Linksys WRV54G Wireless VPN Router

For xmas, I got a Linksys WRV54G Wireless VPN Router. I set it up and it worked good, wireless worked, wired work, etc. You are supposed to be able to use it as a VPN endpoint, so I decided to try it.

First thing I did, was upgrade the firmware. I was running 2.10. I downloaded the latest version (2.37) and upgraded it. Once I logged back in, I saw new options for VPN Clients, etc, so I figured I was going in the right direction. I could still get on the net, so hopefully it worked. Then I tried to VPN in to my connection from an outside connection, using the Linksys QuickConnect Client. No Luck. I figured what the hey, I have some setting wrong. Then I tried to VPN out to a remote location (which worked before the firmware upgrade) using a Cisco VPN Client. No Luck. WTF? So after a few hours of fiddling with settings and it still not working, I put firmware 2.10 back on. Lo and behold I could VPN Out again, but something else broke. My website I run wasnt working (port forwarding in the router). Darn it!!! So I upgrade firmware to 2.25 – nothing. My last resort. Firmware 2.36. Once I loaded that, I could get on the net, I could VPN to the remote location, and my website worked. Ok, one last thing to test, VPN in to my connection from a remote location. I added a VPN user and the router prompted me to change my internal network to 10.x.x.x network instead of 192.168.1.x network. I figured something must be working. I had to change the static ip of my server to the 10.x.x that i got, and then I could connect to everything internall. I connected to a remote connection, and tried VPN in to my apt. Wow, it actually worked. I could map a drive to my server.

After searching numerous KB’s and website, here is what I have seen.

1) People dont understand the differnce between VPN’ing out, and VPN’ing in. Routers have VPN Passthrough on them so you can VPN out. VPN Passthrough is like one setting to open many ports for you, just so VPN works.

2) VPN Endpoint on this router is configured by default, you just need right firmware and to add a user. You DO NOT need to set up VPN Tunnels! The page in the Admin area for VPN Tunnel and VPN passthrough is misleading. They shouldn’t be on the same page!! If you are going to set up a tunnel, the other end of the tunnel needs to know about you, and you will be connected 24/7. It isn’t like connecting with a VPN client and disconnecting!!

I hope someone out there who is having problems with their WRV54G reads this. Before I got it to work, I figured it was a piece of junk. Now it works great. You just need to have patience. If anyone needs help, just let me know and I can give advice on how to get it rolling.