OS and Software > All Things Macintosh > [Network] Mountain Lion, VPNs, Internet Sharing, and Roku

[Network] Mountain Lion, VPNs, Internet Sharing, and Roku

Congrats, you have the most complicated internet connection in the world.

Buy a VPN router and be done with this nonsense.

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Very good then continue beating your head against the wall... making something very simple, very complicated.
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Not many people know this, but I happen to be quite famous...

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internet sharing will not share the VPN connection. Kind of defeats the purpose of the VPN otherwise.

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given the BSD underpinnings of OS X, you can probably configure something that will work using the interfaces files (internet sharing does something similar). The risk here is that a bad configuration will break everything and then it'll be hard to get it back to correct.
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-Ryan
I use Linux, OS X, iOS and Windows. Let the OS wars die.

Yeah, I know it's possible. It's just beyond me. I'll just get a VPN capable router.

As an aside, if any of the geekier people in here want to make a buck...

They should write a little GUI app to create VPN config files for OpenVPN clients like TunnelBlick and Viscosity. That's be worth $5-10 a pop for people who's VPN provider doesn't offer config files.

FYI, PFSense makes config files in their export utility for Viscosity.

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This isn't too bad - my home network configurations are much worse! (three VPNs between three different places for starters)

I imagine this should be possible if you modify the NAT config file here:
/Library/Preferences/SystemConfiguration/com.apple.nat.plist
The revelant lines seem to be these:

                <key>PrimaryInterface</key>
                <dict>
                        <key>Device</key>
                        <string>en0</string>
                        <key>Enabled</key>
                        <integer>0</integer>
                        <key>HardwareKey</key>
                        <string></string>
                        <key>PrimaryUserReadable</key>
                        <string>Ethernet</string>
                </dict>
                <key>PrimaryService</key>
                <string>60CFBAEF-C876-4EC8-A33D-D7CED4056D0A</string>
                <key>SharingDevices</key>
                <array>
                        <string>en1</string>
                </array>
 

I sure regret blowing my brains out with the drugs and booze, but thank you, for reassuring me I'm not totally gone.

Cool config, but I'm just gonna get a used $20 router that will do it easy. Might still try it though, never know.

Thx again, TD.

I actually got something like this to work. For a few days.

I don't have a VPN router (Apple Airport) and if I didn't have to buy a new one I didn't want to obviously.

What I did was create a new VPN connection.

Then I shared that internet connection over the Airport (connected to the Internet via ethernet).

Worked great on my Apple TV and I could now watch my in-market MLB games.

But I also have a Roku collecting dust. The ideal solution was going to be reverse the connection (share my wireless connection over ethernet to the Roku), and never have to worry about changing wireless networks on my AppleTV, my primary device.

I didn't take into account that the Roku is a complete pain in the ass and wouldn't connect to a shared connection, wirelessly or not.

Not only that, but my initial plan no longer works. Frustrating as hell.

So, what VPN routers do you recommend?

I started the whole thing because I wanted to watch Canadian available movies on Netflix. I ended up doing sort of what you did w/ regard to MLB.tv and bought an , as near as I can tell... an unnecessary wifi router. The brand doesn't matter because it wasn't needed anyway AFAIK.

I ended up, giving up on Can. Netflix on the Roku... And, just shared the VPN connection via internet sharing, via built-in airport to the Roku, for MLB.tv

That works fine, forgetting Netflix and forgetting the stupid router I bought and don't need.

I wish I had a clearer description for you...

In the end, I shared the VPN connection via Internet Sharing to WiFi, for the Roku. Now, none of that is really automatic or persistent.... But, it works, and I can watch my Red Sox on my TV.

I do have a good deal on a wireless-n router without a real VPN client, or the ability to run WRT/Tomato firmware though, if you're interested.

Screw this, I'm going back to my baseball game, my PBR rack of pounders and my DD TT [record player]. Cheers!

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Well good for you ...