Why is running openvpn so DIFFICULT on Windows compared to Linux?

Mark Bannon wrote this copyrighted missive and expects royalties:



Ye gods, enough with the Windows already!

--
Learn to pause -- or nothing worthwhile can catch up to you.

Mark Bannon wrote on 12/24/2015 1:02 PM:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 11:07:47 -0500, Ed Mullen wrote:

But the easiest way is put a shortcut on your desktop. Right-click an
empty area of the desktop. Choose New - Shortcut. When asked for the
location enter: %windir%\system32\cmd.exe

In the next step name the shortcut whatever you like.

1. Since I have a cascade menu in Win10, I tried this trick in the folder:
Menu Browser {firefox,chrome,ie,etc.}

2. Unfortunately, there is only "New Folder" available; however, as you
noted, it works fine elsewhere (like on the desktop).

3. Then I simply moved the shortcut from the desktop to the cascaded menu
Menu Browser {cmd,firefox,chrome,ie,etc.}

Kewl!
Thank you for the great idea!

I noticed it started up in C:\WINDOWS\, which is a really dumb place to
start, by default.

Is there a way to make it default to the openvpn config file directory?
C:\data\network\openvpn\config\.


Yes. Right-click the shortcut, choose Properties, on the Shortcut tab
fill in a location in "Start in".

You can also put add a command in the folder-context menu of Explorer to
open to a specific folder that you right-click on.

Open regedit and change/create these keys:

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\C ommand Prompt]
@="Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Folder\shell\C ommand Prompt\command]
@="cmd.exe /k pushd %1"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\Co mmand Prompt]
@="Command Prompt Here"

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Classes\Drive\shell\Co mmand Prompt\command]
@="cmd.exe /k pushd %1"



--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Why do ballet dancers always dance on their toes? Wouldn't it be easier
to just hire taller dancers?

Mark Bannon wrote on 12/24/2015 1:07 PM:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 11:07:47 -0500, Ed Mullen wrote:

Click Start. The cursor is in the "Search programs and files" box.
Type cmd, click to open a command prompt.

When I click "Start", I don't see any "search programs and files" box,
but I do see that "Life at a glance", "File Explorer", "Settings",
"Power", and "All Apps".

Sorry about that. I keep forgetting I'm using the Classic Shell add-on
which lets me make W10 look almost totally like W7.


--
Ed Mullen
http://edmullen.net/
Be different. Conform.

On 2015-12-24, Mark Bannon wrote:
Let me know what ng you're on and I'll drop the rest in future replies.

I'm reading alt.windows7.general and alt.comp.os.windows-10.

You seem to know *how* to install it, so, that's great.

I claim no special ability, just have been doing it for a long time.

I just realized I didn't install the right version (I installed the WinXP
64-bit version but I didn't know there was a WinVista & later version!).

Ouch! I'm sure that would cause some issues. Install the latest version.
Be sure to uninstall the obsolete TAP driver if it managed to install.

The trick will be to actually run openvpn the easiest way that
Windows 10 allows, so, that's where I'll need your advice
(being mostly a Linux & WinXP user).

It's pretty straightforward, though I have not tried to install OpenVPN
to an alternate location. The default has always worked for me using
short filenames (and of course double backslashes) when specifying
paths in the configuration file(s). So you wind up with stuff that
looks like "c:\\progra~1\\openvpn\\easy-rsa\\keys\\mycert.crt", etc.,
in your config files. Ugly, but it works.

Easiest way to invoke OpenVPN if you want the VPN connection always up
is to enable the OpenVPN service. That way any connections configured
in OpenVPN's "config" directory will automatically start at boot time.

If you want the connection under control of the user what you'll probably
want to do is autostart the OpenVPN GUI at logon and set the system tray
icon to always display.

I believe with the current version of OpenVPN you need to run the GUI
once with admin privileges so it can set a registry key after which it
can be run as a normal user. (Earlier versions required always running
as administrator. If you run into problems with the GUI not having
necessary permissions you can always enable the "run as administrator"
compatibility setting on the executable. (Don't do this unless necessary,
it's pretty much like setting the suid bit on Unix systems.)

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:26:56 +0000, Mark Bannon wrote:

1. Download the standard OpenVPN Windows installer:
http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html

2. Select the "Installer (64-bit) Windows Vista and later" link
http://swupdate.openvpn.org/communit...601-x86_64.exe

3. Run that installer (but) put the files where *I* want them!
Executable: c:\apps\network\openvpn\*.exe
Config files: c:\data\network\vpnconfig\*.ovpn

4. Download a few dozen ovpn config files from http://vpngate.net
(Given the max allowed by openVPN is 50 ovpn files per directory.)

