VPN

Version	Status	Date Updated	Updated By
710	Unknown	N/A	N/A
810	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1004	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1204	Unknown	N/A	N/A
1404	Unknown	N/A	N/A
Usage Information

VPN (Virtual Private Networking) provides secure communication to your core when you are away. It also offers a lot of potential for connecting multiple cores (between houses, apartments, etc.). This would enable families and friends to share security cameras, call/intercom each other for free via Asterisk, pipe security notifications to every device at every connected residence, and possibly even share media (legality?)

VPN in LinuxMCE 1004

In LinuxMCE 1004 there is an integrated L2TP server. It uses openswan and xl2tpd packages.

Setup

In the web admin -> Advanced -> Network settings, enable the "L2TP/IPSEC VPN server enabled" checkbox. You also need to fill in the pre-shared key and the IP range the VPN clients should use. Save the settings.

In Wizard -> Basic Info -> Users, check the "Can connect via VPN" for every user that should be able to connect via VPN. Click "Change VPN Password" for the user and enter a password for your VPN connection.

• Note: Currently you need to re-enable the user and change his username after any change to the Network settings page as the files are rewritten

Client Connection

Different devices have different GUIs for setting up a VPN, so this is just a general description. To find specific description for your device, do a google search, we don't need descriptions for every possible device added to this article(Thank you!).

Enter your host name, pre-shared key and give the connection a name. The L2TP secret is not used and should be left disabled. Enter your username(case sensitive) and your VPN password.

Notes

If you have another router or ADSL modem or some other device between the core and the internet, you need to make sure it forwards the IPSEC traffic. You need to forward there ports to the core

• UDP port 500(IPSEC-IKE)
• UDP port 4500(IPSEC-ESP-NAT)
• Protocol 50(ESP)

You need Protocol 50 OR UDP port 4500, not both. Find out what works for you, and disable the other one. Some devices doesn't allow you to forward specific protocols such as ESP, in that case use UDP 4500.

If the device has a IPSEC passthrough, it might be good to enable this too. I'd check both with this setting on and off, as some devices can cause problems with this setting on.

Do NOT forward port 1701 (L2TP), this would have allowed direct access to the L2TP server, bypassing IPSEC entirely and sending all your data unencrypted. The whole idea is that the IPSEC connection encrypts your data from end to end, and on the server end, this data will be passed on to port 1701 internally.

Debug

As per nature of VPN there is not much debug possibility. VPN servers silently drop wrong packets to not give any information to potential hackers. Anyway you can debug the connection procedure with tcpdump using the following command:

tcpdump -i any port 500 or port 4500

You can also monitor authentication procedure with:

tail -f /var/log/auth.log

Note: If auth.log is empty, 12.04 has a bug that set the owner incorrectly- fix via: "sudo chown syslog /var/log/auth.log" from a terminal

From a terminal, you can verify your preshare key here:

/etc/ipsec.secrets

And approved usernames are here:

/etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Old/custom VPN

The following is a hack to add VPN support to LinuxMCE for version prior to 1004. It may not even work anymore, and I would not recommend it.

Installing PPTP and OpenVPN on the core

Download the patches and vpn package

Apply the diff patch

 cd /var/www/lmce-admin ; sudo patch -p0 < /tmp/vpn.svn.diff

Install the php scripts

 cd /var/www/lmce-admin ; sudo tar -xvf /tmp/vpn-php.tar

Install the package

 sudo dpkg -i /tmp/lmce-vpn-scripts_1-2_all.deb

Now go to the web admin -> users and check out your new links.

Click the PPTP Password link to set up PPTP and set user passwords. Click "Delete User" to disable PPTP for that user only.

Click OpenVPN Config to set up OpenVPN and generate user configurations

Once the set up is finished, you can download the configs or Delete the user.

Requirements for a VPN plugin

• Security
  • Encryption
  • Secure method of "pairing" houses

This could be done by sharing a public key with whomever you wish to pair with. User 1 would enter User 2's public key along with an optional message. User 2 would manually approve User 1 for pairing, and the cores would connect securly via VPN and automatically share security notifications and anything else set in a settings panel.

• Options panel for data to share with "paired" cores

Wish List

Add what you would like VPN to make possible in LinuxMCE

External Links

1. OpenVPN