How To Configure VPN Server

Configuring Openvpn Cryptographic Material

For an additional layer of security, well add an extra shared secret key that the server and all clients will use with OpenVPNs tls-crypt directive. This option is used to obfuscate the TLS certificate that is used when a server and client connect to each other initially. It is also used by the OpenVPN server to perform quick checks on incoming packets: if a packet is signed using the pre-shared key, then the server processes it; if it is not signed, then the server knows it is from an untrusted source and can discard it without having to perform additional decryption work.

This option will help ensure that your OpenVPN server is able to cope with unauthenticated traffic, port scans, and Denial of Service attacks, which can tie up server resources. It also makes it harder to identify OpenVPN network traffic.

To generate the tls-crypt pre-shared key, run the following on the OpenVPN server in the ~/easy-rsa directory:

          
               
cd ~/easy-rsa
          

The result will be a file called ta.key. Copy it to the /etc/openvpn/server/ directory:

          
               
sudo cp ta.key /etc/openvpn/server
          

With these files in place on the OpenVPN server you are ready to create client certificates and key files for your users, which you will use to connect to the VPN.

Closed Captioning Courtesy Of Openvpn Access Server: Remote Access To Lan

A nonprofit corporation provides closed captioning for broadcast, opening up television access to the deaf and hard-of-hearing communities. They have offices in two US states and a remote data center, and the majority of their staff work remotely keeping their organization operating 24/7.

Their problems:

• The remote staff needs to connect reliably to any of the three facilities to access specialized software/services.
• Should a resource at any site give the Captioner concern, they need to be able to quickly redirect to a different facility to minimize caption loss
• Employees use Windows operating system exclusively, so any solution needs to support Windows.

Our solution: OpenVPN Access Server.

Remote staff now have efficient access to all three facilities.

Thats the solution they need. Thats Access Server.

So how can you get started?

Establishing A VPN Server In Ubuntu

If you are an Ubuntu user, you can follow the same procedure followed in windows. Establishing the VPN server in Ubuntu is also a very complex and time-consuming process. For more details, you can refer to how to set up an OpenVPN server in Ubuntu. In summary, the following are the essential steps you need to follow for creating a VPN server in the Ubuntu server.

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Push Dns Changes To Redirect All Traffic Through The VPN

The settings above will create the VPN connection between your client and server, but will not force any connections to use the tunnel. If you wish to use the VPN to route all of your client traffic over the VPN, you will likely want to push some extra settings to the client computers.

To get started, find and uncomment the line containing push “redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp”. Doing this will tell your client to redirect all of its traffic through your OpenVPN Server. Be aware that enabling this functionality can cause connectivity issues with other network services, like SSH:

push "redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp"

Just below this line, find the dhcp-option section. Again, remove the ; from the beginning of both of the lines to uncomment them:

push "dhcp-option DNS 208.67.222.222"push "dhcp-option DNS 208.67.220.220"

These lines will tell your client to use the free OpenDNS resolvers at the listed IP addresses. If you prefer other DNS resolvers you can substitute them in place of the highlighted IPs.

This will assist clients in reconfiguring their DNS settings to use the VPN tunnel as the default gateway.

Limit Number Of VPN Ports

Based on our requirement, we are going to limit the numberof connections on the remote access service. To limit the number of ports, right-clickon Ports and select Properties.

We are going to limit the ports to 15 in this example.

Select Yes to the warning that shows that we are reducing the number of ports.

Once we set all ports to 15 and confirm the numbers andclick OK.

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How To Find Your Ip Address Information

The first thing you need to know is the public IP address that has been assigned to you by your Internet Service Provider . You will need this information to contact your VPN server remotely.

To find out your current public IP address, use these steps:

If you are setting up the Incoming Connection feature in your home computer, you probably have a dynamic public IP address, which can change at any time. If this is the case, you will need to configure DDNS in your router to avoid having to configure the VPN setup every time your public IP address changes.

Here are the instructions that will help you set up DDNS on your router. You can also visit your routers manufacturer website for more assistance to configure DDNS.

Connecting To Your VPN Server

You can connect to the VPN server you have created using the public IP address of the machine youre hosting the server on.

In Windows 10, you can do this by opening:

This completes your VPN server creation process. From now, connecting to your newly created VPN server will only be a single click away, offering you the convenience to connect to your home network privately even when youre traveling abroad or located at a distance to your home.

