OpenVPN and IP Forwarding

[cletusjenkins <cletusjenkins@zoho.com>]

i have a machine with an internet connection, it acts as a router for other systems on a private network (192.168.2.0/8). I setup a VPN client with openvpn on this machine, the VPN works perfectly, but when connected to the VPN the machine does not route for the private network systems.

I can ping the machine from the private network, but not the other way around. I don't understand why I lose this connection. I have a webserver running on the machine and I can view its websites from the private network when the VPN is running, but I can't seem to initiate a connection from the machine to the private network.

Below is my routing table: (replaced the IP the VPN uses with 99.88.77.66 and the real IP of the system with 11.22.33.44 and its gateway with 11.22.33.40):

Kernel IP routing table
Destination     Gateway         Genmask         Flags   MSS Window  irtt Iface
10.10.0.1        10.10.0.249     255.255.255.255 UGH       0 0          0 tun0
99.88.77.66     11.22.33.44    255.255.255.255 UGH       0 0          0 eth1
192.168.2.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH        0 0          0 eth0
10.10.0.249     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.255 UH        0 0          0 tun0
11.22.33.40     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.252 U         0 0          0 eth1
192.168.2.0     0.0.0.0         255.255.255.0   U         0 0          0 eth0
0.0.0.0           10.10.0.249     0.0.0.0         UG        0 0          0 tun0

I searched and found some instructions with iptables commands that would allow ip forwarding over the VPN, but it didn't seem to make any difference:

iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.2.0/8 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -A FORWARD -s 192.168.2.0/8 -o eth1 -j ACCEPT
iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 192.168.2.0/8 -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

eth0 is the private network interface and eth1 is the real IP.

Thanks for any tips.