Cant see Shared Macs over PPTP VPN (OS X)

Question

I have setup a PPTP VPN using a DD-WRT router which is functioning fine. I can ping internet to external and external to internal. I have also tested file sharing over AFP and SMB with success.

My issue is that connected users both inside and outside cannot see the list of shared Macs usually visible in the finder when all devices are connected to the LAN locally.

I have enabled Broadcast support on the router which i would have expected to solve the issue but i still do not see the devices. I imagine they discover each other over bonjour, does this not work over a PPTP network? Is there something i am missing?

Bonjour over VPN is a pain. You'll want to explore mDNS bridging. — Trane Francks, Oct 01 '14 at 06:20
mDNS runs on Multicast, try looking at Multicast forwarding in DD-WRT. — damolp, Oct 29 '14 at 09:55

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Oct 01 '14 at 09:37

To the best of my knowledge, (aka Bonjour) doesn't work across a VPN connection. You have to have a dedicated machine on each side of a VPN that repeats the broadcast packets from the opposite end of the tunnel.

You can still connect to your server over the vpn via IP address, or DNS name is configured. From the finder press Command-K, in the server address field enter afp://{IP Address Of Server} replace with the IP address of the server on the other end of the connection, or the DNS name. You should be able to connect as normal. You can make an alias of the share you access on your desktop once connected, then on future remote connections you won't have to type in the IP address.

Cant see Shared Macs over PPTP VPN (OS X)

1 Answers1