How About Local IP When Using HMA?

[abrogard]

When using qbittorrent along with HMA I notice when I do an ipconfig that hma sets up another interface card and a new local ip number to go with it.

10.200.5.205 I've currently got there.  Whereas my machine usually has a fixed ip within our home lan in the 192.168.x.x  area.

Now I port forward on my router for qbittorrent using the port it's set for, say, for instance 55555 and I tell the router it is for local address 192.168.x.x

Is that right?  Or should I set it for 10.200.x.x ?  Or set up a rule for both?

  And I've been sitting for days now with torrents that can't find any seeds - some of them 98%full.  Is there a test torrent somewhere I could aim at just to check everything's working okay when the torrent is 100% available? Something not too big?

[ciaobaby]

Now I port forward on my router for qbittorrent using the port it's set for, s

That all depends on what make and model your router is.

http://portforward.com/english/routers/port_forwarding/

However it is through the VPN that you would need to forward the port, as your router traffic handling is bypassed by the PPTP tunnel.

[abrogard]

Confused me, that first bit.  The link just shows how to forward a port?  I know how to forward a port. I do forward my ports.  My post was about the fact I forward a port.

Question was: should I tell the router the usual IP or the IP created by the software interface - the VPN of HMA?

And I think the second  bit of your statement means that I should tell the router the IP created by HMA.

I'll give it a try, see if it does any better, speed wise.

[ciaobaby]

When a VPN is established, it creates it's own local IP for the "virtual" network connection and has it's own external IP, your router has nothing to do with it other than being a physical gateway. Any forwarding has to be done through the "tunnel", if the VPN supports forwarding.

[abrogard]

when a vpn is established or any other program run the traffic goes out through the router and then, more to the point, comes back in through the router and gets directed to the appropriate machine on the network via the NAT tables, surely?

So I'm thinking traffic into the LAN firstly has to be directed to the machine running the VPN, or whatever else it is running, before that prog can receive and interact with the incoming.

So my router thinks my machine is at 192.168.1.100 so it must direct traffic to that IP so's that traffic can reach the VPN prog running on that machine.

So if I want to open a port for inward/outward traffic from/to that machine I have to tell the router that port is associated with that IP:  192.168.1.100

That's how I see it.  Is that wrong?

Can you explain to me how it is working if that's not right?

So if the router has nothing to do with the VPN then there's no point in opening a port connected with the VPN IP.    I would still need the port to be opened for the original IP of that machine.  That's the answer to the question I asked?

[Switeck]

[quote="abrogard"]So if the router has nothing to do with the VPN then there's no point in opening a port connected with the VPN IP.    I would still need the port to be opened for the original IP of that machine.  That's the answer to the question I asked?[/quote]Port forwarding your router to use a VPN is a little like port-forwarding your router to visit this web forum...unnecessary and increases packet leakage risks immensely.

Your computer initiates the (outgoing!) connection to the VPN and can probably be set up to automatically make another outgoing connection attempt to the VPN if the VPN connection breaks. That tunnel doesn't require port forwarding since it was an outgoing connection that established it. If the VPN link went down and your computer continued to make new connections for qBT...they could go out through your regular IPv4 address "in the clear" and peers/seeds would see that and try to make incoming connections on that same ip (and whatever port you told it to use) later. That's why all networking activity done by qBT needs to stop if the VPN drops/disconnects.

The internet ip of computer the VPN is running on is the "target" ip for peers/seeds that connect through it to your qBT. The VPN's computer is possibly behind a router and that router will need to be port-forwarded, put in DMZ (somewhat dangerous), or be given its own dedicated internet IPv4 address. Doing this may be (likely is) out of your control if you don't own the VPN computer and router it's behind. Some VPN-offering companies claim to offer port-forwarded VPNs, but I do not know which actually do so.

[ciaobaby]

when a vpn is established or any other program run the traffic goes out through the router and then, more to the point, comes back in through the router and gets directed to the appropriate machine on the network via the NAT tables, surely?

Nope! A VPN creates a PPTP (Point to Point Tunnelling Protocol) encrypted 'tunnel' on your machine that connects directly to the VPN host and bypasses your router DHCP, DNS it ALSO bypasses your ISP DHCP and DNS, if it did not do that, and simply used your router and ISP information  it would not be "Virtual" and NOT "Private" and therefore would defeat the entire point of using a "VPN".

[abrogard]

Thanks for your interest/input guys, but between the two of you you've simply got me confused.

Is it possible to give a 'yes' or 'no' if I put the question correctly?

When running VPN: if you run a prog that normally asks for port forwarding, as uTorrent used to do, should the port forwarding be to the normal IP of the computer?

I'd love to get all the other info and arrive at a clear understanding, I would, but first things first is the only way I'm going to get anywhere...

[Switeck]

[quote="abrogard"]When running VPN: if you run a prog that normally asks for port forwarding, as uTorrent used to do, should the port forwarding be to the normal IP of the computer?[/quote]No, you don't and shouldn't port forward either your computer OR your router when using a VPN.

Just like my example above, you don't port forward your router in order to be able to visit this website.

[ciaobaby]

When running VPN: if you run a prog that normally asks for port forwarding, as uTorrent used to do, should the port forwarding be to the normal IP of the computer?

No

How a VPN works

[abrogard]

Got it.  Thanks. Do not port forward.

So I won't.

Can I ask more?

What if I do port forward?  Does it screw up things at all in any way?  I read where you say 'increases packet leakage risks'.  How so and is that the only drawback/danger?

By 'internet IP of computer the VPN is running on...' you meant not my computer but the third party's computer who's providing me with VPN?

ciaobaby:  I'd seen that 'how vpn works' page before. googled to it.  doesn't help much, not me anyway.  The total of their explanation is that VPN uses 'virtual connections routed through the internet'.

I like your icon.  Is that from that t.v. cartoon series about some characters who live on shattered remnants of a planet and are always being hunted by the baddies?

[ciaobaby]

What if I do port forward? 

It will do nothing other than open a direct path from the Internet to your network.