BT Smart Hub 2

Anyone managed to VPN into a BT Smart Hub 2? Entering the WAN IP certainly takes you to a login screen but what are the credentials to use?

I'm pretty sure the Smart Hub 2 doesn't have built in VPN functionality so if you're attempting to connect inbound from the outside world using a mobile device you'll need a VPN server behind it with port forwarding enabled from the router.

Well at Home > Advanced settings > Broadband there is a tab VPN which has the opening statement <i> Your BT Smart Hub has been designed to work with most virtual private networks (VPN) software </i> - And that's about it, I guess that is to indicate that a home worker can connect to the office workplace via VPN.

Intriguingly entering the WAN IP you are asked for a userid and password, so there is some functionality for VPN traffic there. Usually in the router, you would setup an account to be able to connect remotely but I could not find that configuration page.

Anyone with ideas on this on how to log in?

[edit]I would imagine that the settings are to enable VPN passthrough to allow inbound connections to a VPN server on the LAN side of the router.

That isn't a setting, it's just saying you can make outgoing VPN connections. Nothing to see here folks, move along please [/edit]

I know you don't need to touch those settings to establish an outbound VPN from inside a BT Smart Hub 2 because I'm doing just that at one site already (IPSec Virtual Tunnel Interface based LAN to LAN VPN). The firewall inside the BT Smart Hub 2 initiates the VPN connection to a remote firewall which is directly exposed to the internet (rather than being port forwarded to from a router). I haven't made any changes to the BT Smart Hub 2 at all to get it to work.

You mention you put in the WAN IP address of the Smart Hub 2 and you get a login page. Where are you when you do this? Are you at home connecting from inside the Smart Hub 2 or are you somewhere remote? I would be surprised if it's the latter. Also, that's not generally how you'd access a VPN - you need a VPN client.

Edited by caffn8me (Thu 19-Nov-20 19:09:57)

In reply to a post by caffn8me:

[edit]I would imagine that the settings are to enable VPN passthrough to allow
You mention you put in the WAN IP address of the Smart Hub 2 and you get a login page. Where are you when you do this? Are you at home connecting from inside the Smart Hub 2 or are you somewhere remote? I would be surprised if it's the latter. Also, that's not generally how you'd access a VPN - you need a VPN client.

The site with the Smart Hub 2 is remote to me. I use windows 10 pro and use the inbuilt VPN facility. Into this I enter the WAN IP address of the remote and up comes a logon screen. Now if the remote site was using say a Draytek router, you would setup a username and password to use but I could not find that particular page in the Smart Hub 2. Tried using the password on the base of the router but it doesn't say what the userid would be, tried various flavours of admin without success.

It does seem that inbound VPN connections are possible but has anyone cracked this?

Yes I vpn into my lan. As the Smarthub 2 doesn’t have vpn capability I run Pivpn/wireguard on Raspberry Pi. It works really well.

An out of the box consumer router with an Internet facing VPN server sounds dangerous, especially when no-one seems to know about the setup

Wandering around Smart Hub 2 web interface no sign of a VPN server to configure

On windows when connecting to a VPN it does not actually connect until you've entered IP address and username and password.
Windows Remote Desktop does connect once you supply the IP and the remote screen is what you enter your username and password on

Alles klar.

Not a login page from the Smart Hub 2 then but your local VPN client's configuration dialog box into which you enter the credentials which it then uses to try to connect to the remote server already specified. Note that you enter these in a client before any connection attempt is made to the remote server so you're not seeing those as a result of the BT Smart Hub 2 responding to a VPN request.

Needless to say, the connection doesn't work. I didn't think the Smart Hub 2 had a VPN function.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

Windows Remote Desktop does connect once you supply the IP and the remote screen is what you enter your username and password on

If you're running XP, or server 2003, yes. If you're running anything newer, you get a pop up prompt from the client long before you see the remote screen. It allows for newer authentication methods other than username & password. I wouldn't run RDP over the internet without a VPN.

In reply to a post by MrSaffron:

An out of the box consumer router with an Internet facing VPN server sounds dangerous, especially when no-one seems to know about the setup

The above comment makes no sense to me. Please explain.