1. Insert and boot from your WindowsXP CD.
2. At the first R=Repair option, press the R key
3. Press the number that corresponds to the correct location for the installation of Windows you want to repair.
   Typically this will be #1
4. Enter in the administrator password when requested
5. cd \windows\system32\config
6. Depending on which section was corrupted:
   ren software software.bad or ren system system.bad
7. Depending on which section was corrupted
   copy \windows\repair\system
   copy \windows\repair\software
8. Take out the CD ROM and type exit

WARNING: Using Registry Editor incorrectly can cause serious, system-wide problems that may require you to reinstall Windows NT to correct them. Microsoft cannot guarantee that any problems resulting from the use of Registry Editor can be solved. Use this tool at your own risk.

1. Start Registry Editor (REGEDT32.EXE) and go to the following subkey:
   

   HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip
   \Parameters

2. From the Edit menu, choose Add Value.
3. Enter the following values:
   

   Value Name: IpEnableRouter
   Data Type: REG_DWORD
   Value: 1

4. Exit Registry Editor and restart Windows NT.

Incoming search terms:

• ip routing disabled (1)

1. Install VMware Tools

To start, VMware Tools needs to be installed in your Virtual Machine. That should at least be from vSphere version 4.0.

2. Update your Graphics Drivers

Go to your Hardware Manager in Windows and right click your Display Adapter. Choose Update Driver Software.

Say you’ll browse to a specific location and point it to C:\Program Files\Common Files\VMware\Drivers\wddm_video.

Et voila: your driver has been updated!

3. Reboot your VM

After the driver’s been installed, reboot your Virtual Machine and you will notice the smooth console access you’re used to from Windows Server 2003.

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• esx windows 2008 black console (1)
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    Error: “The network location cannot be reached. “

The most likely cause is that Host Headers for that particular site are configured for an IP address which is either no longer configured on the server, or on which IIS is no longer listening. I’m just going to assume you know how to check if an IP is configured on a server.

To check whether IIS service is listening on a particular IP, you’ll need the Windows Server Support Tools (hit google for another version if you should need it). After the installation, can you use the following Command Prompt tools.

> httpcfg query iplisten
IP                      : 10.1.5.200

If your IP address isn’t present, try adding it.

> httpcfg set iplisten -i 10.1.5.201
HttpSetServiceConfiguration completed with 0.

And query the list again.

> httpcfg query iplisten
IP                      : 10.1.5.200
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
IP                      : 10.1.5.201
------------------------------------------------------------------------------

If it does not work after the httpcfg change, you may have to reboot your server (I know, it sucks). For some reason, restarting IIS alone may not always help.

A very likely cause is that something else was occupying port 80 already when the IIS service started, causing it to delete that particular listen IP from it’s configuration. To track that down, use netstat.

> netstat -anb | find “80″

That will list all connections or programs listening to port 80.

Incoming search terms:

• network location cannot be reached rootkit (2)
• network location cannot be reached (1)

503 Service Unavailable

You can fix this problem as follows.

Login to your vmware server as root user.

Type the following command to turn on the service:
# chkconfig vmware-webAccess on
# service vmware-webAccess start

Now login as root to your server:

Fig.01: vSphere Web Access Login In Action

Once logged in you can setup guest operating systems, start and stop vms and so on. This can be done using any browser under Linux / OS X or Windows operating systems:

Fig.02: vSphere Web Access in Action

Alternatively, you can use MS-Windows vSphere client to start and stop vSphere web access services without using shell prompt.

Incoming search terms:

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• how do i generate a 503 service unavailable cpanel (1)
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• determine optimal scsi timeout rhel5 (1)

How do I find out if a given PCI hardware is supported of by the current CentOS / Debian / RHEL / Fedora Linux kernel?

You can easily find out find out if a given piece of PCI hardware such as RAID, network, sound, graphics card is supported or not by the current Linux kernel using the following utilities under any Linux distributions.

Required Tools

1. /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.pcimap : This file is automatically generated by depmod, and used by pcimodules command to determine which modules correspond to which PCI ID’s. You need to use this file to find out if driver is supported or not.
2. lspci command – list and query all PCI devices connected to the system.

