Plusnet Firewall issue

[#1]

Sorry, I didn't get a chance to test this yesterday afternoon, however I just have, and the VPN is working on the current static address.

[#2]

No problem and thanks for getting back to me Keith. 

Ah really odd in that case as unsure if the firewall, or original static IP, or a combination, were the cause.

Too many variables it seems to make what I’ve done a viable workaround without further unforeseen issues, but hopefully not much longer until we see a fix. 

I’ll remove the static IP when I’m next ‘in the office’ which should be on Monday if not sooner. 

If you do want a static IP again, let me know and I’ll be happy to waive the £5 one off charge as I appreciate we’ve removed the one you bought, for testing purposes. 

Cheers

[#3]

Hi Keith,

Ah wait, and I think I may had closed the ticket 221121230 a little prematurely just now before checking the IPs assigned in your connection logs. I've sent full details via e-mail if you can't see it as a closed ticket via your account online. 

From what I can see you're still on a dynamic IP since 12:08 14/Jan/2022. I've added a static IP back onto your account, following removing it just now, could you reboot your router and let me know if the VPN works? 

[#4]

Hi Anoush.

I've been testing this for the last couple of days and it seems to be ok.

Apologies for the slow response, wanted to give it a decent test.

[#5]

Hi Keith,

Thanks for getting back to me. No problem and apologies for the confusion here though.

Your connection's still running on a dynamic IP. I just wanted to check what would happen if you had another static IP of a different range however you would need to reboot your router to pick up the new static IP.

[#6]

Looks as though Plusnet have managed to sort the issue for at least 1 customer. However we still have the issue whereby the broadband firewall settings can not be adjusted (on/off or level of restriction applied).  Presumably still ongoing investigation but with a low priority so unlikely to be a fix soon?  I did try yet again this morning and no change.

[#7]

I wouldn't say 'fixed' as we don't know the problem won't come back with a static IP or if what I've done has caused issues elsewhere. I can though assure you that the investigation is a high priority and it is actively being worked on. 

Unfortunately it's proving fairly complex, and I can't provide a timeframe or more information at this stage. 

Really sorry for the inconvenience

[#8]

Don't know if any help as it depends on how well or detailed any system changes are logged.  However, I can advise that the last time a particular monitoring system I use had worked successfully and seems to be a firewall related issue was at 10:53 on 2nd Nov 2021.  Hence the reason for wanting to temporarily disable the firewall and check operation.  I have trust in my router to continue blocking inappropriate ports if need be rather than also relying on the Plusnet firewall.  Not to say that the firewall service is not appreciated.

[#9]

My colleagues appear to be having issues with changing their firewall too, I believe this was raised over the phone. They were told to just keep checking their firewall, and it would hopefully be done by today? Now that I've read this forum I'm thinking that was more of a shot in the dark guess. Is this not a ticket that you would advise affected customers when it has been resolved? I find it odd that they were told to just keep checking and it would be fixed today.

I've tested their VPN & Laptop on my home network and our office wifi and it works fine so it points to this being the issue.  

We use FortiClient (IPsec). We tried the £5/pm static IP as advised by a different customer service agent who unfortunately got cut off, he advised it could potentially fix the issue but it seems to have made no difference. Am I correct in thinking that even though their firewall is set to "Off", it still needs to be set to "Low" for VPN functionality to work as stated on the site? 

If so, I'll continue to monitor this thread for an update on this being fixed. 

[#10]

Thanks for the help @akrypzs 

Appreciate what you’ve said and if I thought that manually forcing the firewall off would be a viable workaround, I’d be the first to offer this, but I genuinely believe it’ll cause more problems than solutions unfortunately. 

Thanks for your post @Duncy7 and welcome to our Community Forums.

I’m really sorry if we’ve given your colleagues incorrect expectations. We wouldn’t be able to follow up with everybody affected by the issue, unless there are already tickets raised on their accounts we may be monitoring. I’ll be sure to keep an eye on this thread though and I’ll be happy to update when I’ve got something to share.

With the firewall either turned off or in a low state, it should still allow VPN traffic through. If the firewall is showing as off already though, the issue they’re experiencing could either be completely different or the firewall may be stuck in a high state behind the scenes.

[#11]

Hi Anoush, 

I wondered if it would be possible to check my colleagues' firewall settings behind the scenes? I need to know if it is likely this firewall issue that is blocking the VPN, or something else entirely. If the firewall is not the issue, then we could be potentially waiting for a fix, that doesn't even solve the issues we are having.

If we cannot verify that it is the issue and we have no timescales on when this would be resolved, the most logical and likely quickest answer is to change provider.  

Let me know if this is possible, I'll happily link in my colleague so she can provide the details needed if it's possible.

[#12]

Hi @Duncy7 

It may be possible, drop me a private message at my ‘in office’ forum account @Gandalf with their account username, or feel free to ask your colleague to create a forum account and private message me though they’ll need to make 1 public post first before they can.

Once I’ve got the details, when I’m on shift tomorrow, I’ll be happy to ask a colleague in our DBA (Database Analyst) team if they’re able to take a close look.

[#13]

Hi @Anoush 

I am @Duncy7 's colleague, just making this public post to allow me to private message you with my username.

Cheers

[#14]

Hi @MTT thanks for the post.

I've raised a task (INFOPS-70699) to our DBA team to ask if they're able to take a closer look at the firewall settings for you. 

I actually found your account username from the details in your forum profile, so I raised the task before you private messaged me, but thanks for the private message though and I'm really sorry to see you're having VPN issues to WFH. 

As soon as I know more, I'll let you know. I'd expect this to be within 24-48 hours, but I'm not in the office on Tuesday, so if I don't get back to you tomorrow, I'll follow up on Wednesday at the latest.

Let me know if you've got further queries or there's any developments in the meantime.

Cheers

[#15]

Hi,

We're now 3 months in from when I originally reported and I still cannot access my home VPN. Are we any closer to a solution?

I notice PN are rising prices shortly, it would be nice if we had all of our functionality back before that happened.

Thanks,

Paul.