the peplink device from the CISCO network (192.168.1.x).
OK. I think we need to go back to the beginning on this and think it through.
This is my understanding and some assumptions (correct them as needed):
You want to be able to quickly deploy a file server in any guest/foreign/unmanged network - independent of that networks administrator. (so you don’t want to need any assistance from the remote networks admins)
I assume you are looking to use a Peplink Balance device to allow for easy remote access over PepVPN to the deployed servers - wherever they might be installed.
An added benefit of using a balance (or even a MAX) is that you can add additional connectivity to allow for remote administration (ie USB dongles / dedicated DSL).
You only plan to have a single server deployed per customer/end location.
You don’t say what type of file server you are using so I will assume windows SMB/CIFS file shares.
So lets picture a scenario:
Customer Network is 192.168.1.0/24 with DHCP enabled.
Your balance has a LAN IP of 192.168.11.254 and is issuing DHCP addresses on 11.1 - 11.253
Your file server is a DHCP client and gets assigned the first available IP (192.168.11.1)
Your balance WAN is connected to the customer LAN and has been assigned the next available IP in the DHCP scope (for this example 192.168.1.16). It is set to use NAT (not IP forwarding)
you would then forward ports from your Balance WAN to the LAN IP of your server to allow the SMB shares to be accessed. To do this you forward ports 137-139 which are used for NetBios/Name Resolution (optional if you are prepared to use the WAN IP address of the balance instead of a server name eg \192.168.11.16\share_name) and port 445 for SMB itself.
The only issue you might have is if and when the WAN IP of the balance router changes.
What you really want is for the WAN IP to be statically assigned or at the very least for it to have a DHCP reservation on the customer network, as if it changes you would be relying on WINS to work over NAT (which I have never tried) if you want them to connect using a server name (ie \your-file-server-name\file-share).
Or you would need your customer to access it using the IP assigned to the WAN of the balance (\192.168.11.16\share_name) so when that changes your clients will need to change the IP also.
I guess the perfect way would be to get the customer to set a DHCP reservation and add a DNS entry to their router for it so that they could access it using a name.