openvpn-user
Hi all,
Ok - I'll start by admitting that I've only been using OpenVPN for the last several days, and so the following questions may be ridiculously obvious at first glance - in all likelyhood I may have missed something, but here goes...
Currently, I have an OpenVPN daemon listening on a Linux-based server. For the most part, everything's working well - I'm successfully able to connect my Windows-based client, access HTTP URLs, etc. That leads me onto my first question... during my research into several different VPN solutions, I encountered countless different guides that recommended the user install a local version of dnsmasq, and then tell the OpenVPN server to listen on a private interface. I've been trying to understand the benefit of this method rather than simply pushing a public resolver to the client directly via OpenVPN's config - does anybody have any ideas?
Finally, the question that I've been unable to figure out. Currently, I have OpenDNS pushed to my client directly via the OpenVPN config file - this works, and has been tested by having a look at DNSLeakTest.com, and changing the resolver which is then reflected in my test results. Just out of pure luck, my network setup currently consists of a Netgear-based router. Essentially, any time a local user enters "routerlogin.net" into a web browser, the router passes that DNS request onto its local gateway IP. Interestingly, however, despite me pushing OpenDNS directly to my OpenVPN client, entering the above URL takes me to my router's local webserver.
If OpenVPN is pushing me DNS settings (as appears to be the case), surely performing this local DNS lookup shouldn't present me with the router's set of pages, because in theory not even my local networking equipment knows the DNS entries that I'm entering since I'm connected via a VPN tunnel? That said, should the above behavior actually be occurring, and am I simply misunderstanding something really obvious about how networking works?
Thanks for any insight that anybody can give...
