[lug] openvpn & linksys router question

[Bear Giles]

Related to the earlier discussion, I have a question regarding openvpn 
and linksys routers.

I have a fairly standard setup - a home system behind a linksys router 
(and comcast) talking to an 'office'.  The linksys router is set up to 
forward the openvpn packets back to my system.

At first 'ping' from home to office fails.  tcpdump shows traffic on the 
home network, but not the office network, so I know the problem is on 
the outbound leg instead of the return.  Once I establish any type of 
VPN connection going the other way the stalled ping immediately succeeds.

This sounds like the problem is the linksys initially dropping outbound 
openvpn udp packets.  Has anyone else seen this behavior or know a 
workaround?

hmmm... or it could still be a problem with the firewall on the 
'office'.  I wouldn't see the network traffic if the firewall is still 
blocking that port.  But that firewall rule is stateless:

   -A DEB-firewall-INPUT -p udp --dport 1194 -j ACCEPT

Any ideas?