VPN via Telstra Gateway Max

[STDOUbT]

Yesterday I had my Telstra Gateway Max set up in Bridged mode with an second wi-fi router set up to service my home nework. All was well, but I had a sense that I was wasting energy with two devices to I decided to start using the Telstra gateway for everything.

All worked ok, but I realised that I could not connect to a VPN PPTP service (which worked fine from my phone via 4G). A bit of research led me to the conclusion that the Telstra gateway has been crippled to prevent VPN access. Not to worry - I just went back to bridged mode.

Sadly, now I still can't connect to VPN. All settings are the same as yesterday, but VPN no longer works. The provider assures me that everything is fine at their end and I can still access via an idependent network, but my bridge/3rd party router solution no longer works.

What is going on? Does the gateway cache something? Did I change a setting when I was in  normal mode that is still active but not accessible in bridged mode?

[cretsiah]

 @STDOUbT it might sound stupid but when changed back to bridged mode did you reboot the modem? or reset it?

[STDOUbT]

yep - rebooted, reset, powered off for 15 mins, powered off for 15 mins with the cable disconnected and finally turned everything off for an hour while i walked the dog!

[cretsiah · Accepted solution]

@STDOUbT well that sucks

only 2 other things I can think of and not really sure how you would fix them..

1) the modem had an update of the firmware and its not playing nice

or

2) something to do with the previous vpn settings and the IP address  (which may now have changed due to a reboot/reset) now no longer match and saying get stuffed

[STDOUbT]

Well, what do you know? Waiting for a few days and trying again seems to have fixed the problem.

Now I don't know if it was the gateway (this site suggests that IP Sec issues were resolved last year), my vpn provider, me (I work in IT, and I know how stoopid people can be) or the universe.

Next time i find  myself with a few hours to kill, I may give it another go - but for now, I am going to assume that @cretsiah somehow resolve the  problem with magical keyboard incantations. Well done and thankyou!