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The Graveyard - Products No Longer Supported => Routers / COVR => DIR-850L => Topic started by: HeavyD on August 28, 2013, 01:15:27 PM

Title: Is L2TP connection encrypted?
Post by: HeavyD on August 28, 2013, 01:15:27 PM
I purchased the DIR-850L router and want to setup an L2TP connection with my HMA account.  I'm able to create the connection without any issues and everything is working great. 

I'm curious to know if the L2TP connection is encrypted (is it L2TP/IPSEC) or not?   There isn't any documentation to indicate that it is encrypted, however whenever I read about L2TP connections it sounds like they always are encrypted.  If it is encrypted then I wonder the encryption level?

If it's not encrypted then i'm assuming I have to use PPTP to enable encryption.  I don't think this router supports openVPN from what I can see.

Any info on this would be great.  Thanks!
Title: Re: Is L2TP connection encrypted?
Post by: FurryNutz on August 28, 2013, 01:40:30 PM
Link>Welcome! (http://forums.dlink.com/index.php?topic=41537.0)

I would ask your ISP directly what they support for this protocol:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L2TP (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/L2TP)

I presume the router handles anything it's connected to based on what the ISP is providing.
Title: Re: Is L2TP connection encrypted?
Post by: HeavyD on August 28, 2013, 03:06:14 PM
Hi - Thanks for the reply!  Currently I have the following Hardware / Firmware:

Hardware: DIR-850L
Hardware Version : A1
Firmware Version : 1.05

My provider supports a 256 bit key for encryption.  The only reason I ask this question is because the router (and the documentation) does not say that it uses an L2TP/IPsec connection (which is an encrypted connection).  When I configure my router it only states an L2TP connection, however nothing is referenced around the type of encryption it supports or anything else related to the encryption. 

I'm not sure if it is supported and not documented, however I'm curious to know.

Thanks!
Title: Re: Is L2TP connection encrypted?
Post by: Kakashi::. on August 29, 2013, 07:03:42 PM
Quote from: HeavyD on August 28, 2013, 03:06:14 PM
Hi - Thanks for the reply!  Currently I have the following Hardware / Firmware:

Hardware: DIR-850L
Hardware Version : A1
Firmware Version : 1.05

My provider supports a 256 bit key for encryption.  The only reason I ask this question is because the router (and the documentation) does not say that it uses an L2TP/IPsec connection (which is an encrypted connection).  When I configure my router it only states an L2TP connection, however nothing is referenced around the type of encryption it supports or anything else related to the encryption. 

I'm not sure if it is supported and not documented, however I'm curious to know.

Thanks!

HeavyD,

Here is a bit more information regarding your question. Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol is a VPN protocol that on its own does not provide any encryption or confidentiality to traffic that passes through it. For this reason it is usually implemented with the IPsec encryption protocol to provide security and privacy.
Most ISPs use this unsecure protocol to bring the user's connections, usually over an ATM network to their BRAS (Broadband Remote Access Server) for authentication and routing to their backbone network that is connected to the internet. So the answer to your question is NO, it is not encrypted if all you are using is the L2 Tunneling Protocol. 
To encrypt it, you will most likely need a VPN Router that can establish a L2TP/IPSec tunnel between your endpoint and the BRAS server at your ISP network.

Hope this helps!
 
Title: Re: Is L2TP connection encrypted?
Post by: FurryNutz on August 30, 2013, 07:09:40 AM
Thank you for the detailed information.

Hope this helps HeavyD.
 ;)