Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Need extra help installing your Ooma Hub or Telo system? Let us know.
wheel
Posts:13
Joined:Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:08 pm
Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by wheel » Wed Aug 05, 2009 9:22 pm

I installed ooma uing the sugested connection pocess - cable modem - ooma - router. I had dydns set up on my DD-WRT router which enabled me to use remote desktop cnnection to get to my pc. Since ooma was installed, I can no longer access my pc through the remote desktop connection, and when I go to http://MYNAME.dyndns.org/, I get to the ooma setup page. Are there any quick fixes so that port 3389 can function, or doI have to plug ooma into the router?

Thanks for any help - figured help would be better here rather than go through tech support.

User avatar
ggilman
Posts:448
Joined:Sun May 10, 2009 5:18 pm
Location:Panama City, FL

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by ggilman » Wed Aug 05, 2009 10:55 pm

I would suggest you set up a DMZ on the ooma. Have it point to your router. Your router is expecting to get with internet traffic anyway, so there's no risk involved. I wouldn't suggest this if you didn't have a router between your computers and the ooma of course.

Anyway, the DMZ is easy to set up. Just go to setup.ooma.com, the advanced tab. You will see the input fields for the DMZ there.

Alternately, you could open each port you need but personally I find it tedious to open up two ports for each thing I want: 1 on the ooma, then another on my router. Using the dmz, all of the non-ooma traffic goes straight to your router so you just deal with one set of firewall rules.

User avatar
ggilman
Posts:448
Joined:Sun May 10, 2009 5:18 pm
Location:Panama City, FL

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by ggilman » Wed Aug 05, 2009 11:04 pm

Are you saying that via your dyndns registration from a remote machine you get the ooma setup page? If so, something is set up very wrong and you are at high risk from internet attacks right now. Personally I'd disconnect everything immediately until you can figure out what's wrong.

If it's just some other dyndns issue you are concerned with, you may have an issue if your router was providing registration information to the dyndns servers. Prior to your ooma, it was directly on the net and would report that address to dyndns (assuming of course your router has this capability and was setup as such...). It's no longer on the net and thus would provide a bogus internal network address to dyndns. There's likely no way to get your router to handle the change & report dyndns appropriately. You can, however, run software on a PC that will provide the proper registration. Check dyndns's web site for a download.

murphy
Posts:7554
Joined:Tue Jan 27, 2009 12:49 pm
Location:Pennsylvania

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by murphy » Thu Aug 06, 2009 4:10 am

You can't use the router to update DynDNS when the ooma hub is ahead of the router. No router that I am aware of implements the DynDNS update procedure correctly. They all use the IP address that they got for their WAN interface instead of going to DynDNS's server to determine what the external IP address is. You will have to run the DynDNS provided client software to keep DynDNS updated with your current external IP address.

You got the ooma setup page because your router told DynDNS that your external IP address was 172.27.35.2. This is partly DynDNS's fault since they should reject any update that presents a private address.
Customer since January 2009
Telo with 2 Handsets, a Linx, and a Safety Phone
Telo2 with 2 Handsets and a Linx

User avatar
scottlindner
Posts:1003
Joined:Sun May 17, 2009 4:47 am
Location:Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by scottlindner » Thu Aug 06, 2009 6:27 am

You are experiencing double NAT with your current configuration. The suggestion to put your router into the Ooma Hub's DMZ will solve this.

There are other solutions as well, so if this doesn't work out for you be sure to post back.

As for updating DynDNS. It sounds like you are running a machine 24/7. I do this as well and use ddclient (it is a perl script) to update three DynDNS accounts. It checks your Internet IP address using an external service so it does not suffer the problem of your router not having your real Internet IP.

Scott

wheel
Posts:13
Joined:Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:08 pm

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by wheel » Thu Aug 06, 2009 7:52 am

scottlindner wrote:You are experiencing double NAT with your current configuration. The suggestion to put your router into the Ooma Hub's DMZ will solve this.

There are other solutions as well, so if this doesn't work out for you be sure to post back.

As for updating DynDNS. It sounds like you are running a machine 24/7. I do this as well and use ddclient (it is a perl script) to update three DynDNS accounts. It checks your Internet IP address using an external service so it does not suffer the problem of your router not having your real Internet IP.

Scott
I tried to put in the address of my router (192.168.0.1) into the DMZ, but I got an error message Home IP Address and DHCP range are not in the same subnet.

