Network Solution for Windows – Windows system, Linux system, Ubuntu server configuration tip

If the system you are using has not a Graphical User Interface for OpenVPN, you have to use the OpenVPN’s command line. This can also be used in the case in which you want to automatically start the VPN by using the startup scripts. By typing the command man openvpn from a Unix shell, the OpenVPN’s manual page will be displayed. A great number of parameters are available to directly use in the command line prefixed by two consecutive hyphens (–). The same parameters (not prefixed by –) can also be specified in the configuration file. Except for a few cases, it is better to specify the parameters in a configuration file rather than having them in a too long and heavy to read command line.
This section does not examine the parameters because they are already listed and described in the manual page of OpenVPN, but it only describe how to establish a VPN with a Zeroshell OpenVPN server by using the command line:

• Put the files zeroshell.ovpn and CA.pem in a same directory (suppose /etc/openvpn/). For details about how to obtain these files.
• Edit the configuration file zeroshell.ovpn replacing zeroshell.example.com with the IP address or hostname of the VPN server;
• Change the current directory to /etc/openvpn/ and exec (with root privileges) the command:

  openvpn –config us-server.ovpn

  At this point, you are requested for the Username and the Password. If the client is authenticated against the server, the VPN connection is established.