5. Run openvpn pointing (somehow) to one of those config files!

1. I downloaded the installer from:
http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html

2. I saved it to my installer hierarchy:
c:\data\software\network\openvpn\openvpn-install-2.3.9-I601-x86_64.exe

3. I doubleclicked on the installer, agreed to the redundant request to
allow it (why would I manually doubleclick if I didn't want to allow it?),
agreed to the license terms, and told it to install in:
c:\apps\network\openvpn\.

4.I said "Install" when it asked:
"Would you like to install this device software?"
Name: TAP-Windows Proider V9 Network adapters
Publisher: OpenVPN Technologies, Inc.

5. I right clicked on the resultant desktop icon for "OpenVPN GUI"
Right-Click Properties Advanced Run as administrator = checked

6. I moved that icon to the cascaded menu:
C:\data\software\menu\network\openvpn\OpenVPN GUI.lnk

7. I downloaded some free openvpn config files from:
http://vpngate.net

8. I put them in the data directory:
c:\data\network\openvpn\config

What is the next step?

On 2015-12-24, Mark Bannon wrote:
What is the next step?

Have you obtained or generated the necessary certs/keys? Those will
need to be plugged into your config files unless you are using a simple
static key configuration.

If you have control of both endpoints I would also recommend using the
"tls-auth" feature for improved security. If another Heartbleed-type
ssl bug is discovered this can help mitigate the effect. (The OpenVPN
server will not even respond to negotiate a connection unless the other
end first presents the appropriate key.)

Once your configuration is set up you can launch OpenVPN via command-line,
the GUI, or start the service. You would probably want to at least do
initial testing from command line or GUI so you can easily follow the
connection log.

--
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Roger Blake (Posts from Google Groups killfiled due to excess spam.)

NSA sedition and treason -- http://www.DeathToNSAthugs.com
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mark Bannon wrote:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 11:07:47 -0500, Ed Mullen wrote:

Click Start. The cursor is in the "Search programs and files" box.
Type cmd, click to open a command prompt.

When I click "Start", I don't see any "search programs and files" box,
but I do see that "Life at a glance", "File Explorer", "Settings",
"Power", and "All Apps".

Anyway, it's crazy that it's this difficult to get to a simple
command line, so, I'll stick with the other method you showed me,
which was to put a shortcut to 'cmd.exe' in the cascaded menu
(which is all that I use anyway).

Menu Browser cmd.{lnk}

The only thing to add is for the cmd.lnk to open up in the VPN data
directory:
C:\data\network\openvpn\config\{file1.ovpn,file2.o vpn,file3.ovpn,etc.}


The Start button supports left-click and right-click.

The Command Prompt options are in the right-click menu.

Paul

Mark Bannon wrote:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 02:30:05 -0500, Paul wrote:

The package uses NSIS (Nullsoft) installer.

Paul,
You seem to know what you're talking about.
Which newsgroup are you on?
I'll remove the rest from the reply list.

Most of the installer is just an "unzipping into Program Files"
routine. They're taking advantage of the ability to get
Windows to use TrustedInstaller, to allow files to be
unpacked into Program Files.

Rest assured, I don't have *any* need to put things in the idiotically
named and hideously disorganized "Program Files" directory

You can put it where you want. All it would take is
adding an entry to %path% .

For additional advice about a Windows 10 question,
post the question in

alt.comp.os.windows-10

HTH,
Paul

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 17:50:21 -0500, Paul wrote:

The Start button supports left-click and right-click.

The Command Prompt options are in the right-click menu.

Oh! I didn't realize that!
Thanks!

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 12:14:46 -0600, Rene Lamontagne wrote:

RIGHT click start

Thanks. It never occurred to me to "right" click, since I've
been left clicking to get Start Run cmd seemingly for
centuries!

Why they just change things, for nothing better, is beyond
me, but, it's easy enough to learn.

I must say that most of the time I'm on Linux nowadays, ever
since WinXP died (I just moved over to dual boot Linux), so
this is my first Win10 machine (and even then, I only upgraded
because Win8 was so bad that win10 couldn't be that much
worse for a non-touch-screen laptop).

Thanks. You'd think at my age (83), I'd have figured this
out by now.

On 24 Dec 2015, Mark Bannon wrote in
alt.windows7.general:

Thanks. It never occurred to me to "right" click, since I've
been left clicking to get Start Run cmd seemingly for
centuries!

