Add your server hostname and your VPN username.

Set «Interface» to VPN, select «PPTP» as VPN Type and put a cool name in «Service Name».

It saves the current rules on installation only.) Set up the client (Mac OS X) (It’s important that you install this package after applying the iptables rule. Install iptables-persistant to load the iptables rule on reboot: $ apt-get install iptables-persistant Edit the file /etc/nf and make sure these lines are in it: _forward=1Įnable masquerading with iptables: $ iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth0 -j MASQUERADE Start the PPTP server: $ service pptpd restartĮnable the «forwarding» system parameter so you actually can connect to anything but the VPN server itself. Another good option might be the public DNS servers 208.67.222.222 and 208.67.220.220 from OpenDNS. You may of course use the ones provided by your VPS host insted. Add one per line like this: ms-dns 8.8.8.8 Specifically the ms-dns option(s) which is the DNS server(s) the clients should use. Next you need to edit /etc/ppp/pptpd-options. This file has four columns: «client» which is the username for the VPN login (does not have to be a system account), «server» which should be «pptdp», «secret» which is the plaintext password (eek! I know), and «IP addresses» is the remote IP addresses which are allowed to connect. Now edit /etc/ppp/chap-secrets # Secrets for authentication using CHAP If you for some reason already use the 10.0.0.0 net on your local network, use another private IP net, like 192.168.123.0 (replace “10.0.0.” with “192.168.123.” in the command above). You will most likely do good with these values: $ echo -e 'localip 10.0.0.1 remoteip 10.0.0.100-200' > /etc/nf This is the IP address the server will be using and the IP address range it will assign to the clients.

Install PPTP $ apt-get install pptpdĪdd the IP config for the VPN to /etc/nf. I got myself a cheap US$5/month VPS (1 core, 512MB RAM) and followed my own guide for getting your VPS up and running. I wanted an encrypted connection to a more trusted peer.

I’m frequently using open, untrusted WiFis.This is cool when it comes to security, but not so cool when it comes to accessability when I’m not at the office. I’m accessing several services that are IP-restricted.There are many reasons for getting your own VPN. OpenVPN offers a little better security, but is a little more hassle to setup and use. PPTP is pretty quick to setup and works out of the box with most (all?) OSes and devices. When it comes to VPNs, there is the choice between PPTP and OpenVPN.

Setup pptp connection