Yes, I do have one PC that is on 24/7 that I need to reach. I would rather not run another program on the pc, but if that is the solution, I will. If I run a windows client, will that be enough to get the traffic through?
Last edited by wheel on Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:05 am, edited 1 time in total.

User avatar
Aveamantium
Posts:1352
Joined:Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:28 pm
Location:Loveland, Colorado

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by Aveamantium » Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:01 am

You need to put the IP address assigned to the Router by the ooma device. It should be in the 172.27.35.X range. If you put the same starting and ending IP address in ooma's DHCP server you'll know exactly what will be assigned to the router (i.e., put 172.27.35.10 in both the start and end DHCP range and put 172.27.35.10 in the ooma's DMZ).
Go AVS!

User avatar
scottlindner
Posts:1003
Joined:Sun May 17, 2009 4:47 am
Location:Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by scottlindner » Thu Aug 06, 2009 8:55 am

wheel wrote:I tried to put in the address of my router (192.168.0.1) into the DMZ, but I got an error message Home IP Address and DHCP range are not in the same subnet.
That's the LAN address of your router. You need to add the WAN address of the router. Log into the router's configuration page to see what it is.
wheel wrote:Yes, I do have one PC that is on 24/7 that I need to reach. I would rather not run another program on the pc, but if that is the solution, I will. If I run a windows client, will that be enough to get the traffic through?
The issue isn't related to Ooma. It's a dynamic DNS client issue that is very common. That's why ddclient is the most commonly used dynamic DNS update client because it is the most complete and capable implementation to solve things like this. Let's get your router into the Hub's DMZ first to see if a different DNS client is even necessary.

Scott

wheel
Posts:13
Joined:Thu Jul 23, 2009 8:08 pm

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by wheel » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:14 am

scottlindner wrote:
wheel wrote:I tried to put in the address of my router (192.168.0.1) into the DMZ, but I got an error message Home IP Address and DHCP range are not in the same subnet.
That's the LAN address of your router. You need to add the WAN address of the router. Log into the router's configuration page to see what it is.
wheel wrote:Yes, I do have one PC that is on 24/7 that I need to reach. I would rather not run another program on the pc, but if that is the solution, I will. If I run a windows client, will that be enough to get the traffic through?
The issue isn't related to Ooma. It's a dynamic DNS client issue that is very common. That's why ddclient is the most commonly used dynamic DNS update client because it is the most complete and capable implementation to solve things like this. Let's get your router into the Hub's DMZ first to see if a different DNS client is even necessary.

Scott
OK, I now have the start and end address for DNS to 172.27.35.2, and the same address is set for the DMZ. I restarted the ooma device and then the router. This is the address that the router shows. I use DD-WRT for DDNS, should I turn that off and install the windows client? Do any of the PC's need to be rebooted? So far it is still not reachable.

User avatar
scottlindner
Posts:1003
Joined:Sun May 17, 2009 4:47 am
Location:Colorado Springs, CO

Re: Problem Using Remote Desktop Connection and ooma

Post by scottlindner » Thu Aug 06, 2009 9:45 am

wheel wrote:OK, I now have the start and end address for DNS to 172.27.35.2, and the same address is set for the DMZ. I restarted the ooma device and then the router. This is the address that the router shows. I use DD-WRT for DDNS, should I turn that off and install the windows client? Do any of the PC's need to be rebooted? So far it is still not reachable.
Not being able to reach the site by the domain name is different than making sure DynDNS is updated correctly.

Let's first test if DynDNS is being updated correctly. Log into your DynDNS account and go to your services to see what the current IP address is. Then go to http://www.whatismyip.com and see what your Internet IP address is. If they are the same, then you are updating fine.

If you are updating fine but cannot access your locally hosted site by the domain name, that could be due to the Hub not supporting NAT loopback. I am not sure if putting your router into the DMZ will circumvent the NAT loopback limitation or not. A simple test to determine if it's a NAT loopback problem is to test your domain name from outside of your LAN. Either ask someone else to hit your site and see if it comes up, or go to a free web proxy (e.g. http://www.hidemyass.com) and see if it can bring up your site. If external users can access your site, but you cannot from within your LAN, that confirms the NAT loopback limitation of the Ooma Hub.

If you are having a NAT loopback problem there are multiple solutions for you to consider:
1. add the domain name and LAN IP address of your server to your hosts file
2. put your router in front of your Ooma Hub and don't plug anything into the computer port of the Ooma Hub. In this configuration you'll want to configure QoS on your router to ensure your Ooma calls get highest priority.

Scott

Post Reply