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VPN Server for Mojave?

MBHockey

MBHockey

macrumors 601
Original poster
Since Apple has neutered OS X Server for Mojave, i'm curious which alternatives Mojave users are moving to for VPN access.

I have used OS X Sever to run a VPN server to my home iMac for several years, so I'm not even sure what else is out there.
 
Thanks. But i think I’ve found a better option. You can just re-enable the built in VPN server via Terminal.

Seems they left vpnd in Mojave. It’s just not part of Server anymore (there’s no front end GUI for it). It took me five minutes to get it running. It’s using the settings previously set up in OS X server.

You can look at its activity the usual way, by tailing /var/log/ppp/vpnd.log

https://developer.apple.com/support/macos-server/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf
 
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Thank you , but this thread doesn't give any useful information.The official Apple "guide" says: Hey, become a system administrators of Linux or OS X.OS X server without GUI = Linux in sense of administration.
 
MBHockey said:
Thanks. But i think I’ve found a better option. You can just re-enable the built in VPN server via Terminal.

Seems they left vpnd in Mojave. It’s just not part of Server anymore (there’s no front end GUI for it). It took me five minutes to get it running. It’s using the settings previously set up in OS X server.

You can look at its activity the usual way, by tailing /var/log/ppp/vpnd.log

https://developer.apple.com/support/macos-server/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf
Click to expand...

I tried to set that up in High Sierra before migrating, and I could not get it to work at all. There were file permission problems (I could not set the file ownership of the plist to root:wheel.)

Do I need to go to Mohave first before doing this?

Thanks,
Neal
 
nealc5 said:
I tried to set that up in High Sierra before migrating, and I could not get it to work at all. There were file permission problems (I could not set the file ownership of the plist to root:wheel.)

Do I need to go to Mohave first before doing this?

Thanks,
Neal
Click to expand...

I think it should work. Are you talking about Step 3?

Code: 
sudo chmod root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/ vpn.ppp.l2tp.plist

If you had trouble here it’s because it should be “chown” not “chmod”. Someone at Apple had a brain fart when writing out this step 😉
 
Can someone, please, I beg, make a youtube tutorial to do this? I'm not very confident or skilled with these things. Thank you whoever you are.
 
after following the above instructions should I see VPN and the option to turn it on similar to how it was in the past? I went through the instructions above, received no errors and still dont see anything related to VPN. Thanks.
 
bigalow said:
after following the above instructions should I see VPN and the option to turn it on similar to how it was in the past? I went through the instructions above, received no errors and still dont see anything related to VPN. Thanks.
Click to expand...

Starting from the release of Mojave, the Server app no longer includes any VPN features. What the instructions above does (assuming you meant my post) is to migrate your previous Server app settings for VPN to another Mac program "vpn.ppp.l2tp" that still supports VPN features. This new program has no GUI (Graphical User Interface), but is running in the background as a service.

Run the command "sudo launchctl list | grep vpn" in the terminal. If the service is running correctly the command should return a message similar to "131 0 vpn.ppp.l2tp" (the numbers may not be the same).

Hopefully, your VPN still works, it just doesn't have a GUI.
 
Hi everyone. I really hope you can help me.

Before Mojave, I had the macOS Server installed, and I followed this tutorial (https://blog.macstadium.com/blog/setup-a-vpn-server-with-macos-sierra-server-10-12) to set up a VPN server with all Internet traffic going through it. I'm not sure I did the DNS part, as my VPN host name was my public IP address, not a domain name.

Since Mojave, I have removed the Server app totally.

I followed the PDF (https://developer.apple.com/support/macos-server/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf) VPN section and at first, it seems it's working. The VPN is running, I can connect to it with my devices and access local services remotely.

But when I try to access the Internet (surfing Google or whatever), nothing happens.

I don't get what's wrong. Probably some routing stuff but I check again the "Internet routing" section of the initial tutorial I followed (https://blog.macstadium.com/blog/setup-a-vpn-server-with-macos-sierra-server-10-12) and everything is still in place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Regards
 
Last edited:
reptilou said:
Hi everyone. I really hope you can help me.

Before Mojave, I had the macOS Server installed, and I followed this tutorial (https://blog.macstadium.com/blog/setup-a-vpn-server-with-macos-sierra-server-10-12) to set up a VPN server with all Internet traffic going through it. I'm not sure I did the DNS part, as my VPN host name was my public IP address, not a domain name.

Since Mojave, I have removed the Server app totally.

I followed the PDF (https://developer.apple.com/support/macos-server/macOS-Server-Service-Migration-Guide.pdf) VPN section and at first, it seems it's working. The VPN is running, I can connect to it with my devices and access local services remotely.

But when I try to access the Internet (surfing Google or whatever), nothing happens.

I don't get what's wrong. Probably some routing stuff but I check again the "Internet routing" section of the initial tutorial I followed (https://blog.macstadium.com/blog/setup-a-vpn-server-with-macos-sierra-server-10-12) and everything is still in place.

Any help would be greatly appreciated 🙂

Regards
Click to expand...

How you change shared secret key?
 
MBHockey said:
Since Apple has neutered OS X Server for Mojave, i'm curious which alternatives Mojave users are moving to for VPN access.

I have used OS X Sever to run a VPN server to my home iMac for several years, so I'm not even sure what else is out there.
Click to expand...

There are a couple of GUIs that will allow you to re-enable the VPN server in macOS Mojave. Neither is free, however.

iVPN

VPN Enabler for Mojave
 
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MBHockey said:
I think it should work. Are you talking about Step 3?

Code: 
sudo chmod root:wheel /Library/LaunchDaemons/ vpn.ppp.l2tp.plist

If you had trouble here it’s because it should be “chown” not “chmod”. Someone at Apple had a brain fart when writing out this step 😉
Click to expand...
---

Thanks, I got this working. However, after a couple of weeks it working, the VPN client from my iOS devices are no longer working. I receive the following error - see attached.

upload_2019-6-7_16-6-29.png


I tried it manually, L2TP connection with the shared key that I configured when the GUI option was available but same issue.

Can you help?

macOS 10.14.5
Server App 5.8


Cheers
 
I just wanted to point out that VPN Enabler for Mojave does NOT work on Catalina. I paid for it four weeks ago and installed it on Mojave. It worked but after upgrading my 'server' to Catalina it is now useless unfortunately.
So if you are planning on upgrading to Catalina, I'd recommend trying iVPN instead.
 
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My VPN was working on Mojave but upgraded to Catalina and that’s when it stopped working. When the client is in the same network as the server VPN connects fine, but when on a different network it fails to connect. I installed Ubuntu on VMware Fusion and have my VPN working. Think that’s the only way to get it working.
 
chin_up said:
I just wanted to point out that VPN Enabler for Mojave does NOT work on Catalina. I paid for it four weeks ago and installed it on Mojave. It worked but after upgrading my 'server' to Catalina it is now useless unfortunately.
So if you are planning on upgrading to Catalina, I'd recommend trying iVPN instead.
Click to expand...

VPN Enabler has a rough beta out that works with Catalina. And according to the iVPN page, there's a Catalina bug that has broken VPN servers (great job Apple!):

Catalina Bug! There is a bug in macOS 10.15 Catalina that is preventing Apple's VPN server from functioning correctly. Until Apple release a fix for this bug, iVPN will not reliably accept connections on Catalina.
In the meantime, if you are experiencing this problem yourself, the only advice I can give is to downgrade to macOS Mojave. I know this will be frustrating and I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Please know that I am doing everything I can to find a solution to this problem myself.
Click to expand...
 
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