Using OpenVPN on Windows Vista

Filed Under Software, Windows

Well, thanks to the long holidays I finally had time to give the Vista release a spin. For the purpose I used my company laptop - a Lifebook T4210 tablet PC. Since i was tempted to switch to Vista completely and wipe out the old XP, I had to prove that all the tools I need for my job will work. One of the most important was OpenVPN, since this is what we use to access our network.

The straightforward approach (simply installing and running it) did not work, since OpenVPN was failing to adjust my routing table. It uses an API (IPAPI) that does not work, even if I “Run as Administrator” it. Fortunately OpenVPN has an option to set routes by executing route.exe (route-method exe), which does the trick. Also, OpenVPN should be run as Administrator, which ruled out the option of using its own right-click menu “Start OpenVPN on this config file”. What i found works best is:

  1. Add to your .ovpn file the following two lines:
    route-method exe
    route-delay 2
  2. Create a one-line .BAT file to run openvpn on your .ovpn config file like this
    “C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\bin\openvpn.exe” [PATH_TO_OVPN_FILE]
  3. To start the VPN, right click on the bat file and choose “Run as Administrator“

Enjoy.

Post Linx
Permalink | Trackback | | Print This Page | 4 Comments