Use lspci Command To List All PCI Devices

Will an Intel Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller Card be taken care of by a Linux kernel 2.6.27-11-server?
$ lspci
$ lspci | grep -i audio
Sample Output:

00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)

Note down the identifier in first field i.e. 00:1b.0. Now use lspci -n as follows to get result for device 00:1b.0.
$ lspci -n | grep 00:1b.0
Sample Output:

00:1b.0 0403: 8086:27d8 (rev 01)

Where,

• 00:1b.0 – Device
• 8086 – constructor code for Intel Corporation
• 27d8 – The model id.

Use the model id to search driver, as follows:
$ grep 27d8 /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.pcimap
Sample Output:

snd-hda-intel        0x00008086 0x000027d8 0xffffffff 0xffffffff 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0

snd-hda-intel is kernel driver handling PCI audio device. You can get more information about this driver by typing the following:
$ modinfo snd-hda-intel
$ modinfo snd-hda-intel| egrep 'description|filename|depends'
Sample Output:

filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.27-11-server/kernel/sound/pci/hda/snd-hda-intel.ko
description:    Intel HDA driver
depends:        snd-pcm,snd-page-alloc,snd

Another example – Will an Adaptec AAC-RAID SCSI SA Card work with Linux kernel v2.6.18-128.1.10.el5 (CentOS / RHEL 5 kernel)?

Type the following commands:
$ lspci | grep -i RAID
Output:

07:0e.0 RAID bus controller: Adaptec AAC-RAID

Get device id:
$ lspci -n | grep '07:0e.0'
Output:

07:0e.0 0104: 9005:0285

Search for device id to driver mapping:
$ grep 0285 /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/modules.pcimap
Output:

aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000286 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000287 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x000017aa 0x00000286 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x000017aa 0x00000287 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000288 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000289 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x0000028a 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x0000028b 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x000002a4 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x000002a5 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x0000028e 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x0000028f 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000290 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00001028 0x00000291 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000292 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000293 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000294 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x0000103c 0x00003227 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000296 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000297 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00001014 0x000002f2 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00001014 0x00000312 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000298 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x00000299 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00009005 0x0000029a 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00001028 0x00000287 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x00001028 0xffffffff 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0x000017aa 0xffffffff 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
aacraid              0x00009005 0x00000285 0xffffffff 0xffffffff 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0
ata_piix             0x00008086 0x00002850 0xffffffff 0xffffffff 0x00000000 0x00000000 0x0

Get detailed information about aacraid driver:
$ modinfo aacraid | egrep 'description|filename|depends'
Output:

filename: filename:       /lib/modules/2.6.18-128.1.10.el5/kernel/drivers/scsi/aacraid/aacraid.ko
description:    Dell PERC2, 2/Si, 3/Si, 3/Di, Adaptec Advanced Raid Products, HP NetRAID-4M, IBM ServeRAID & ICP SCSI driver
depends:        scsi_mod

Task: Show kernel drivers handling each device and also kernel modules capable of handling it

Pass the -k option (works with latest lspci version only):
$ lspci -k
Sample Output:

00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82975X Memory Controller Hub
	Kernel modules: i82975x_edac
00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82975X PCI Express Root Port
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) High Definition Audio Controller (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: HDA Intel
	Kernel modules: snd-hda-intel
00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: pcieport-driver
	Kernel modules: shpchp
00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: uhci_hcd
	Kernel modules: uhci-hcd
00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ehci_hcd
	Kernel modules: ehci-hcd
00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1)
00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01)
	Kernel modules: intel-rng, iTCO_wdt
00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
	Kernel modules: ata_piix
00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) SATA IDE Controller (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: ata_piix
	Kernel modules: ata_piix
00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01)
	Kernel driver in use: i801_smbus
	Kernel modules: i2c-i801
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation Quadro FX 570 (rev a1)
	Kernel driver in use: nvidia
	Kernel modules: nvidia, nvidiafb
03:00.0 SATA controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88SE6145 SATA II PCI-E controller (rev a1)
	Kernel driver in use: pata_marvell
	Kernel modules: ahci, pata_marvell
04:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: e1000e
	Kernel modules: e1000e
04:00.3 Serial controller: Intel Corporation Active Management Technology - SOL (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: serial
04:00.4 IPMI SMIC interface: Intel Corporation 82573E KCS (Active Management) (rev 03)
05:02.0 Ethernet controller: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88w8335 [Libertas] 802.11b/g Wireless (rev 03)
	Kernel driver in use: ndiswrapper
05:04.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
	Kernel driver in use: ohci1394
	Kernel modules: ohci1394

