OpenVPN on Android 2.1+??

[Guest redhawkuk]

I was wondering has anyone had experience with OpenVPN on Android??

So far I have managed to configure my Linux box to run as a server and my Android phone as a client using the following guidance - http://vpnblog.info/android-openvpn-strongvpn.html although there was some issues I had to fix myself.

t connects fine, I have an IP address which I can PING and ifconfig clearly shows I have working tun0 interface with an IP address of 10.8.0.5.

My problem is that none of my applications will connect via VPN they're still using the wifi network, obviously I cannot disable wifi otherwise my VPN won't work.

Am I missing something here?? how can I make the VPN my default network for connecting applications??

I had a quick look on Google Play for some possible solutions but alas I am still stumped with this problem.

Richard S.

[Guest honeypot62]

I'm told 2.1 is missing drivers for OpenVPN - if you haven't already installed these.

Myself I attempted to get a refund out of Three as the device clearly should connect using OpenVPN (and other VPN protocols, the menu options etc. are all there) but does not (out of the box that is). Three gave me a second ZTE and told me to try that (which likewise duly did not work). After going to the ombudsman Three legally referred me to their Chinese suppliers, at which point and after over a year of all this I started to lose the will to live, and gave up (ZTE did not have a European presence at the time).

You could reflash an updated version of Android (if we have one, am about to look), that should do it.

[Guest redhawkuk]

Actually it's a little more complicated than not supporting OpenVPN it would appear ZTE haven't bothered to compile iptables 'filter' support into the Kernel.

This is used by many 3rd party apps (i.e. proxy, firewalls etc) for re-routing network traffic to a middle man and then routing it back.

If you're using the stock ROM for Android 2.1 then your apps must support proxy networking internally otherwise network traffic continues it's normal way.

So far SandroB seems to be the only browser capable of proxy connections but HTTP only and not Socks so communications between phone and servers are not encrypted.

The only way to get iptables working properly is by flashing a Cyanogenmod based ROM I'm not even sure if it's possible to re-compile Android 2.1 with ipchains anyway and I doubt there would be much call for it either.

Ironically CM actually has OpenVPN support built in but for the love of God I cannot figure out how to import my certificates.

I did find a much better solution one that only requires a Linux box capable of ssh login something like a shell account or a Raspberry Pi running Raspbian would do.

On my CM phone I am using a program called SSH Tunnel - https://play.google....d=org.sshtunnel you fill in the login details for your Linux box and once the app is enabled you have instant (TCP only) encrypted networking. :)

Richard S.

Edited March 21, 2013 by redhawkuk