How to turn your Mac into a WiFi hotspot using OS X’s internet sharing while connected to a VPN

Question

I have somewhat of a complex configuration question for you.

I would like to share my VPN conncetion to other devices, iPad and Apple TV via Wi-Fi using my Mac Book Pro and Airport.

I know that OSX Supports sharing of VPN connections via Airport, as there is the option to share my Ethernet and Strong VPN Connection via Airport.

However, when I attempt to connect my iPod Touch to my shared VPN coonection via Wi-Fi (from MBP) the iPod gets a full signal but nothing will load in Safari.

Yet, if I disconnect the VPN, then my iPod works fine with the shared Ethernet (Broadband) via Wi-Fi.

This leads me to think that there are specific IP Address details that need to be entered for the iPod or Apple TV to make this work.

Does anyone have any past expereince with this type of setup?

Answer 1

I didn't read your post, but here is how everything should go down.

Your Mac has two network interface devices (the wifi and ethernet card). You must be connected to the VPN via the ethernet card. You will see why in the next paragraph.

To make your Mac a wireless hotspot you can do so by using your wireless device in ad-hoc mode. Give your ad-hoc profile a name (aka ESSID), and a cryptographically strong password. Now, people can connect to your Mac as if it were a wireless router.

Now, to join the people connected via ad-hoc to go through the VPN, you need to create a bridge between your wireless and ethernet device. So, the traffic flows as such: Client -> ad-hoc -> bridge -> ethernet -> VPN -> Internet