OpenVPN - Multiple connections alleowed?

If you are asking for support for an issue, please include the following information at the top of your post:

  • Whether your FreedomBox is plugged into a router at home or not (if not, please specify how it is connected to the internet)
  • The month and year you bought your kit (feel free to omit if you want to preserve some privacy, but this could be helpful information)
  • The version of FreedomBox your are running (available by clicking on the “?” in the top menu --> “About”)

Hi - I bought my kit in Sept. 2019. I am using version 20.8. My setup is typical (i.e. FB is plugged into home router).

I am using the openvpn server and connecting to it from both my laptop and desktop using the same username. While the setup works fine individually, I am unable to establish simultaneous connections from both computers. Is this normal?

Is there a solution, other than creating multiple users on the fb?

Thanks!!!

It should be possible to multiple OpenVPN connection simultaneously. After multiple clients connect, they should be able to communicate among each other too. Friends of mine use this approach to LAN like gaming from different parts of the world.

Would you be able to post logs related to failed connection? There are likely obtained by running the following in the terminal.

sudo journalctl -f
sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

Hi Sunil,

Thanks for your help.

The first command only yielded output from failed sshd hacking entries.

Here is the output from the second command:

sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

May 11 21:21:11 freedombox NetworkManager[369]: [1589250071.0195] dhcp6 (eth0): address 2600:1700:d0c:8810::48
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox NetworkManager[369]: [1589250071.0197] dhcp6 (eth0): nameserver ‘2600:1700:d0c:8810::1’
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox NetworkManager[369]: [1589250071.0198] dhcp (eth0): domain search ‘XXXX.XXX.’
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox NetworkManager[369]: [1589250071.0203] dhcp6 (eth0): state changed bound -> bound, event ID=“06:02:b4:08|1589250070”
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox dbus-daemon[310]: [system] Activating via systemd: service name=‘org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher’ unit=‘dbus-org.freedesktop.nm-dispatcher.service’ requested by ‘:1.12’ (uid=0 pid=369 comm="/usr/sbin/NetworkManager --no-daemon ")
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox systemd[1]: Starting Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service…
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox dbus-daemon[310]: [system] Successfully activated service ‘org.freedesktop.nm_dispatcher’
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox systemd[1]: Started Network Manager Script Dispatcher Service.
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox nm-dispatcher: req:1 ‘dhcp6-change’ [eth0]: new request (2 scripts)
May 11 21:21:11 freedombox nm-dispatcher: req:1 ‘dhcp6-change’ [eth0]: start running ordered scripts…
May 11 21:21:21 freedombox systemd[1]: NetworkManager-dispatcher.service: Succeeded.

Is there a way to log output from openvpn?

1 Like

My bad. OpenVPN apparently show the logs there. Try /run/openvpn-server/status-freedombox.log.

Greetings Sunil,

I set up a second user as well - even with a second user, very seldom can i connect both the laptop and desktop (as a matter of fact, tried right now and could not).

Is something else the matter?

here is my /etc/openvpn/freedombox.conf (added duplicate-cn):

port 1194
proto udp
proto udp6
dev tun
client-to-client
ca /etc/openvpn/freedombox-keys/pki/ca.crt
cert /etc/openvpn/freedombox-keys/pki/issued/server.crt
key /etc/openvpn/freedombox-keys/pki/private/server.key
dh /etc/openvpn/freedombox-keys/pki/dh.pem
server 10.91.0.0 255.255.255.0
keepalive 10 60
cipher AES-256-CBC
comp-lzo
verb 3
duplicate-cn

This is the log file you requested (does not include failed attempts):

TITLE,OpenVPN 2.4.7 arm-unknown-linux-gnueabihf [SSL (OpenSSL)] [LZO] [LZ4] [EPOLL] [PKCS11] [MH/PKTINFO] [AEAD] built on Feb 20 2019
TIME,Tue May 12 21:49:36 2020,1589338176
HEADER,CLIENT_LIST,Common Name,Real Address,Virtual Address,Virtual IPv6 Address,Bytes Received,Bytes Sent,Connected Since,Connected Since (time_t),Username,Client ID,Peer ID
CLIENT_LIST,ZZZZZZ,192.XXX.X.XXX:1194,XX.YY.Z.ZZ,582346,461126,Mon May 11 21:39:19 2020,1589251159,UNDEF,6,0
HEADER,ROUTING_TABLE,Virtual Address,Common Name,Real Address,Last Ref,Last Ref (time_t)
ROUTING_TABLE,XX.YY.Z.ZZ,ZZZZZZ,192.XXX.X.XXX:1194,Tue May 12 21:48:07 2020,1589338087
GLOBAL_STATS,Max bcast/mcast queue length,2
END

Many thanks!

i think the problem was routing of the connection.

i changed my connection server name to the local network name of the freedombox rather than the dns name, and it now accepts the connections faster and more reliably.