Articulos

OpenVPN: Easy and Secure Setup Guide
Steven Roddis
2010-01-06

Intended Audience:

Everyone with basic computer knowledge: editing files, use of a SFTP client like FileZilla, transferring files, should be comfortable with Windows and have a little network experience.

What is a VPN

A VPN allows secure access to resources inside a firewall, it also allows you to secure all your trafficand make it pass out of a server you trust, preventing snooping on your traffic. This is good at a cafe where you don't trust (nor should you) the network.

Request for Comments:

This guide is a work in progress, if it was too much text or not enough let me know. If you are having troubles let me know and I'll try help you out. :) This will enable me to make revisions to this guide and makeit more helpful. Email me: vpnguide@stevenroddis.com

Why OpenVPN:

The easiest way to secure your net traffic would be to set up Hamachi and a proxy such as: FreeProxy from Hand-Crafted Software on a spare machine. However OpenVPN secures all traffic and will work in locations that block ports like cafe hotspots, universities, etc.

Things to remember when securing your traffic with a VPNserver:

Protect the server from ARP spoofing, DHCP hijacks etc, use static ARP tables and configure DNS and gateway IPs. Don't worry this will be explained later.

Why use Linux:

Originally I was going to write this guide for Windows, however there was no [obvious] easy way to route the traffic between the OpenVPN adapter and NIC that connects to the gateway. (Don't worry if this doesn'tmake sense to you it doesn't need to) Therefore part of the guide is dedicated to getting Ubuntu Server to run on Windows using VMware. Don't worry this guide is written for people with zero knowledge of Linux.

Linux on Windows:

Download and install: http://www.vmware.com/go/tryworkstation older computers may need an older version of vmware. I couldn't find a previous version on their site so:http://btjunkie.org/torrent/VMWare-Workstation-v6-5-3-185404-Incl-Keygen/ 40329ecc1a64e8c052dde486216feb58c621f67e3c28 http://www.rapidsharefilez.com/softwares/vmware-workstation-6-5-3-185404.html Do NOT use the "keygen" contained within, they are illegal in Australia (as of writing). Purchase the software if you want to use it past the trial. Once you have a working virtual machine you can usethe free VMWare Player (included) to run it without purchasing VMware workstation. Download Ubuntu Server: http://www.ubuntu.com/getubuntu/download-server unless you know your server is 64 bit choose 32 bit. 32 bit will run on 64 bit but not vice-versa. So now to install Ubuntu: Open VMWare workstation. File->New->Virtual Machine

Typical Install->Installer Disc Image (iso)->select the ubuntuimage you downloaded. Fill in the next screen, USE LOWERCASE for the username. Then in the screen after that: name your virtual machine. After pressing next, just leave the options as is (don't split). Press next then untick "Power on this virtual machine after creation" and click finish. Edit virtual machine settings->Network Adapter-> choose bridged and tick "replicate physical network connectionstate". Press OK to close that window. Now to fix the most common problem with bridging: Edit->Virtual Network Editor In the Automatic Bridging tab: Add all adapters to the "Excluded Adapters" list (click add) that are not your connection to the Internet. These may include Hamachi etc. (Don't close the window yet) Then go to the Host Virtual Network Mapping for VMnet0 (default) which should say"Bridged to an automatically chosen adapter" select the adapter that is your connection to the the Internet. Press OK to close that window. Turn on your newly created virtual machine and it should install by itself.

Setting up on Ubuntu

Type these commands into console after login, type 'y' and press enter if it asks you for [y/n] for any of the below commands. One command per line; commands...