OpenVPN Support Forum

Hello all,

I am trying to learn openvpn and have been using my existing Untangle server as a learning tool. Untangle keeps the inner working of OpenVPN transparent from the end user admin, but I have been looking at its server config file. There are a couple of push parameters I would like to have explained to me. These are:

push "route 172.16.16.1"

Now, the Tunnel device tun is given 172.16.16.1 and the remote is given 172.16.16.2 by the following

ifconfig 172.16.16.1 172.16.16.2

Given that, what does the route 172.16.16.1 do for the client, is it shorthand for something longer. I cannot find a clear example of push being used like this.

The second push looks like this:

push "route 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0"

Does this instruct the client to route any packets for the 192.168.2.0 network to 172.16.16.1 and if it does, could the push could have been written:

push "route 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.16.1"

I know these are remedial questions, but the first push is unclear to me how it work.

Thanks for both your patience and time.

Joe Hildreth

I think I found the answer to my own question. I neglected to look at the --route option. Do I have this correct?

ifconfig 172.16.16.1 172.16.16.2

The first address if given to the server side of the tunnel and the second to the client.

push "route 172.16.16.1"

Really means route 172.16.16.1 255.255.255.255 172.16.16.2 instructing the client that it should send data for 16.1 to 16.2 its tunnel interface.

route 172.16.16.0 255.255.255.0

means route 172.16.16.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.16.1 instructing the server to send any data for the 172.16.16.0 network to 16.1

push "route 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0"

means route 192.168.2.0 255.255.255.0 172.16.16.2 instructing the client that if it has any data destined for the 192.168.2.0 network that it should send through 16.2

I am sorry if I wasted anyones time. Just want to be sure.

Regards,

Joe