A router at one of my smaller client’s sites recently failed, so I purchased a new Netgear DG834 v4 to replace it. The intention was to restore the backed up configuration file from the old DG834 to quickly and easily recover the settings and restore an Internet connection at the client’s site. The client is reasonably small, so I could not justify the purchase of more expensive Cisco equipment.
The client’s network consists of 2 sites approximately 20 miles apart, each of which have a DSL line. Using a Netgear DG834 and a Netgear FVS114 at either end, a site-to-site VPN is created to allow traffic to traverse between the Windows Server at each site.
Using the new DG834 v4 with the restored config, file sharing across the VPN to any file shares at the remote site failed. This was the case from any machine, on or off the domain, and no matter in which direction we attempted to cross the VPN to access the file shares. This meant critical data at either location was inaccessible. However, ping traffic and remote desktop traffic worked successfully.
After investigating further, I confirmed my initial understanding that no firewalls are in effect across the VPN. However, firmware version 5.01.01 on the DG834 v4 has a bug which stops all SMB (Windows File Sharing) traffic traversing the VPN.
This bug was fixed in firmware version 5.01.09, as noted in the Netgear release notes:
Fixed an issue where browsing shares across a VPN (for example: \\192.168.1.2\sharename) would fail.
After upgrading the firmware to that version, the issue was resolved and workstations could access remote file shares again.
The firmware upgrade did not, in my case, erase any configuration on the router; this was a benefit as it meant I was able to perform the upgrade remotely.
Filed under: Firewalls, Routers, VPN | Tagged: DG834 v4, File Sharing, Firewall, FVS114, Microsoft Windows, Netgear, SMB, TCP Port 445, VPN