Task: Lists all driver modules for all currently plugged in PCI devices

Type the pcimodules command (again you need updated pciutils package):
$ pcimodules
Sample Output:

ohci1394
ipmi_si
e1000e
ahci
pata_marvell
nvidia
nvidiafb
i2c-i801
ata_piix
ata_generic
pata_acpi
ata_piix
ata_generic
pata_acpi
intel-rng
iTCO_wdt
ehci-hcd
uhci-hcd
shpchp
snd-hda-intel
shpchp
i82975x_edac

Task: Update pci.ids Database

/usr/share/hwdata/pci.ids file is all known ID’s used in PCI devices: ID’s of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. You can update this database by typing the following command at a shell prompt:
$ update-pciids

Suggested Readings:

1. Linux – lspci command to list and find out more information about all PCI devices.
2. Linux find out or display IDs for adapters installed in a server
3. Linux find out my VIDEO Card Memory RAM size using command line utility
4. The PCI Utilities – The PCI Utilities are a collection of programs for inspecting and manipulating configuration of PCI devices, all based on a common portable library libpci which offers access to the PCI configuration space on a variety of operating systems.
5. The PCI ID Repository – This is a public repository of all known ID’s used in PCI devices: ID’s of vendors, devices, subsystems and device classes. It is used in various programs (e.g., The PCI Utilities) to display full human-readable names instead of cryptic numeric codes.
6. man pages lspci, update-pciids, and pcimodules

smbclient -M <WINDOW-SYSTEM-NAME> <<EOF
Message
Message
…
..
…
When the message is complete, press Control-D.

Send message to Windows system from Linux/ FreeBSD

To send a message “Meeting canceled” to windows system called joyxp
$ smbclient -M joyxp <<EOF
Output:

Meeting canceled
See you at coffee house in 2 hrs.
--Vivek
EOF

With –U you can specify the username.
$ smbclient -M myxp -U VIVEK <<EOF
Meeting cancelled
See you at coffee house in 2 hrs.
EOF

This tip also works with Linux and other UNIX variant with Samba client utilities package. Read man page of smbclient for more information.
man smbclient

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• linux command send network message (1)
• messages linux windows (1)
• samba server (1)
• smbclient send message to wondows (1)

We compared Windows vs. Linux by examining the following metrics in the 40 most recent patches/vulnerabilities listed for Microsoft Windows Server 2003 vs. Red Hat Enterprise Linux AS v.3:

1. The severity of security vulnerabilities, derived from the following metrics:
1.1 damage potential (how much damage is possible?)
1.2. exploitation potential (how easy is it to exploit?)
1.3. exposure potential (what kind of access is necessary to exploit the vulnerability?)
2. The number of critically severe vulnerabilities

The results were not unexpected. Even by Microsoft’s subjective and flawed standards, fully 38% of the most recent patches address flaws that Microsoft ranks as Critical. Only 10% of Red Hat’s patches and alerts address flaws of Critical severity. These results are easily demonstrated to be generous to Microsoft and arguably harsh with Red Hat, since the above results are based on Microsoft’s ratings rather than our more stringent application of the security metrics. If we were to apply our own metrics, it would increase the number of Critical flaws in Windows Server 2003 to 50%.

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• linux vs windows which is most secure (1)
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• system service psa centos (2)
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• mdaemon plesk (1)
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• how to install mdaemon on plesk (1)

Although originally developed for Linux, OpenVPN is now widely used for providing VPN services for Windows clients. This document describes how we install and configure OpenVPN to work in a Microsoft Windows only environment.

