Loosing connection (Win 7 64bit client -> Debian 7 64bit srv

nickswe

I am having this issue with my OpenVPN client "openvpn-install-2.3.6-I601-i686.exe" on Windows 7 64bit loosing
connection to my Debian 7 64bit OpenVPN server.

So lets say I am connected to my VPN successfully, and I work in the terminal over SSH trying to do some work.
All of a sudden when throwing a command on the server, then VPN connection hangs and my SSH session is lost.
After a while the VPN connection returns and I can reconnect to the SSH again, but I have to restart as my previous
session is lost.

This is of course very troublesome and I am stuck as I cannot see any obvious issues.

This is from the client log:

Mon Feb 09 13:13:08 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509188,CONNECTED,SUCCESS,10.8.0.6,76.187.131.228
Mon Feb 09 13:17:02 2015 [pennybridge] Inactivity timeout (--ping-restart), restarting
Mon Feb 09 13:17:02 2015 SIGUSR1[soft,ping-restart] received, process restarting
Mon Feb 09 13:17:02 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509422,RECONNECTING,ping-restart,,
Mon Feb 09 13:17:02 2015 Restart pause, 2 second(s)
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 WARNING: No server certificate verification method has been enabled. See http://openvpn.net/howto.html#mitm for more info.
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 Socket Buffers: R=[8192->8192] S=[64512->64512]
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509424,RESOLVE,,,
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 UDPv4 link local: [undef]
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 UDPv4 link remote: [AF_INET]76.187.131.228:1194
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509424,WAIT,,,
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509424,AUTH,,,
Mon Feb 09 13:17:04 2015 TLS: Initial packet from [AF_INET]76.187.131.228:1194, sid=c87b5a6a c15a907f
Mon Feb 09 13:17:05 2015 VERIFY OK: depth=1, C=SE, ST=SE, L=Orebro, O=Pennybridge, OU=Production, CN=Pennybridge CA, name=Pennybridge, emailAddress=admin@pennybridge.dyndns.org
Mon Feb 09 13:17:05 2015 VERIFY OK: depth=0, C=SE, ST=SE, L=Orebro, O=Pennybridge, OU=Production, CN=pennybridge, name=Pennybridge, emailAddress=admin@pennybridge.dyndns.org
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 Data Channel Encrypt: Cipher 'BF-CBC' initialized with 128 bit key
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 Data Channel Encrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 Data Channel Decrypt: Cipher 'BF-CBC' initialized with 128 bit key
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 Data Channel Decrypt: Using 160 bit message hash 'SHA1' for HMAC authentication
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 Control Channel: TLSv1, cipher TLSv1/SSLv3 DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA, 1024 bit RSA
Mon Feb 09 13:17:06 2015 [pennybridge] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]76.187.131.228:1194
Mon Feb 09 13:17:07 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509427,GET_CONFIG,,,
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 SENT CONTROL [pennybridge]: 'PUSH_REQUEST' (status=1)
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 PUSH: Received control message: 'PUSH_REPLY,route 10.8.0.1,topology net30,ping 10,ping-restart 120,ifconfig 10.8.0.6 10.8.0.5'
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: timers and/or timeouts modified
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: --ifconfig/up options modified
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 OPTIONS IMPORT: route options modified
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 Preserving previous TUN/TAP instance: Local Area Connection 2
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 Initialization Sequence Completed
Mon Feb 09 13:17:08 2015 MANAGEMENT: >STATE:1423509428,CONNECTED,SUCCESS,10.8.0.6,76.187.131.228

Please note that thing about inactivity... Not sure why that is there?

Here are my config files:

Client:

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote xxxx 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert nick.crt
key nick.key # This file should be kept secret
comp-lzo
verb 3

Server:

port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
ca ca.crt
cert pennybridge.crt
key pennybridge.key # This file should be kept secret
dh dh1024.pem
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
user nobody
group nogroup
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3
script-security 3 system
client-connect /etc/openvpn/scripts/client-connect.sh

Other information:

I am using a Android phone to provide wifi tether for my Windows 7 laptop. The Wifi connection is stable at all time so I do not believe that is the problem but rather a OpenVPN issue.

I only have port 1194 open in my router. Do I need to open any more ports?

Traffic

nickswe wroteI only have port 1194 open in my router. Do I need to open any more ports?

No .. what you have is ok.

I presume you have enabled IP Forwarding and NAT on your server ?

nickswe wroteI am having this issue with my OpenVPN client "openvpn-install-2.3.6-I601-i686.exe" on Windows 7 64bit loosing connection

This is 32bit installer on your 64bit system .. should be ok but maybe try the 64bit version.

This is also the NDIS6 TAP driver ..

Also try this:
Installer (64-bit), Windows XP and later : openvpn-install-2.3.6-I001-x86_64.exe

This installs the NDIS5 TAP driver - Maybe there are still problems with the new TAP driver ?