arne22
My OpenVPN 2.0.9 seup is as simple and basic as it can be, it is stright forward a routing openvpn setup with until now 3 "logon clients" that is used on Windows and Linux work stations.
I run a Asterisk telephony server on the same VPN server, and it works pretty well. I can log on from the external ip and from the internal 10.9.0.1 adress. I guess both will be trough the tunnel. I had expected some problems when tunneling UDP via a TCP tunnel, but it seems to be working OK.
I have configured the VPS with two fixed IP's so I use ip1 and tcp port 443 for openvpn logon and ip2 tcp 443 for ssh. It works quite fine and there is no conflict between the two ips on the same VPS using the same port, as far as I can notice. I think I have red in the documentation somewhere that the openvpn server can be configured to resent a client that is not a openvpn client to some other ip/port, so possibly I could obtain the same with only one ip ? (I have not tested until now.)
I tried to run a Bind dns proxy on the openvpn server to speed up the dns resolving function, but actually I did not notice any practical improvement at all, so I closed it down again.
I also tried to run Squid web proxy on the VPS. This boosted up the performance quite well. This solution works very well with Opera as the web browser. When MSIE is connected "only trough the tunnel" and Operea is "connected trough the tunnel and via Squid" the speed of loading big web pages is about twice or more, using the Opera client via Squid. (The local line from the ISP is approx 3/1 Mb and the VPS is on a high speed line.)
I tried to forward ports from the external ip's to the workstations and this seems to be working pretty well. (And I use it from time to time.)
I tried to ping from virtual client to virtual client and it seems to be working OK. (Event though I have not tried file transfer and such things between clients, but I guess it will work.)
I think it all works quite similar as my old Linux gateway server, with the only difference the its now a "virtual lan" and the gateway server is on a VPS on a server farm connected directly to Internet via a high speed line. Actually this was the model I had in my head when I set it up, and it looks like it is working. (??!!)
By the way I were curious if the OpenVPN client could be subject to "dns traffic leakage" outside the encrypted tunnel, but with the standard setup for routing, I could not find any. There is a small issue with the Linux client, that I solved by just giving it a manual configuration using Google 8.8.8.8 dns address on the local client, and it all went quite nice trough the tunnel, as far as I can see.
I'm curious to know if there is other "out there" that has different experiences from this or that has some other ideas about how to do this the "best way". Also if anyone needs configuration files and etc, its just to give a hint.
I have some ideas about trying to run multiple instances of OpenVPN so that I can run a UDP and a TCP as protocol for the OpenVPN, at the same time, but I'm scared that the simplicity in the setup then will be gone, and that I then will mess it all up. (At least there is needed 2 "tuns" ?)
I had little experience with OpenVPN before this test setup, and all in all I will say that OpenVPN is is not just some server program or something like that, it is more or less a reinvention of Internet, where the "virtual lan on the Internet" or "virtual private network" is one of the concepts that can be picked out of this. I have not tested, but I believe that it is possible to set up "virtual lan resources" like printers and fileservers. (??!!) (Of course some of theses solutions might require a bridged vpn rather transporting "ethernet frames" than "ip packets" (right !?) )
