OpenVPN client

OpenVPN client

This article relies on the following:

Accessing web interface / command-line interface
Managing configs / packages / services / logs

Introduction

This how-to describes the method for setting up OpenVPN client on OpenWrt.
Follow OpenVPN server for server setup and OpenVPN extras for additional tuning.

Goals

Encrypt your internet connection to enforce security and privacy.
- Prevent traffic leaks and spoofing on the client side.
Bypass regional restrictions using commercial providers.
- Escape client side content filters and internet censorship.
Access your LAN services remotely without port forwarding.

Command-line instructions

1. Preparation

Install the required packages.

# Install packages
openvpn-openssl

2. Firewall

Consider VPN network as public. Assign VPN interface to WAN zone to minimize firewall setup.

# Configure firewall
uci rename firewall.@zone[0]="lan"
uci rename firewall.@zone[1]="wan"
uci del_list firewall.wan.device="tun+"
uci add_list firewall.wan.device="tun+"
uci commit firewall
service firewall restart

3. VPN service

Save your client profile to configure VPN service.

# Save VPN client profile
umask go=
cat << EOF > /etc/openvpn/client.conf
COPY_PASTE_CLIENT_PROFILE_HERE
EOF
service openvpn restart

Specify credentials for commercial provider and configure dynamic connection if necessary.

Testing

Establish the VPN connection. Verify your routing with traceroute and traceroute6.

traceroute openwrt.org
traceroute6 openwrt.org

Check your IP and DNS provider.

On router:

Go to LuCI > Status > System Log and look for peer device connected with an IPv4 or IPv6 address and with a recent handshake time
Go to LuCI > Network > Diagnostics and ipv4 ping client device IP eg. 10.0.0.10

On client device depending on VPN software:

Check transfer traffic for tx & rx
Ping router internal lan IP
Check public IP address in a browser – https://whatsmyip.com – should see public IP address of ISP for the router

Troubleshooting

Collect and analyze the following information.

# Restart services
service log restart; service openvpn restart; sleep 10
 
# Log and status
logread -e openvpn; netstat -l -n -p | grep -e openvpn
 
# Runtime configuration
pgrep -f -a openvpn
ip address show; ip route show table all
ip rule show; ip -6 rule show; nft list ruleset
 
# Persistent configuration
uci show network; uci show firewall; uci show openvpn
head -v -n -0 /etc/openvpn/*.conf

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