AxeBox360
Level 1 (44 points)
Apple Watch

Q: Cannot ssh on macOS Server VPN

I can connect to my home L2TP VPN server with my iPhone running iOS 10 over my carriers data network and going to my home network on Comcast, but not everything works;

What works:

Access default Web site running the macOS Server using it's IP address

Surf the public Web

I can ping my phone's IP address from any system on my network

 

What doesn't work ( that I've tried ) :

SSH to any macOS system on my network

Access screen sharing on any  macOS system on my network

Resolve local hostname to IP address

 

More info

my iphone is running iOS 10

my computers are running macOS Sierra

I'm using macOS server as VPN host

I'm using the iOS 10 L2TP VPN client.

System firewalls are turned off.

Mac mini (Late 2014), macOS Sierra (10.12), 1TB HD 8GB RAM

Posted on Oct 1, 2016 8:27 PM

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AxeBox360

Q: Cannot ssh on macOS Server VPN

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  • Helpful answers

  • by FishingAddict,Helpful

    FishingAddict FishingAddict Oct 2, 2016 7:39 PM in response to AxeBox360
    Level 4 (1,579 points)
    Mac OS X
    Oct 2, 2016 7:39 PM in response to AxeBox360

    Typical of VPN connections, you are using the DNS server of your iPhone and not the DNS server of the network where your server is.  In addition, Bonjour services are only available on that local network.  Therefore, you have no way to resolve names to IP adrdesses for the network you are VPNing to.

     

    The only easy solution from an iPhone is to make a list of IP addresses and use those to connect instead of hostnames.  using IPs will work as long as your ISP is not also using the same internal IP addressing (such as 192.168. or 10.0.) as the network you are connecting to.