Book Image

OpenVPN: Building and Integrating Virtual Private Networks

Book Image

OpenVPN: Building and Integrating Virtual Private Networks

Overview of this book

OpenVPN is a powerful, open source SSL VPN application. It can secure site-to-site connections, WiFi and enterprise-scale remote connections. While being a full-featured VPN solution, OpenVPN is easy to use and does not suffer from the complexity that characterizes other IPSec VPN implementations. It uses the secure and stable TLS/SSL mechanisms for authentication and encryption. This book is an easy introduction to this popular VPN application. After introducing the basics of security and VPN, the book moves on to cover using OpenVPN, from installing it on various platforms, through configuring basic tunnels, to more advanced features, such as using the application with firewalls, routers, proxy servers, and OpenVPN scripting. While providing only necessary theoretical background, the book takes a practical approach, presenting plenty of examples.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
OpenVPN
Credits
About the Author
About the Reviewers
Preface
Index

Troubleshooting—Advanced Installation Methods


Normally, the techniques discussed above should work fine for any platform. However, I want to provide advanced installation techniques that will enable you to install OpenVPN in situations where the other standard methods fail.

Our next installation example—installing from source code—will cover a procedure that is possible on every platform and enables the administrator to change the basic behavior of OpenVPN. Many developers and administrators consider that this should be standard installation procedure for all systems. There are some advantages regarding stability and performance that can only be optimized for your individual system by compiling as much relevant software as possible (the Gentoo approach...). In most cases, however, the installation tools provided with the systems are much easier to use. But if you are looking for detailed debugging information, the source code will be first choice.

When building OpenVPN from sources, there...