OpenVPN Support Forum

I need some help figuring out what is causing the connection issue connecting from a public library with openvpn.

I have successfully installed OpenVPN and successfully connected at my home network. I created a DYNDNS hostname to resolve dynamic DNS.

I have listed my server.conf and client.conf below in this post. When I go to my local library to test my OpenVPN connection to my home network. I get this issues:

1) I cannot ping my DYNDNS hostname.
2) OpenVPN hangs at ISP Dynamic IP Address (71.252.203.43) and no progress from there.


On my server.conf window at home I see this message. Why is OpenVPN opening port 1024 below.
Please help me debug what I am doing wrong. Thank you in advance for all replies.

{{{{Thu Jul 7 11:48:42 2011 us=367483 read UDPv4 [EHOSTUNREACH]: No route to host (code=113)
Thu Jul 7 11:48:49 2011 us=590556 thinkx1/71.252.203.43:1024 UDPv4 WRITE [53] to 71.252.203.43:1024: P_DATA_V1 kid=0 DATA len=52
Thu Jul 7 11:48:50 2011 us=818777 read UDPv4 [EHOSTUNREACH]: No route to host (code=113)
Thu Jul 7 11:48:58 2011 us=19237 thinkx1/71.252.203.43:1024 [thinkx1] Inactivity timeout (--ping-restart), restarting
Thu Jul 7 11:48:58 2011 us=19301 thinkx1/71.252.203.43:1024 SIGUSR1[soft,ping-restart] received, client-instance restarting}}}}


My server.conf

;local 10.xx.xx.3

port 1194

;proto tcp
proto udp

;dev-node MyTap
ca /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/server.crt
key /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/server.key # This file should be kept secret

client.conf

client
;dev tap
dev tun
;dev-node MyTap

;proto tcp
proto udp

remote emvsys.dyndns.org 1194
;remote my-server-2 1194

;remote-random

resolv-retry infinite

nobind

;user nobody
;group nobody

persist-key
persist-tun


;http-proxy-retry # retry on connection failures
;http-proxy [proxy server] [proxy port #]

;mute-replay-warnings

ca "c:\\\\config\\ca.crt"
cert "c:\\\\config\\thinkx1.crt"
key "c:\\\\config\\thinkx1.key"

ns-cert-type server

;tls-auth ta.key 1

;cipher x
comp-lzo


verb 3

;mute 20

hi there,

port 1194

;proto tcp
proto udp

;dev-node MyTap
ca /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/server.crt
key /etc/openvpn/2.0/keys/server.key # This file should be kept secret

is this your server conf?
looks a little crippled to me..
for testing ,try switch to tcp ,and try to telnet to it
if you dont get something back maybe they block you.

Michael.

Thanks for the reply maikat.

I am able to connect now. The strange thing is that I cannot connect from one specific public library close to my home. I can connect from a Starbucks or Barnes and noble bookstore.

Once I am connected I use Xming and putty to rdesktop into a windows desktop. Do you have any security tips? I want to be able to connect remotely that way. My VPN server is running CentOS 5. Is my connection safe?

I am also considering FTP to transfer file and auth-PAM username/password protection. Let me know. Thank you in advance.

hi there,

>The strange thing is that I cannot connect from one specific public library close to my home. I can connect from a Starbucks or Barnes and noble bookstore.

maybe they block (or limit) outgoing traffic...

>Xming

this is X server AFAIK
can you explain the steps you take to connect (and where),
because i didnt got it quite right...

>My VPN server is running CentOS 5. Is my connection safe?
if traffic destined to your server lan passes through openvpn,yes it is safe.

Michael.

Thank you Michael for the reply.

>Xming

>>this is X server AFAIK
>>can you explain the steps you take to connect (and where),
>>because i didnt got it quite right...

I configured Putty with X-ming server to run x-windows from the command line from my client vpn. Basically I am trying to use Putty to X-server into the Linux VPN server so I can rdesktop into my Windows client machines on my network. I am just using the Linux server as the VPN server. Is this safe?

I am also going to turn on Samba share between linux vpn server and windows client machine so I can SFTP between the client and the vpn server. Is this safe?

Thank you in advance for replying to my newbie questions.