openvpn-install/FAQ.md

FAQ

Q: The script has been updated since I installed OpenVPN. How do I update?

A: You can't. Managing updates and new features from the script would require way too much work. Your only solution is to uninstall OpenVPN and reinstall with the updated script.

You can, of course, it's even recommended, update the openvpn package with your package manager.

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Q: How do I renew certificates before they expire?

A: Run the script again and select "Renew certificates" from the menu. You can renew either client certificates or the server certificate. The script will show you the current expiration date for each certificate and let you choose a new validity period (default: 3650 days / 10 years).

For client renewals, a new .ovpn file will be generated that you need to distribute to the client. For server renewals, the OpenVPN service will need to be restarted (the script will prompt you).

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Q: How do I check for DNS leaks?

A: Go to browserleaks.com or ipleak.net (both perform IPv4 and IPv6 check) with your browser. Your IP should not show up (test without and without the VPN). The DNS servers should be the ones you selected during the setup, not your IP address nor your ISP's DNS servers' addresses.

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Q: How do I fix DNS leaks?

A: On Windows 10 DNS leaks are blocked by default with the block-outside-dns option. On Linux you need to add these lines to your .ovpn file based on your Distribution.

Debian 9, 10 and Ubuntu 16.04, 18.04

script-security 2
up /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf
down /etc/openvpn/update-resolv-conf

CentOS 6, 7

script-security 2
up /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.4.8/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.up
down /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2.4.8/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.down

CentOS 8, Fedora 30, 31

script-security 2
up /usr/share/doc/openvpn/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.up
down /usr/share/doc/openvpn/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.down

Arch Linux

script-security 2
up /usr/share/openvpn/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.up
down /usr/share/openvpn/contrib/pull-resolv-conf/client.down

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Q: Can I use an OpenVPN 2.3 client?

A: Yes. I really recommend using an up-to-date client, but if you really need it, choose the following options:

• No compression or LZ0
• RSA certificate
• DH Key
• AES CBC
• tls-auth

If your client is <2.3.3, remove tls-version-min 1.2 from your /etc/openvpn/server.conf and .ovpn files.

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Q: IPv6 is not working on my Hetzner VM

A: This an issue on their side. See https://angristan.xyz/fix-ipv6-hetzner-cloud/

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Q: DNS is not working on my Linux client

A: See "How do I fix DNS leaks?" question

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Q: What syctl and iptables changes are made by the script?

A: Iptables rules are saved at /etc/iptables/add-openvpn-rules.sh and /etc/iptables/rm-openvpn-rules.sh. They are managed by the service /etc/systemd/system/iptables-openvpn.service

Sysctl options are at /etc/sysctl.d/99-openvpn.conf

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Q: How can I access other clients connected to the same OpenVPN server?

A: Add client-to-client to your server.conf

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Q: My router can't connect

A:

• Options error: No closing quotation (") in config.ovpn:46 :

  type yes when asked to customize encryption settings and choose tls-auth

• Options error: Unrecognized option or missing parameter(s) in config.ovpn:36: tls-version-min (2.3.2) :

  see question "Can I use an OpenVPN 2.3 client?"

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Q: How can I access computers the OpenVPN server's remote LAN?

A: Add a route with the subnet of the remote network to /etc/openvpn/server.conf and restart OpenVPN. Example: push "route 192.168.1.0 255.255.255.0" if the server's LAN is 192.168.1.0/24

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Q: How can I add multiple users in one go?

A: Here is a sample Bash script to achieve this:

userlist=(user1 user2 user3)

for i in ${userlist[@]};do
   MENU_OPTION=1 CLIENT=$i PASS=1 ./openvpn-install.sh
done

From a list in a text file:

while read USER
    do MENU_OPTION="1" CLIENT="$USER" PASS="1" ./openvpn-install.sh
done < users.txt

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Q: How do I change the default .ovpn file created for future clients?

A: You can edit the template out of which .ovpn files are created by editing /etc/openvpn/client-template.txt

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Q: For my clients - I want to set my internal network to pass through the VPN and the rest to go through my internet?

A: You would need to edit the .ovpn file. You can edit the template out of which those files are created by editing /etc/openvpn/client-template.txt file and adding

route-nopull
route 10.0.0.0 255.0.0.0

So for example - here it would route all traffic of 10.0.0.0/8 to the VPN. And the rest through the internet.

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Q: I have enabled IPv6 and my VPN client gets an IPv6 address. Why do I reach the sites or other dual-stacked destinations via IPv4 only?

A: This is because inside the tunnel you don't get a publicly routable IPv6 address, instead you get an ULA (Unlique Local Lan) address. Operating systems don't prefer this all the time. You can fix this in your operating system policies as it's unrelated to the VPN itself:

Windows (commands needs to run cmd.exe as Administrator):

netsh interface ipv6 add prefixpolicy fd00::/8 3 1

Linux:

edit /etc/gai.conf and uncomment the following line and also change its value to 1:

label fc00::/7      1

This will not work properly unless you add you your VPN server server.conf one or two lines to push at least 1 (one) IPv6 DNS server. Most providers have IPv6 servers as well, add two more lines of push "dhcp-option DNS <IPv6>"