Synergy with VPN

[DimitryR 0]

Hi everyone. I saw a lot of posts from some years ago regarding using Synergy to swap between work and home PC setups with AnyConnect VPN. The work pc has no access to the LAN while its on the VPN so I lose access to Synergy. Is there any way to make this setup still work? 

[SurfTastic_60s 0]

I tried a bunch suggested interface route tweaks (metrics etc.) but nothing worked.  I was able to get around this by doing these steps:

• Use DHCP reservations to force fixed IP adresses on both the client and server PCs for Home (on your modem/Router?)
  • For example:  Work Laptop (Client) = 192.168.1.55, Home PC (Server) = 192.168.1.100
• Setup a Dynamic DNS account with one of the free providers to host a public name for your home router (ie justme.freedns.org)
  • You may need to configure your router to use DDNS sync to update the DNS host as your public IP changes
  • A static Public IP assignment may also be an option from you provider too
• Configure both the server and client port number for Synergy some high unused port that would be difficult to guess/detect
• On the Client PC, set the 'Server IP address or Name' value to your publicly hosted address (ie justme.freedns.org)
• Setup a NAT/IP Translation/Virtual Server rule on your modem to allow traffic coming in on the WAN IP (current public IP/justme.freedns.org) to come through to the Home PC (Server) on 192.168.1.100 to whetever Synergy port you have set

 

• Lock down EVERYTHING Possible on your Modem/Router that still allows Synergy to work
  • A simple check box on my IP translation rule on the modem allows me to enable/disable external traffic to the exposed Synergy port as needed
• Make sure that your PC firewall, Malware, security settings are tight as well to be on the safe side

You may have to tweak this to suit your VPN client, LAN/WAN settings, Router etc.

[Silentbob 0]

Some great ideas in this forum but I found a suitable solution too.

Chose another VPN location that allows "split tunneling"  FTW !