Boxee Box VPN Support

**darcilicious** · June 22nd, 2011, 01:18 PM

Well you're an excellent troubleshooter!

I can't see anything else obvious to try except to turn on debug logging on the Boxee Box, reproduce the problem , and submit an issue to http://jira.boxee and attach the debug log files.

http://boxee.zendesk.com/entries/329...w-do-i-do-that but instead of "click to send", save the debug file link to your computer, then when submitting the issue to jira, attach the log file.

**brochuj** · June 22nd, 2011, 10:18 PM

Hello, I'm new to the Boxee Box, and love it. However, I've been unsuccessful in using any VPN service out there. I guess I've only tried two services; ibVPN and VPNtraffic.com.

None of the IP addresses from different location worked from either service.

I live in Saskatchewan with Access Communications as my ISP.

Would a Paid Proxy service work just as well as a VPN (is supposed to) when attempting to access content from other countries ?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,

**jasmeet_9sb** · July 5th, 2011, 01:03 PM

Originally Posted by brochuj

None of the IP addresses from different location worked from either service.

I have ibVPN and it works for me in Canada. Can you explain how you are trying to connect coz you don't need to put any IP addresses anywhere in boxeebox VPN..

**blixt3n** · July 6th, 2012, 01:42 AM

Originally Posted by wonkydonkey

There is VPN support but I could not get it to work. The BB connects to the VPN but then disconnects from the internet. Others have reported the same thing but some do seem to have it working ok for them - lucky fu***.

you need this on server side:

iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE

**gumbi2400** · July 28th, 2012, 12:46 PM

So, I've been banging my head against the wall with this one for a few days now. I have my own VPN server with PPTP support, and everything is working splendidly on all platforms, except my beloved Boxee Box.

I have attempted to connect both with and without encryption with no luck. When connecting, on the server side, I am seeing the following within the logs:

Jul 28 10:28:18 pptpd[12284]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): program binary = /usr/sbin/pppd
Jul 28 10:28:18 pptpd[12284]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): local address = 192.168.0.1
Jul 28 10:28:18 pptpd[12284]: CTRL (PPPD Launcher): remote address = 192.168.0.234
Jul 28 10:28:18 pptpd[12283]: CTRL: I wrote 32 bytes to the client.
Jul 28 10:28:18 pptpd[12283]: CTRL: Sent packet to client
Jul 28 10:28:18 pppd[12284]: using channel 100
Jul 28 10:28:18 pppd[12284]: sent [LCP ConfReq id=0x1 <asyncmap 0x0> <auth chap MS-v2> <magic 0xfe2031ee> <pcomp> <accomp>]
Jul 28 10:28:45 last message repeated 9 times
Jul 28 10:28:48 pptpd[12283]: CTRL: Reaping child PPP[12284]
Jul 28 10:28:48 pptpd[12283]: CTRL: Exiting now

As far as I can tell, it looks like the connection is opened, the server sends supported connection configurations (encryption, compression, etc.) and the boxee is simply not responding.

If anyone could provide tips on either the server, or the boxee side it would be greatly appreciated.

**darcilicious** · July 28th, 2012, 12:57 PM

Try enabling debug logging on the Boxee and then downloading the log files locally and perusing them.
http://support.boxee.tv/entries/329278-send-boxee-logs

**gumbi2400** · July 28th, 2012, 01:11 PM

Of course, I forgot to post that as well. Here's from the latest attempt though:

11:04:26.813 T:2963073936 M:522297344 DEBUG: Boxee: 28/07/12 18:04:26.8134#DEBUG#bxmetadataengine.cpp:379(Engin eThread)#BXMetadataEngine::EngineThread, processing folders....(resolver)
11:04:27.677 T:2958863248 M:522399744 ERROR: CBoxeeHalServices::VpnDial failed with error code 2

So now to find out what error code 2 is...

**gumbi2400** · July 30th, 2012, 04:48 AM

So just a bit of an update. I got it to work!.... kind of. So I went hardcore and fired up tcpdump and saw an authentication failed in one of the responses from the server. This made it look like the problem was a simple one, just the password. I changed it to a silly easy one and to my surprise was able to connect!

This is where things get weird. I disconnected, and with no changed settings attempted to reconnect, and it failed. I tried doing another tcpdump and noticed that there seems to be a weird delay in when the response packets are sent and what the boxee is sending. It goes something like this (drastically oversimplified).

B=Boxee
S=VPN Server

B: > outgoing call request
B: > start control connection request
S: < start control connection reply
B: > outgoing call request
S: > outgoing call reply
S: > Configuration request
B: > outgoing call request [retransmission]
S: < outgoing call reply
S: < outgoing call reply
S: > Configuration request
S: < outgoing call reply
S: < outgoing call reply
S: > Configuration request
S: > Configuration request
S: > Configuration request

This goes back and forth with new requests coming from the boxee and config requests (to set up the connection from the server) from the server.

It seems like the synchronization isn't quite right to set up the actual connection itself.

The weirdest thing, is that if you wait 10 minutes or so between attempts, it seems to go through just fine.

I'm wondering if its just the MTU on the server side set too high (its at 1490), but I don't see any packet fragmentation.

Any additional ideas would really help.

**winedog** · August 3rd, 2012, 05:02 PM

There is an existing issue with VPN connections and MTU. I'm not sure if this is what is causing your problem, but there is an open ticket here:

http://jira.boxee.tv/browse/BOXEE-10853

Essentially the PPTP client in Boxee negotiates a 1500 MTU, but if your router/modem is on PPPOE and negotiating a 1492 MTU (or lower), then you can run into problems.

Check the logs on your boxee and you should be able to see what MTU your Boxee is negotiating with your server.