Documentation
pascom Cloud Phone System Documentation and Release Notes
pascom VPN Connector setup
How to use the pascom VPN connector to connect your local network to your pascom cloud phone system
Overview
By using the pascom VPN connector it is possible to access local network services directly from the pascom.cloud hosted phone system. This could be necessary, for example, in order to authenticate phone system users against a locally installed Active Directory or to periodically import customer data from your ERP or CRM system into the pascom phone book.
That pascom phone systems include a Session Border Controller for mobile users, the VPN Connector is not necessary for and indeed is unsuitable for their connection.
Transit Network and IP Addresses
The pascom VPN Connector establishes a Point to Point connection between your pascom instance and the OpenVPN client. The pascom instance is permanently assigned the IP address 172.16.23.1. For the purpose of the Transit Network, the address 172.16.23.0/24 is used. The OpenVPN client receives a random, however persistent IP address (always the same) from the Transit Network. You can determine this IP address via the OpenVPN client and use it enable access for you pascom instance to local client services.
Configuration
Change Transit Network (optional)
Should you wish to use a different Transit Network other than 172.16.23.0/24, you can configure this under the following menu points >* and editing the parameter sys.vpn.transit.network. Simply use the search tool to search for the parameter.
pascom Instance
Log into your pascom phone system instance and under > > and select new VPN Access from the list.
Enter a name for the VPN Connector and download the configuration via the button.
OpenVPN Client
The pascom VPN Connector is based on OpenVPN. Using the downloaded configuration, it is now possible to setup any OpenVPN client. OpenVPN clients are available for a number of Operationg Systems and Routers.
In order to access, for example, your locally installed Active Directory, simply install the OpenVPN client for Windows directly on your Windows Server and establish the connection to your pascom phone system instance.
Test the Connection
After successfully establishing the VPN, you should be in the position to reach the IP address of your pascom Instance 172.16.23.1 from the OpenVPN client:
ping 172.16.23.1
PING 172.16.23.1 (172.16.23.1): 56 data bytes
64 bytes from 172.16.23.1: icmp_seq=0 ttl=63 time=12.053 ms
64 bytes from 172.16.23.1: icmp_seq=1 ttl=63 time=11.945 ms
...
Increase the reliability of the OpenVPN client on a Windows server
If you use the OpenVPN client on the Windows server, the VPN tunnel may not work after 24 hours and must be restarted. The connection is still active, but the TAP interface has an APIPA (169.x.x.x) address and therefore it cannot be reached via the tunnel.
In order to increase the reliability of the connection, the Windows option “DHCP media sense” be switched on.
First check the status of the “DHCP media sense” option in the Windows command prompt:
netsh interface ipv4 show global
If “DHCP media sense” is deactivated, activate it with the command:
netsh interface ipv4 set global dhcpmediasense = enabled