Prerequisites

This how to assumes that you have various things already set up:

OpenVPN Server

You need a Windows system to act as the OpenVPN server. This can be a Windows 2000/2003 Server or 2000/XP Professional system.

OpenVPN Clients

One or more OpenVPN client systems. These should be Windows 2000/XP Professional, although 2000/2003 server should work equally well.

Networking

The OpenVPN server system needs to be publically reachable on UDP port 1194 (you can use another port if required but this is the standard port for OpenVPN). If the server is behind a NAT router then this will require address/port forwarding.

It’s preferable for the server IP address to be static as this makes things more stable. If your server has a dynamic IP address then you will need to use a dynamic DNS service to provide a fixed hostname.

All systems should have an unfiltered Internet connection, or at least one that allows communication on UDP port 1194. It is possible to run OpenVPN through through more restrictive connections (e.g. a proxy server), but this is outside the scope of this article.

Names and addresses

The names and addresses used in this how to are examples only and should be changed to suit your environment.

• Company Name: Acme Corp.
• Public Domain Name: acme.com
• Private (Windows) Domain Name: acme.com.local
• Server Hostname: widget
• LAN address: 192.168.0.0/24
• Server public address: 1.2.3.4
• Server private address: 192.168.0.1
• VPN address: 10.8.0.0/24

Software

OpenVPN

We generally use the OpenVPN GUI package on Windows systems rather than the stock package, as this provides a system tray icon for controlling the application:

http://openvpn.se/download.html

Server Configuration

Install OpenVPN

OpenVPN GUI can be installed with default options (certificate wizard is not needed). Near the end of the install it will add a TAP-Win32 virtual adapter that is not signed, you need to tell Windows to install this as requested.

Once the installation is complete, you will need to create additional TAP-Win32 virtual adapters using the shortcut in the OpenVPN program group. One adapter is needed for each concurrent VPN user. Rename these adapters to “OpenVPN #n” where n is the adapter number. This is cosmetic only but helps identification.

Configure OpenVPN

Create the server configuration file in the OpenVPN config folder (c:\program files\openvpn\config\)

## server.ovpn ##
port 1194
proto udp
dev tun
ca ca.crt
cert widget.crt
key widget.key
dh dh1024.pem
server 10.8.0.0 255.255.255.0
ifconfig-pool-persist ipp.txt
push "route 192.168.0.0 255.255.255.0"
push "dhcp-option WINS 192.168.0.1"
push "dhcp-option DNS 192.168.0.1"
push "dhcp-option DOMAIN acme.com.local"
keepalive 10 120
comp-lzo
max-clients 4
persist-key
persist-tun
status openvpn-status.log
verb 3

Values in italics should be changed to suit your environment.

In this example the max-clients has been set to 4, which would require 3 additional TAP-Win32 virtual adapters to be created.

Set up a Certificate Authority (CA)

You need a Certificate Authority (CA) to sign your client and server certificates. The easy-rsa scripts make this pretty straightforward.

First we need to initialise easy-rsa. You should only do this once as it will wipe out any existing certificates, keys and settings.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> init-config

Next edit vars.bat and change the “KEY_” settings at the bottom of the file.

set KEY_COUNTRY=GB
set KEY_PROVINCE=London
set KEY_CITY=London
set KEY_ORG=Acme
set KEY_EMAIL=hostmaster@acme.com

Finally create the keys folder and the root certificate itself.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> vars
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> clean-all
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> build-ca

You will be asked to enter some details for the root certificate. Most of these will default to the values that you entered into vars.bat, but you will need to choose a “Common Name” for the certificate.

Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:Administrator

Keys and certificates are created in the keys subfolder. The ca.crt file (root certificate) should be copied to the OpenVPN config folder.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\ca.crt ..\config\

Important: Key files (.key) are very sensitive and should be kept safe and never sent over insecure (unencrypted) channels. The Certificate Authority key (ca.key) is particularly important – if it is lost or comprimised then you will have to replace all your keys and certificates.

