[plug] Working from home - VPN routers

[Ian Kent]

On Sat, 2020-04-11 at 09:58 +0800, Kevin Shackleton wrote:
> Hi All,
> 
> We managed to set up an openvpn solution, using an ASUS DSL-AC68U
> router.  This runs what looks like a slightly customised DD-WRT
> firmware.
> 
> Setting up openvpn on the router and setting up openvpn client on
> Windows hosts are straightforward tasks.
> 
> I'm having trouble getting openvpn to work in Ubuntu 18.04.  To set
> up a client using the Network Manager dialogs I could not simply
> refer to the config file that the router generated, but had to write
> out the ca cert, the user cert and the user private key as separate
> files.  Regardless of if I use Network Manager or the command line
> 
>    sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client.ovpn
> 
> I'm running into this error in syslog:
> 
>    link_config: autonegotiation is unset or enabled, the speed and
> duplex are not writable.

Permission vs. ownership perhaps?

> 
> According to the syslog, the openvpn command line actually uses
> NetworkManager, so it's not surprising they both fail.

That doesn't sound right but I haven't looked myself, when I was
trying to get a VPN going under Ubuntu just recently I used the
NetworkManager interface ... it was a matter of translating ovpn
to the NM dialog settings, not really that straight forward ...
but it did work for me.

> 
> Any ideas about autonegotiation not being writable?  I'm thinking
> that perhaps a scratch folder has not been created?

Does the same thing happen when using NetworkManager?
sudo might not be the right thing to use for this.

I'd try su'ing to root proper and see if that helps.

Ian
> 
> Thanks,
> 
> Kevin.
> 
> On Sat, 28 Mar 2020 at 18:58, Kevin Shackleton <
> krshackleton at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Hi All,
> > 
> > We are, like many businesses, working from home as much as possible
> > - I have not been in-office for the last fortnight.
> > 
> > Up to this time we have not bothered with an office router that
> > "does a VPN".  Now a need has arisen and the business owner bought
> > a D-Link DIR-895L/R, connected to our NBN modem.  This device
> > offers "QuickVPN", using a pre-shared key.  As a router it's
> > working fine (though it lacks SIP, we will add on a Cisco ATA)
> > 
> > So far we have not been able to make the VPN gateway work, from
> > Windows or Linux clients.  We're getting authentication failures,
> > though we have tried all sorts of combinations of protocols.
> > 
> > I'm interested in ideas and words of experience on the subject:
> >  - any chance the modem is affecting the VPN?
> >  - comments on the selected device (is anyone using "QuickVPN"?)
> > and recommended alternative devices
> >  - comments on re-flashing the device to DD-WRT which D-Links says
> > is supported.  My main concern with a re-flashing is that the wi-fi 
> > may lose some of its capabilities - not really a big worry.
> >  - thoughts about if a VPN using a PSK is really adequate these
> > days, or if we should not re-flash and start using openVPN with
> > large certificates
> > 
> > Regards,
> > Kevin.
> > 
> 
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