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How To Install A VPN On Windows Server 2012 R2

Posted: March 6th, 2015

VPN is a technology that allows to extend a local network on a public network like the Internet. Using a VPN, a computer connected to the Internet can send and receive data from the computers inside the network as if it was directly connected.

A very powerful tool for todays companies.

A VPN is easy to set up on Windows Server 2012 R2, just follow these steps and youll be ready .

1. Install the Remote Access role

Open the Server Manager and click on Manage. Select Add Roles and Features:

Click on Next until you reach the Roles tab:

Now select Remote Access and click on Next:

You dont need to select anything from the Features tab, click on Next:

Just click on Next:

Select Direct Access and VPN :

A dialog showing the missing dependencies will appear. Click on Add Features:

Install the Remote Access role. It will take some minutes:

2. Install and configure your VPN

Go back to the Server Manager dashboard and click on Remote Access. Select your server and right-click on it, then click on Remote Access Management:

Run the Getting Started Wizard:

Press Deploy VPN only and it will be installed:

Select your server and right-click on it, choose Configure and Enable Routing and Remote Access:

A new Wizard will start:

Select Custom configuration and click on Next:

Select only VPN access:

Complete the procedure and start the service:

3. Enable the users for the Remote Access

Bonus: Host Your Own VPN Server Elsewhere

Theres one more do-it-yourself option thats halfway between hosting your own VPN server on your own hardware versus paying a VPN provider to provide you with VPN service and a convenient app.

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You could host your own VPN server with a web hosting provider, and this may actually be a few bucks cheaper a month than going with a dedicated VPN provider. Youll pay the hosting provider;for server hosting, and then install a VPN server on the;server theyve provided to you.

Depending on the hosting provider youve chosen, this can be a quick point-and-click process;where you add the VPN server software and get a control panel to manage it, or it may require pulling up;a command-line to;install and configure everything from scratch.

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When doing setting up a VPN at home, youll probably want to set up dynamic DNS on your router. This will give you an easy address you can access your VPN at, even if your home Internet connections IP address changes.

Be sure to configure your VPN server securely. Youll want strong security so no one else can connect to your VPN. Even a strong password might not be ideal an OpenVPN server with a key file you need to connect would be strong authentication, for example.

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How To Set Up Port Forwarding On Router

To be able to connect through a public network to your home VPN server, you will need to forward port 1723 ) to allow VPN connections.

Here are the instructions that will help you set up port forwarding on your router. You can also visit your routers manufacturer website for more specific assistance to configure Port Forwarding.;

How To Configure VPN And Domain Trust In Server 2008 Enterprise Edition

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Troubleshooting Remote Access VPNs

Can’t establish a remote access VPN connection

For more information about an introduction to remote access policies, and how to accept a connection attempt, see the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support Center. Click Start to access the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support Center.

If the settings of the profile of the matching remote access policy are in conflict with the settings of the VPN server, the connection attempt is rejected. For example, if the matching remote access policy profile specifies that the Extensible Authentication Protocol – Transport Level Security authentication protocol must be used and EAP isn’t enabled on the VPN server, the connection attempt is rejected.

Solution: Verify that the settings of the remote access policy profile aren’t in conflict with properties of the VPN server.

For more information about multilink, BAP, and authentication protocols, see the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support Center. Click Start to access the Windows Server 2003 Help and Support Center.

Generating A Client Certificate And Key Pair

Although you can generate a private key and certificate request on your client machine and then send it to the CA to be signed, this guide outlines a process for generating the certificate request on the OpenVPN server. The benefit of this approach is that we can create a script that will automatically generate client configuration files that contain all of the required keys and certificates. This lets you avoid having to transfer keys, certificates, and configuration files to clients and streamlines the process of joining the VPN.

We will generate a single client key and certificate pair for this guide. If you have more than one client, you can repeat this process for each one. Please note, though, that you will need to pass a unique name value to the script for every client. Throughout this tutorial, the first certificate/key pair is referred to as client1.

Get started by creating a directory structure within your home directory to store the client certificate and key files:

          
               
mkdir -p ~/client-configs/keys
          

Since you will store your clients certificate/key pairs and configuration files in this directory, you should lock down its permissions now as a security measure:

          
               
chmod -R 700 ~/client-configs
          

Next, navigate back to the EasyRSA directory and run the easyrsa script with the gen-req and nopass options, along with the common name for the client:

          
               
cd ~/easy-rsa
               
./easyrsa gen-req client1 nopass
          

          
               
cp pki/private/client1.key ~/client-configs/keys/
          

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Configuring Ipsec VPN Server With A Preshared Key

The preshared key is a shared password for all users using an IPsec VPN.

