Poor connection - dropped packets

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Mikexx
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:03 pm

Poor connection - dropped packets

Post by Mikexx » Sat Dec 04, 2021 2:50 am

I am a newby to SoftEther and would prefer to use this VPN application to share files etc rather than through a Remote Desktop connection.

I have SoftEther server running on a PC that uses WiFi to connect to a standard router.
I run SoftEther client on this and a remote PC.
The following ports are forwarded to the PCs in question in their respective routers
443
992
1194
5555

I can independently Remote Desktop into the remote PC.
I can see each PC on the other PC at the allotted IP address given by SoftEther.
However if I ping the other PC, say 192.168.1.128 I get anything from 1 to 3 packets out of 4 failing.

What am I doing wrong? Is the issue that the server is being run on a PC using a WiFi adapter?

In essence it would be great if all the machines were on the same network, where each side of the great www divide used their respective gateway addresses for addresses outside of the local subnet. Currently one uses 192.168.1.1 and the other 192.168.1.254

Any help would be appreciated.

Mikexx
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:03 pm

Re: Poor connection - dropped packets

Post by Mikexx » Thu Dec 09, 2021 4:42 pm

Is there a more appropriate forum to ask this question?

nobody12
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:22 pm

Re: Poor connection - dropped packets

Post by nobody12 » Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:44 pm

I dont know a better forum then this.
Wifi is a rather unreliable network, I would not recommend running a router for VPN using Wifi, but unless the Wifi is configured incorrect, a packet loss of 25% is unusual.
If you go to the SE server PC and try the ping, will you also see a similar packet loss? If yes then try not to use WiFi and check the result.

I dont understand what you mean by: "In essence it would be great if all the machines were on the same network"
A default setup of SE will bring the PC where the client is located into the network where the server is running. Isnt this what you desire?

Mikexx
Posts: 6
Joined: Thu Nov 18, 2021 2:03 pm

Re: Poor connection - dropped packets

Post by Mikexx » Sat Dec 11, 2021 1:45 am

nobody12 wrote:
Fri Dec 10, 2021 5:44 pm
I dont know a better forum then this.
Wifi is a rather unreliable network, I would not recommend running a router for VPN using Wifi, but unless the Wifi is configured incorrect, a packet loss of 25% is unusual.
If you go to the SE server PC and try the ping, will you also see a similar packet loss? If yes then try not to use WiFi and check the result.

I dont understand what you mean by: "In essence it would be great if all the machines were on the same network"
A default setup of SE will bring the PC where the client is located into the network where the server is running. Isnt this what you desire?
Many thanks for your reply. If I'm honest I expected this forum to be more active.

The native PC IP address is different to the address assigned by SoftEther. By way of example one PC is assigned by the router an IP address of 192.169.1.68 but it assigned 192.169.1.129 by SoftEther and only this IP address is visible to the remote PC. Other devices on the remote network are not visible to the server machine and visa-versa.

The packet loss is bidirectional.

The WiFi signal is very good, and when using say a broadband check website I am getting a fibre speed of 100/30Mbs on one machine and 50/20Mbs broadband speed on the other. Packet loss is very rare. I've also used iPerf which shows a good connection.

nobody12
Posts: 139
Joined: Sat Feb 13, 2021 10:22 pm

Re: Poor connection - dropped packets

Post by nobody12 » Sat Dec 11, 2021 12:40 pm

"The native PC IP address is different to the address assigned by SoftEther. By way of example one PC is assigned by the router an IP address of 192.169.1.68 but it assigned 192.169.1.129 by SoftEther and only this IP address is visible to the remote PC. Other devices on the remote network are not visible to the server machine and visa-versa"

SE uses its own software/virtual Network card. This card gets its IP addres from the SE server. So it is normal and desirable to have different IP addresses. Also make sure the Adress ranges are different: local Lan 192.168.1.0/24, Lan of SE server 192.168.2.0/24. If the networks overlap, it is possible that windows tries to send a packet using the wrong adapter as the source. This could explain your partial packet loss.

If you want to make other machines in the remote network available to the network of the SE server you have to install a bridge on the remote Client PC. There is a tutorial here: https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howt ... Bridge_VPN

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