Set up server key and certificate

Once the CA has been set up, we can generate a key and certificate for the server.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> vars
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> build-key-server widget

Executing the vars.bat is not necessary if you do this straight after creating the CA because the environment will still be set (but it doesn’t hurt).

As with generating the root certificate, most of the details will default to the correct values but you will need to enter a “Common Name”. This is best set to the hostname of the server.

Common Name (eg, your name or your server's hostname) []:widget.acme.com.local

You can leave the challange password and optional company name blank.

The server also needs Diffie Hellman parameters.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> build-dh

This may take a while…

Finally copy the key, certificate and DH file to the OpenVPN config folder.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\widget.crt ..\config\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\widget.key ..\config\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\dh1024.pem ..\config\

Setup VPN routing

Routing on the server should be enabled by enabling LAN routing in the Routing and Remote Access service, however we’ve found that this causes problems with the OpenVPN service so I would not recommend it. Instead use regedit to set the IPEnableRouter registry key to 1.

Key: HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Services\Tcpip\Parameters
Value: IPEnableRouter
Type: REG_DWORD
Data: 0x00000001 (1)

To allow VPN clients to communicate with systems on the LAN (other than the VPN server), you need to add the VPN network to your router(s) configuration. For a simple stub network you would do this by adding a static route to the default gateway to direct traffic for 10.8.0.0/24 to the server.

Network: 10.8.0.0
Subnet Mask: 255.255.255.0
Next Hop Address: 192.168.0.1

To do this with on an IPCop firewall, add a line to the /etc/rc.d/rc.local file.

 #!/bin/sh
 /sbin/route add -net 10.8.0.0/24 gw 192.168.0.1

You can also add this route at the command line to avoid rebooting the router.

root@ipcop:~ # route add -net 10.8.0.0/24 gw 192.168.0.1

Finishing touches

We like to create a batch file called restartvpn.cmd in the OpenVPN config folder (and desktop shortcut) to restart the OpenVPN service in case it gets stuck.

net stop openvpnservice
net start openvpnservice

Configure the OpenVPN service to start automatically on boot using the services applet, and then start the service.

Client Configuration

Install OpenVPN

Again the OpenVPN GUI can be installed with default options.

I like to rename the TAP-Win32 (in Network connections) adapter to “OpenVPN”. This is cosmetic only but helps identification.

Configure OpenVPN

Create the client configuration file in the OpenVPN config folder (c:\program files\openvpn\config\).

## acme.ovpn ##
client
proto udp
dev tun
remote 1.2.3.4 1194
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ca ca.crt
cert fred.crt
key fred.key
comp-lzo
verb 3

Values in italics should be changed to suit your environment.

In this example we assume that the name of the client is “Fred“.

Set up client key and certificate

We will generate client keys and certificates on the server, which means you have to be careful to securely transport the client key to the client machine. To avoid this you could generate the key on the client along with a Certificate Signing Request (CSR) which can then be transported to the server where it is signed to create the certificate, however this is beyond the scope of this document.

Generate the client key and certificate on the OpenVPN server machine.

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> vars
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> build-key fred

Then copy the client key and certificate along with the root certificate securely to the config folder on the client machine. The simplest way of doing this is to just put the files on a USB key (or floppy disk).

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\fred.crt a:\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\fred.key a:\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy keys\ca.crt a:\

Then on the client machine

C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy a:\fred.crt ..\config\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy a:\fred.key ..\config\
C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\easy-rsa> copy a:\ca.crt ..\config\

Test

Right click the OpenVPN tray icon and select “Connect”. It will open a status window showing the connection progress, and if everything is working ok then the status window should close and the icon should turn green.

To test the connection, try pinging 10.8.0.1 (the server VPN IP address), 192.168.0.1 (the server LAN IP address), the address of a PC on the remote LAN (e.g. 192.168.0.123), and then try pinging devices by name.

c:\> ping 10.8.0.1

c:\> ping 192.168.0.1

c:\> ping 192.168.0.123

c:\> ping widget

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