VPN Server properties

How To Understand VPN Protocols

Traditionally, there are five VPN protocols. Here’s more about each protocol:

• OpenVPN is an open-source protocol. This makes it easier to adapt to a wide range of configurations and purposes. It is not the fastest connection, but it is one of the most versatile, especially when incorporating third-party resources.
• L2TP/IPSec is the most common VPN protocol of all. It is an older protocol but still plenty secure and is ideal for creating specific secure tunnels. It is fairly fast, universally applicable and has no documented vulnerabilities.
• PPTP is another widely used protocol. It was designed for dial-up networks. There are, unfortunately, a number of known security flaws with PPTP.;
• SSTP is also known as secure socket tunneling. It was designed for Windows and is not widely used because of its restricted design. Despite that, it ranks competitively in terms of security and speed.
• IKEv2 is designed for mobile devices. Technically speaking, it is not a VPN, but it serves a similar role in mobile spaces.

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Why Should You Use A VPN

Since many businesses are shifting their employees to;remote work, it’s more important than ever to invest in VPNs to ensure data security.;

Working remotely requires employees to access sensitive data through potentially unsecured network connections. Using a VPN service for your workforce can help protect your business from these exposed risks and vulnerabilities.;;

Using a VPN should be a top concern and practice for both businesses and individual internet users, especially when using public internet connections such as Wi-Fi at a coffee shop or airport, according to Caleb Chen, editor of Privacy News Online for;Private Internet Access.;

“Even if you’re not on a public Wi-Fi network and just using the internet via a LAN cable at your home or office, your internet activity is still being snooped on and sold to third parties,” Chen said. “This is because internet service providers in the United States successfully lobbied the government to pass;a law getting rid of internet privacy;protections for internet users in 2017.”;

Browsing the web or accessing private company information on an unsecured network means you could be placing yourself and your data at risk by inadvertently revealing browsing habits and important data. Nidhi Joshi, a business consultant for;iFour Technolab Pvt. Ltd., says that using a VPN can:;

How To Choose A VPN

When we review VPNs, there are a few key metrics we look for. For one, a VPN service should allow you to connect at least five devices simultaneously. The best services now easily surpass this requirement. Another is whether the VPN service allows BitTorrent or P2P traffic on its serversif you’re planning to use either of these technologies. Nearly VPNs allow them on at least some of their servers, but you don’t want to run afoul of the company to which you’re paying a monthly fee.

Speaking of fees, the average cost of a top-rated VPN service is $10.21 per month. A VPN service that is charging more per month isn’t necessarily ripping you off, but it should offer something significant, such as a great interface or lots of server locations to sweeten the deal.;

You can usually get a discount if you buy longer-term contracts. The average price of an annual VPN subscription, for example, is $71.58. However, we recommend avoiding long commitments until you’re certain that you’re happy with the service. Start instead with a short-term subscription or, better yet, a free subscription so you can test a VPN in your own home.

The most important thing about a VPN is trust. If the location, pricing, or terms of service don’t fill you with confidence, try another service. In all our VPN reviews, we make sure to report on all of these issues and highlight anything we think is confusing or problematic.

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Running An Openvpn Server On A Dynamic Ip Address

While OpenVPN clients can easily access the server via a dynamic IP address without any special configuration, things get more interesting when the server itself is on a dynamic address. While OpenVPN has no trouble handling the situation of a dynamic server, some extra configuration is required.

The first step is to get a dynamic DNS address which can be configured to “follow” the server every time the server’s IP address changes. There are several dynamic DNS service providers available, such as;dyndns.org.

The next step is to set up a mechanism so that every time the server’s IP address changes, the dynamic DNS name will be quickly updated with the new IP address, allowing clients to find the server at its new IP address. There are two basic ways to accomplish this:

The OpenVPN client by default will sense when the server’s IP address has changed, if the client configuration is using a;remote;directive which references a dynamic DNS name. The usual chain of events is that the OpenVPN client fails to receive timely keepalive messages from the server’s old IP address, triggering a restart, and the restart causes the DNS name in the;remote;directive to be re-resolved, allowing the client to reconnect to the server at its new IP address.

More information can be found in the;FAQ.