Why they just change things, for nothing better, is beyond
me, but, it's easy enough to learn.

Right-clicking in Windows has been available to bring up context menus
since at least Windows 98. They didn't *just* change things, and it is
for the better.

I must say that most of the time I'm on Linux nowadays, ever
since WinXP died (I just moved over to dual boot Linux), so
this is my first Win10 machine (and even then, I only upgraded
because Win8 was so bad that win10 couldn't be that much
worse for a non-touch-screen laptop).

Except for the licensing and telemetry issues, Windows 10 is no worse
on a non-touch screen than is Windows 8, IMO.

Thanks. You'd think at my age (83), I'd have figured this
out by now.

Seems to me that most of the problems you've been describing are of
your own making, plus your application having a faulty installer. None
of the problems you describe are the fault of the OS.

On 12/24/2015 11:15 AM, Mark Bannon wrote:
Why is successfully running openvpn so DIFFICULT on Windows compared to Linux?

On Linux, here is all you do:
1. You install openvpn
2. You download an ovpn config file from vpngate.net
3. You run the openvpn command as root: $ sudo openvpn --config filename.ovpn

Where can I find the ovpn config file for Linux?

I went to http://www.vpngate.net/en/ but couldn't find anything related
to Linux, only Windows, Mac, iPhone / iPad and Android.

On 12/24/2015 4:59 PM, Mark Bannon wrote:
On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 12:14:46 -0600, Rene Lamontagne wrote:

RIGHT click start

Thanks. It never occurred to me to "right" click, since I've
been left clicking to get Start Run cmd seemingly for
centuries!

Why they just change things, for nothing better, is beyond
me, but, it's easy enough to learn.

I must say that most of the time I'm on Linux nowadays, ever
since WinXP died (I just moved over to dual boot Linux), so
this is my first Win10 machine (and even then, I only upgraded
because Win8 was so bad that win10 couldn't be that much
worse for a non-touch-screen laptop).

Thanks. You'd think at my age (83), I'd have figured this
out by now.


Yeah, Microsoft keep moving the furniture around so much its hard for us
older fellas (81) to keep up!

Regards, Rene

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 13:53:47 -0500, Ed Mullen wrote:

Sorry about that. I keep forgetting I'm using the Classic Shell add-on
which lets me make W10 look almost totally like W7.

I'm a very old man, and, well, the old Windows look and feel
was just fine for me.

All I ever needed were three things in toto by way of Windows GUI:

1. I needed my cascaded menus and the quick launch bar.

I left the horridly polluted "Programs" menu to its own devices.
Fifteen or so years ago, I tried to manage the "Programs" menu
(which is easy enough to do); but then I hit upon the idea of
creating my own menu on top of it - which no program pollutes.

So, for me, the "Programs" menu has whatever it has in it; but
"my" menu has only what I need. I organize my menu just like I
organize my app installation directory:
Menu {archivers, browsers, cleaners, etc.}

2. My data directory C:\data, which contains everything I care about.
I create a hierarchy of my own choosing in C:\data that nothing
pollutes. For example, c:\data\finance or C:\data\documents or
C:\data\software (for my installer files).

The c:\data\software\{archivers,browsers,cleaners} is *exactly*
the same hierarchy as are my cascaded menus, and, while it is
not necessary, it's also exactly the same hierarchy as my
installation directory. This makes backup and re-install so
simple that it's a joke, it's so easy.

3. My apps installation directory, c:\apps.
As noted, this is the *same* hierarchy as the installer and
menu hierarchy, which is organized by *function* (not by
brand name!). However, it really isn't necessary to organize
this hierarchy; it's just so easy, and the organizational
system already exists anyway, so, it's easy enough.

What's nice is that, to re-install the apps, is trivially
easy, since everything goes into the logical spot for all
machines in the household (all use the same organization).

Other than C:\tmp, which is free form, what other directories
are ever needed than your data and app hierarchies anyway?

On Thu, 24 Dec 2015 19:04:26 +0000, Roger Blake wrote:

So you wind up with stuff that
looks like "c:\\progra~1\\openvpn\\easy-rsa\\keys\\mycert.crt", etc.,
in your config files. Ugly, but it works.

Yeah. I still use 8-character lower-case no-space directory names most
of the time, e.g.,
c:\apps\{archiver,browser,cleaner,database,editor, finance,game,internet,etc}

That way I avoid most of the ~1 shenanigans and double quoting,
especially when copying files to the linux file systems in my
dual-boot situation.