VPN SoftEther - I can't access VPN server directly from VPN connected device

Question

I have installed and run VPN server (SoftEther) on my Raspberry Pi 3 (Raspbian) and it works fine except the fact that my PI works not only as VPN server but offers other services (SAMBA, FTP, APACHE, MYSQL) and I cannot access these services after I connect to VPN server.

In VPN Settings I have configured the bridge to eth0 so VPN machines get the IP addresses from router - and it works fine.

I have access to internet, to all other machines in my LAN/VPN (192.168.0.*) including router (192.168.0.1), I can even access to my PI using public address (router forwards it back to PI) but I cannot access PI using its internal eth0 address (192.168.0.100).

Other devices in my LAN have access to my VPN connected machine, my VPN machine have access to other devices in LAN but not directly to PI.

Answer 1

I was quite happy to find your question on the StackExchange until I saw the date of the question and the number of answers...

According to my research, it's not possible to get access to your PI from any VPN connected device due Linux limitations. Quoting the documentation:

Limitations within the Linux or UNIX operating system prevent communication with IP addresses assigned to the network adapter locally bridged from the VPN side (Virtual Hub side). The cause of this restriction lies with OS's internal kernel codes rather than with the SoftEther VPN.

There is a chance that creating a TAP device with a NAT network will do the trick, but I have not been able to find guidance on how to implement it. You could follow this issue on github for more information.