PPTP client

This article relies on the following:

Introduction

  • This how-to describes the method for setting up PPTP client on OpenWrt.
  • Follow PPTP server to set up PPTP server and PPTP extras for additional tuning.

Goals

  • Encrypt your internet connection to enforce security and privacy.
    • Prevent data leak and traffic spoofing on the client side.
  • Bypass regional restrictions using commercial providers.
    • Escape client side content filters and internet censorship.
  • Access your LAN services remotely without port forwarding.

Command-line interface

1. Preparation

Install the packages and specify the VPN client configuration parameters. 

# Install packages
opkg update
opkg install ppp-mod-pptp kmod-nf-nathelper-extra
 
# Configuration parameters
PPTP_IF="vpn"
PPTP_SERV="SERVER_NAME_OR_IP_ADDRESS"
PPTP_USER="USERNAME"
PPTP_PASS="PASSWORD"

2. Firewall

Enable conntrack helper to allow related GRE traffic. Consider VPN network as public and assign VPN interface to WAN zone to minimize firewall setup. 

# Configure kernel parameters
cat << EOF >> /etc/sysctl.conf
net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_helper=1
EOF
/etc/init.d/sysctl restart
 
# Configure firewall
uci rename firewall.@zone[0]="lan"
uci rename firewall.@zone[1]="wan"
uci del_list firewall.wan.network="${PPTP_IF}"
uci add_list firewall.wan.network="${PPTP_IF}"
uci commit firewall
/etc/init.d/firewall restart

3. Network

Set up VPN interface. 

# Configure network
uci -q delete network.${PPTP_IF}
uci set network.${PPTP_IF}="interface"
uci set network.${PPTP_IF}.proto="pptp"
uci set network.${PPTP_IF}.server="${PPTP_SERV}"
uci set network.${PPTP_IF}.username="${PPTP_USER}"
uci set network.${PPTP_IF}.password="${PPTP_PASS}"
uci commit network
/etc/init.d/network restart

Provide dynamic connection management if required.

Testing

Establish the VPN connection. Use traceroute and traceroute6 to verify your client traffic is routed via the VPN gateway. 

traceroute openwrt.org
traceroute6 openwrt.org

Check your client public IP addresses.

Make sure there is no DNS leak on the client side.

Delegate a public IPv6 prefix to the VPN network to use IPv6 by default.

Troubleshooting

Collect and analyze the following information. 

# Restart services
/etc/init.d/log restart; /etc/init.d/network restart; sleep 10
 
# Log and status
logread -e pppd
 
# Runtime configuration
pgrep -f -a pppd
ip address show; ip route show table all
ip rule show; ip -6 rule show; iptables-save; ip6tables-save
sysctl net.netfilter.nf_conntrack_helper
 
# Persistent configuration
uci show network; uci show firewall
grep -v -e "^#" -e "^$" /etc/sysctl.conf
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  • Last modified: 2021/03/21 07:35
  • by vgaetera