Cannot Use Tunnel on windows 10

Services Librem One
1

I tried to setup Tunnel using the standard Windows 10 VPN. I went to https://librem.one/api/v1/user/tunnel_account and obtained the credentials. I also downloaded the https://librem.one/public/certificate.ovpn.

However, when I try to configure the Windows 10 VPN, I cannot connect. I reviewed the Librem FAQs and do not see any Windows 10 tips for setup.

Can anyone who successfully configured Tunnel on windows 10 help?

2

Isn’t it for Linux OS only?

3

Which client application you used on Windows 10? Openvpn?

4

I tried using the Windows 10 VPN–this is the built-in app.

5

I never used windows 10 on my machine, but from a quick search seems that the Windows 10 built in application does not support the OpenVPN protocol.

https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/all/why-does-windows-10-not-natively-support-openvpn/824d43a3-ff10-4aa8-a66e-e2e0860e45f2

You can install the openvpn application for windows and setup the VPN there;

6

No, it can be used in different platforms

7

Librem.ONE Tunnel can be used on Windows 10. As Joao correctly points out, the native Windows 10 VPN (Start…Network Connections…VPN) does not currently support Tunnel (November 2019).

As Joao suggests along with the correct links, you must install the Community version of OpenVPN on Windows 10. (For new OpenVPN users, there are commercial and community versions of OpenVPN. I used the COMMUNITY version of the client.

Thus, as of November 2019, the steps to setup Tunnel on a Windows 10 platform are:

  1. Download, verify, and install the community-version of OpenVPN client.
  2. Login to your Librem.ONE account.
  3. Go to https://librem.one/api/v1/user/tunnel_account and obtain the TUNNEL-specific login credentials which differ from your normal login. Keep this window open and handy.
  4. Download and save the https://librem.one/public/certificate.ovpn file. This is the certificate config file for the OpenVPN client.
  5. Open OpenVPN client. The first time you might get an error message. Just click cancel and close the client. Then re-open the client. You may get a message then saying that OpenVPN is already running.
  6. Go to your system tray and right-click the OpenVPN icon.
  7. Select IMPORT FILE… and import the certficate.ovpn file that you just downloaded from Librem.ONE. You should get an import successful message.
  8. Now, the username and password for the OpenVPN client are the Tunnel-specific, long username and passphrase strings downloaded above. Enter these, not your normal Librem.ONE credentials, as the username and passphrase.
  9. Go to system tray, right-click on the OpenVPN icon, and select CONNECT… . You may be prompted for your login credentials (again, use the Tunnel-specific materials and not your normal login). You should be connected via the Tunnel VPN (the OpenVPN system tray icon goes from an outline to filled with green). The OpenVPN client briefly displays the connection transaction in a pseudo terminal window.

Note: when connected via the VPN, I still have problems using my standard SMTP servers (even if they do NOT use port 25) and cannot send email. A temporary work-around for SMTP was to reconfigure (Thunderbird for example), to use the Librem.ONE SMTP servers instead.

3 Likes
8

The SMTP issue was quickly fixed by Purism. If you use your own SMTP server, Purism support simply must whitelist the service before SMTP works. SMTP now works fine.

9

I am aghast as to why this would happen if you do not use port 25. That sounds very unpleasant to me. ?!?!

Perhaps a workaround is to use SMTP over TLS (implicit if need be).