Tag: open vpn

How do I configure and use OpenVPN for my android smartphone?

OpenVPN-SpiderVPN

To connect OpenVPN for Android smartphone, you need to download and install OpenVPN client, for example Spider VPN. To install OpenVPN, do you know what is OpenVPN and how does it work? OpenVPN is one of the open source software, and anyone can make use this software. And, anyone can modify the function of OpenVPN. When it comes to security, one of the most commonly used VPN software among people is OpenVPN.

Due to its features like extensive support and easy to use, this OpenVPN is widely used by many of them in the world.

How does OpenVPN work?

The OpenVPN works on the client and server that means OpenVPN server connected to the internet and all client computer, mobile, and laptop device that has OpenVPN software can access the internet through the OpenVPN server.

When you’re accessing the internet, all information from internet comes in the form of encrypted manner and vice versa for sending information. In this way, the OpenVPN server provides protection for user’s information.

I hope, from this, you know about OpenVPN and how it works right!! Now, let’s see how to use OpenVPN on Android phone.

How to configure and use OpenVPN on your Android smartphone?

As I said before, to use OpenVPN on your phone, you need to download and install OpenVPN client. First of all, you need to download VPN configuration file for your phone and simply follow the below steps to download VPN configuration files.

Step #1:

Open your mobile browser to look for your VPN configuration files and download it. Your VPN configuration will be named as UIC-netID.ovpn and saved in the default storage directory.

Step #2:

Go to your android google play store and search for the app called ‘OpenVPN client. And, download this app and install it on your phone.

Step #3:

Now, continue the process that mentioned in the first step and find the downloaded configuration VPN file and open it. When you open this configuration file, it will automatically open the OpenVPN.

If it doesn’t open OpenVPN connect automatically, then no problem, open it manually and import the downloaded configuration file. And then continue the following steps.

Step #4:

The OpenVPN connect open the window and ask you to accept the connection. So, click ‘accept’ option to connect OpenVPN.

Step #5:

After that, it shows another window with username and password. Here, enter your username and password. And then, click the connect button.

Step #6:

Now, a small pop-up window appears and asks you about trust this or not. So, choose I trust this application option and click the ok button.

Step #7:

If the OpenVPN is connected, then it shows green mark, and also you will get two notifications about the OpenVPN activation.

That’s all!! Open VPN for Android smartphone is configured and as well as connected to use.

It is very easy to disconnect the OpenVPN; by just open it and click Disconnect button on the window.

Spider VPN on Amazon

ic_launcher_spidervpn_play_marketNow Spider VPN is available on Amazon.com .

Spider VPN is a secure vpn service for Android. Open vpn is the best way to bypass Internet censorship.

VPN masks your real IP address and encrypts all your traffic.

With Spider VPN you can avoid Internet filtering and access any restricted website.

Unblock Skype, Viber, Facebook, Youtube and others blocked sites fast and easy with Spider VPN.

You can try it right now for free!

TRY-IT-FREE-BUTTON

Which VPN Protocol is the best? PPTP vs. OpenVPN vs. L2TP/IPsec vs. SSTP

vpn types

PPTP VPN Protocol

Point-to-point tunneling protocol is common and easy to set up. PPTP clients are built into many platforms, including Windows. It is said that this type of vpn protocol is not very secure.

Open VPN vs PPTP VPN 

SSL or OpenVPN

OpenVPN uses open-source technologies like the OpenSSL encryption library and SSL v3/TLS v1 protocols. It can be configured to run on any port, so you could configure a server to work over TCP port 443. The OpenSSL VPN traffic would then be practically indistinguishable from standard HTTPS traffic that occurs when you connect to a secure website. This makes it difficult to block completely.

It’s very configurable, and will be most secure if it’s set to use AES encryption instead of the weaker Blowfish encryption. OpenVPN has become a popular standard. We’ve seen no serious concerns that anyone (including the NSA) has compromised OpenVPN connections.

OpenVPN support isn’t integrated into popular desktop or mobile operating systems. Connecting to an OpenVPN network requires a a third-party application — either a desktop application or a mobile app. Yes, you can even use mobile apps to connect to OpenVPN networks on Apple’s iOS.

OpenVPN is new and secure, although you will need to install a third-party application.

L2TP/IPsec

Layer 2 Tunnel Protocol is a VPN protocol that doesn’t offer any encryption. That’s why it’s usually implemented along with IPsec encryption. As it’s built into modern desktop operating systems and mobile devices, it’s fairly easy to implement. But it uses UDP port 500 — that means it can’t be disguised on another port, like OpenVPN can. It’s thus much easier to block and harder to get around firewalls with.

IPsec encryption should be secure, theoretically. There are some concerns that the NSA could have weakened the standard, but no one knows for sure. Either way, this is a slower solution than OpenVPN. The traffic must be converted into L2TP form, and then encryption added on top with IPsec. It’s a two-step process.

L2TP/IPsec is theoretically secure, but there are some concerns. It’s easy to set up, but has trouble getting around firewalls and isn’t as efficient as OpenVPN.

SSTP

Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol was introduced in Windows Vista Service Pack 1. It’s a proprietary Microsoft protocol, and is best supported on Windows. It may be more stable on Windows because it’s integrated into the operating system whereas OpenVPN isn’t — that’s the biggest potential advantage. Some support for it is available on other operating systems, but it’s nowhere near as widespread.

