R i g h t a r d i a: Open Virtual Private Networking for home users

OpenVPN is an application to securely tunnel IP networks over a single UDP or TCP port. UDP is considered more secure for OpenVPN.

OpenVPN can be used to access remote sites, make secure point-to-point connections, and improve wireless security.

OpenVPN uses all of the encryption, authentication, and certification features provided by the OpenSSL library.

It also supports VPNs with dynamic endpoints (DHCP or dial-up clients), tunnels over NAT or connection-oriented stateful firewalls (such as Linux's iptables).

Open VPN is a more modern technology than the Point to Point tunneling protocol that is built into Windows and earlier versions of the OS. PPTP is based upon dial-up technology.

The Cisco Lightweight Tunneling Transfer Protocoal (L2TP) with IP security (IPSEC) is considered a more secure replacement for PPTP by most security experts.

Usually Open VPN will work where PPTP VPN is blocked as some countries in the Middle East do.

Open VPN has stronger encryption.It's possible with the older PPTP for someone to get your password while you are connecting.

OpenVPN (OVPN) is very new technology. It's basically a combination of several technologies, like Secure Shell (SSH), Stunnel, and OpenSSL. .

OVPN allows you to choose the method and algorithm for handshaking as well as for data encryption, plus uses SSL certificates, PSK's or User/Pass (or a combination of) to authenticate clients.

This numerous configuration options are OVPN's downfall: it can be complicated to set up.

Rightardia downloaded the latest software form our VPN provider. This included OpenVPN software and two configuration files. We installed the software and then used a second zip file to copy the configuration file and a security certificate to the C:\Program files(X86)| OpenVPN | config directory. We copied the executable, the Open VPN GUI from the bin directory to the desktop and opened the icon as an administrator.

We used the same user name and password that we used for the PPTP VPN connection. We created a new log file using an option with the OpenVPN GUI and connected. The connection was quick and we could watch the progress of the connection.

Unlike PPTP, if the OpenVPN tunnel drops, your Internet connection drops too, You also have an icon in your system tray that is red when you are not connected, yellow while you are connected and green once OpenVPN is up.

Why should you use a VPN at all? First, your ISP is probably letting in both the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA), the Recording Industry of America (RIAA) and government agencies though their corporate firewalls.

Peerblock in action

If you want to see what the ISPs are allowing, install Peerblock and download a old music video. Peerblock is capable of blocking incoming and outgoing connections based on IP blacklists

You will be amazed by the number of different organizations that are interested in your download.

Even of more concern is that the police now have a lot of the technology that the US intelligence agencies have used for foreign surveillance. A VPN will keep both your ISP and the police out of you home network.

It will prevent your ISP from logging everything you do on the Internet. if the police suspect you are involved in a criminal enterprise on the Internet, it can subpoena your log files form you ISP and use your web history against you in a criminal court.

If you have children, it may keep them out of trouble with the law. Rightardia recently heard a peculiar statistic: one in three children has been arrested by the police by age 23.

If you are using a VPN for a criminal enterprise, think again. Both the the NSA and the FBI have backdoors into VPNs. So nothing is 100 per cent secure. But at least you can keep locals out of your network.

One other point. Get a VPN service in a country that doesn't not have reciprocity with the US law enforcement. Canada, Sweden and Russia come to mind. US Law enforcement subpoenas will be ignored by these and many other counties.

There was one service in Romania, Cyberghost VPN, that offered blazing speeds, but the provider would throttle users back once they went over a 1 GB bandwidth threshold. Take care in picking the VPN service provider.

If you want the most powerful, secure and modern VPN, use OpenVPN. It will harden your network and keep noisy people out of it.

sources:

http://maemo.org/packages/view/openvpn/

http://www.ivpn.net/pptp-vs-l2tp-vs-openvpn.php

https://forum.perfect-privacy.com/showthread.php?t=1958