Book Image

Mastering OpenVPN

By : Eric F Crist
Book Image

Mastering OpenVPN

By: Eric F Crist

Overview of this book

Security on the internet is increasingly vital to both businesses and individuals. Encrypting network traffic using Virtual Private Networks is one method to enhance security. The internet, corporate, and “free internet” networks grow more hostile every day. OpenVPN, the most widely used open source VPN package, allows you to create a secure network across these systems, keeping your private data secure. The main advantage of using OpenVPN is its portability, which allows it to be embedded into several systems. This book is an advanced guide that will help you build secure Virtual Private Networks using OpenVPN. You will begin your journey with an exploration of OpenVPN, while discussing its modes of operation, its clients, its secret keys, and their format types. You will explore PKI: its setting up and working, PAM authentication, and MTU troubleshooting. Next, client-server mode is discussed, the most commonly used deployment model, and you will learn about the two modes of operation using "tun" and "tap" devices. The book then progresses to more advanced concepts, such as deployment scenarios in tun devices which will include integration with back-end authentication, and securing your OpenVPN server using iptables, scripting, plugins, and using OpenVPN on mobile devices and networks. Finally, you will discover the strengths and weaknesses of the current OpenVPN implementation, understand the future directions of OpenVPN, and delve into the troubleshooting techniques for OpenVPN. By the end of the book, you will be able to build secure private networks across the internet and hostile networks with confidence.
Table of Contents (17 chapters)
Mastering OpenVPN
Credits
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Index

Integrating smart phones into an existing VPN setup


OpenVPN on smart phones can only be used as a VPN client, which is the normal usage mode of smart phone anyways. For Android, multiple OpenVPN client apps exist. There are some subtle differences between the different apps, but all of them support only tun-mode setups, as the underlying OS does not support tap devices.

The question of which app to use on Android devices is a difficult one. If you are using a mix of iOS and Android devices then the OpenVPN Connect app is an easier choice, as the user interface is more consistent across the devices. If you use the commercial OpenVPN Access Server, OpenVPN Connect is the only route due to dynamic configuration and some server option differences. If you need some of the special features of the OpenVPN for Android app or if you want to use OpenVPN on non-ARM based phones or tablets, then OpenVPN for Android is the logical choice.

As can be seen from the previous example, some changes are required...