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sleerf
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Custom browser VPN to access winbox?

Sat Nov 21, 2020 12:16 am

My apologies if this has been covered previously. I searched and there are literally thousands of threads regarding VPN but not what I want to accomplish.

We only access our mikrotik routers using winbox through a VPN. We also manage a lot of equipment on our Networks through VPN. Some browsers like Opera have a built-in VPN capability.

So call me foolish, but it seems to me that it would make a lot of sense I can somehow have a browser configured for a specific mikrotik VPN.

What that would allow me to do is open up three or four different browsers, each connected through a VPN just like copper does, but I would be able to access multiple Networks web configurations simultaneously.

Along the same lines, I'm wondering if there isn't some kind of way 2 setup box so that a VPN is automatically connected via winbox using the VPN that correlates with Pap device that I'm trying to access.

Given the fact that Opera and others are able to do this with their browsers it seems like it shouldn't be that difficult.. but it would save me a lot of time bouncing back and forth between vpns, opening the BPM window choosing a VPN the matches the network that I want to get on, then launching winbox or a browser, doing what needs to be done, and then repeating this whole crosses for different network. Instead I could actually have a browser already open for each Network and just bounce between them as needed.
 
Sob
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Re: Custom browser VPN to access winbox?

Sat Nov 21, 2020 1:18 am

Let's say that VPN is very broad term.

But if your problem is connecting between different VPNs, and you'd like to have everything accessible using just one, it's doable. For example, you could have one device as server and have all other routers connect to it using VPN. Then if you'd connect to server using VPN yourself, you'd be able to access all connected routers at once. Even those previously inaccessible that are behind NAT. And you wouldn't even need any browser (I don't think I got what's the idea with browser, it would make sense if you'd use WebFig, but not for WinBox).
 
sleerf
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Re: Custom browser VPN to access winbox?

Tue Apr 06, 2021 8:41 am

I'm sorry. I totally lost track of this. Haven't had much time for wishing and daydreaming. lol
I read my post and I did a terrible job explaining what I want. So let me try again....
We have webfig off for security reasons. No need to have it up there with a public static IP and hackers hammering away at it. We even moved our defaul winbox port. :-)
The problem is that if I want to connect to the mikrotik router over vpn for town1, I have to create a vpn profile in windows and connect my entire windows device through that connection. Now say I need to copy some firewall rules over from town2. I have to have created a vpn profile for that one in windows as well. Then I have to disconnect from the first vpn, connect to the second, launch winbox, get the rules, copy them, close winbox, close vpn, open town1 vpn, open winbox, paste the rules. This is just a headache.....
Then I read that opera provided a vpn connection for its browser sessions. Here's the thing....it doesn't create a vpn for the entire machine. Only the browser is using a vpn. Vivaldi also has vpn extensions and can connect to them just for that browser. I can run a different vpn connection for each browser even if they are running simultaneously.

So that got me to thinking.... Why can't winbox do that? Why can't the vpn settings be built into the connection itself rather than require the whole machine to be connected over a vpn? I should be able to launch multiple winbox sessions, and for each connection have a separate vpn configured so that I can run multiple winbox connections simultaneously.... This would allow me to still limit connectivity via the same process as we have now. It's not a limitation of the router. It's a limitation of the winbox software that doesn't provide independent VPN connectivity per connection but relies on the vpn of the device running the software.

Is that a better explanation?
 
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own3r1138
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Re: Custom browser VPN to access winbox?

Tue Apr 06, 2021 9:30 am

I think if you config dude server and VPN access on the same router then manage all other routers with that one. CUZ VPN in browsers are more likely to be proxy but I'm not sure about it.

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