It can be configured to use very secure AES encryption, which is good. For Windows users, it’s certainly better than PPTP — but, as it’s a proprietary protocol, it isn’t subject to the independent audits OpenVPN is subject to. Because it uses SSL v3 like OpenVPN, it has similar abilities to bypass firewalls and should work better for this than L2TP/IPsec or PPTP.

It’s like OpenVPN, but mostly just for Windows and can’t be audited as fully.

Use Open vpn from Spider!

 

Pros and Cons of Open VPN Technology

OpenVPN

If you want to browse the Internet anonymously and simply being secured online, VPN (Virtual Private Network) is without a doubt the best choice. As compared to other methods, VPN offers encrypted web traffic which protects you from undesirable third party. However, there are many types of VPN, and Open VPN is only one of them.

In layman’s term, Open VPN is an open source software application that provides secured virtual connection between two computers at different locations. To achieve secured connection, it uses the OpenSSL encryption library along with other strong security features. Despite being fairly new, it is one of the most preferred VPN protocol.

But before you decide to use it to secure your Internet connection, below are some of the major advantages and disadvantages of Open VPN.

 pros-and-cons

Pros of Open VPN:

 Strong encryption

Open VPN is known for having a strong encryption, which is considerably better against the NSA (National Security Agency). The OpenSSL encryption library supports a number of cryptographic algorithms including the AES which is known for almost no weakness at all.

 Highly reliable

 Besides being secured, Open VPN is highly reliable, thanks to its capability of allowing for repair or reconfiguration even if the network is down. This means that no drop of packets which means no data will be lost once there is a corruption during the communication.

Works with DD-WRT routers

 This is a great advantage if you want to run your local network on a single VPN account. To be able to achieve this, you will need a DD-WRT supporting router. Thiif done correctly, this free Linux-based firmware upgrade allows you to share a single VPN connection.

 Great community support

 This is pretty obvious because of the extreme popularity of Open VPN. And because it is an open source application, it can be easily be modified. This is why you can easily get support from other users around the globe. And yes, it is very much applicable to mobile phones.

We can recommend a great Open VPN for Android – Spider VPN.

 Cons of Open VPN

 Software required

You will need third party software before you can use Open VPN. You will need it for the authentication of the VPN server. If you are not a techie guy, this might be a problem to you. Although it is pretty easy to install, you might find it complicated to use if you are a beginner.

Possibility of High Latency

In terms of Internet, latency is the time delay of the response in the network, and is therefore a waste of time and can be annoying if you playing online games. And because of the high load in Open VPN, you might encounter this problem depending on your location of your access.

There are other disadvantages of Open VPN, but they are considerably minor. For example, it is quite slower than PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) and L2TP/IPSec. Some user also note that Open VPN for desktop computers is better than for mobile devices. However, if you are really concern with security and reliability, then you should choose Open VPN.

 

Original: http://sahrzad.net/blog/pros-and-cons-of-open-vpn-technology/

5 Advantages of OpenVPN (Spider VPN)

Advantages of Open VPN

VPN (Virtual Private Network) has been proven to be the best way to browse the web anonymously. Besides being flexible, it is by far more secured than other similar technologies. With VPN, web traffic is encrypted which means no third party can easily intercept your data. Mobile users are protected when they are in a public Wi-Fi zone or a in a country with strict Internet policies. VPN offers different security protocols to choose from, and Open VPN is one of them. Here are some of its notable advantages:

1. Very easy to install and use

Released in 2002, this OpenVPN open-source software is very easy install and use. You can install it on a server and client on any platform (such as Linux, Windows, Mac OS X, and others) without restrictions. OpenVPN server waits until a client submits a request for connection, and the client establishes the connection according to the given configuration. Despite requiring you to download and setup additional configuration files, it does not come as a burden as there are tons of tutorials available.

2. Offers high level of security

OpenVPN offers various security features as such as peer authentication, digital certifications, and very strong encryption standards. It uses security protocols from the OpenSSL encryption library and SSL v3/TLS v1 protocol. The cryptographic algorithms (e.g. AES, Blowfish, 3DES, CAST-128, etc) being used are known to have no serious security issues from any party, including the NSA (National Security Agency). The 128-bit Blowfish is OpenVPN’s default cipher, but the newer AES provides more security.

 3. Highly configurable and flexible

 OpenVPN is highly configurable as compared to other security protocols. It can be set to run on any port, but is known to run best at TCP port 443. This makes OpenVPN traffic harder to distinguish and block as compared to the traffic from the HTTPS websites. During connection set up, OpenVPN also offers numerous points making it very flexible to all kinds of users. Connections can be tunneled through almost every available proxy and firewall, thus providing additional protection for field workers.

4. Great community support

OpenVPN requires you to download a third party app, but support from the community is great. Due to its popularity, it has already acquired a huge amount of fans all over the world. Not to mention, OpenVPN network can be connected on mobile devices and works well on various operating software such as Apple’s iOS and Android. And because it is an open source, source code is readily available and is free for modification. In short, receiving support is never a problem for OpenVPN users.

 5. Highly reliable

With OpenVPN, there is no data loss even if the system goes down. Instead, the network stops so that repair and reconfiguration can be done immediately. This feature also serves as an additional security measure. OpenVPN is also considered as the most stable and reliable VPN protocol on wireless routers, non-reliable networks, as well as on Wi-Fi zones. When it comes to speed, it is notably fast even on far distances and connections with high latency. This is why many VPN providers are offering it.