VPN connectivity issue

[frx91]

Hi there,

Since last week I am having issues connecting to my work/personal VPN, along with other network connectivity issues, such as being unable to use Whatsapp voice calls or use Slack among others. Could you please look into this?

I remember the very same issue happened last year and it was related to a firmware update.

I have checked on my wifihub and the current firmware version number is SG4K100158.

Thanks in advance for your help.

[Michelle-TalkTalk]

Hello,

UPDATE - Your router firmware has now updated to V174. This should resolve the firewall issue. Please let us know if you experience any further issues.

Thanks

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi frx91

I'm really sorry for the delay.

Our Devices Team have advised that the medium setting for the firewall is fine and it should have been set to medium in the first instance. There was an issue with the firmware which set this to high and resulted in the VPN issue.

Thanks

[frx91]

Is there any update about this?

Can we restore the firewall settings to High and have the VPN working as expected?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi frx91

I will speak to our Devices Team again and I will come back to you.

Thanks

Debbie

[frx91]

Hi Debbie, apologies but that's not an answer. I work in cyber security and there is a big difference between the two levels of security provided by the High and Medium firewall settings.

High allows egress only on specific allowlisted ports and block all incoming traffic, unless initiated by the LAN network (stateful response traffic).

Medium allows all egress traffic and only blocks incoming NetBIOS traffic.

Could you please confirm what has been changed in the firmware to cause the VPN stop working and advice how to resolve it without downgrading your customers' security? 

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi frx91

Thanks for confirming this.

Our Devices Team have advised that this firewall level will be ok.

Debbie

[frx91]

Hi Debbie, setting the firewall to Medium solves the issue but how do I solve this by leaving my firewall settings to the most secure option? The VPN used to work even with the firewall settings set to High so what changed?

[Debbie-TalkTalk]

Hi frx91

Apologies for this.

Your router has the correct firmware version. Could you try adjusting the firewall level to medium in the router settings?

Thanks