HOWTO: Connect to a Microsoft PPTP VPN

[chiefofthejojos]

I am VERY pleased with this program! It's so nice to finally have my home desktop connecting to the VPN! One question:
I set it up so that it starts tunneling as soon as pptpconfig is opened. Can anyone think of a good way to start tunneling on startup of the computer?
That would be the icing on the cake.

[chiefofthejojos]

There's a very nice tutorial at http://pptpclient.sourceforge.net/howto-debian.phtml that helped me get set up to automatically start tunneling and add routes when my machine starts up. The howto is geard toward debian, but it seems to directly translate to ubuntu. Since I already created a tunnel using the gui it was mostly done for me. In order to connect to the vpn at startup all I had to do was add the following to the /etc/network/interfaces file:
auto ppp0
iface ppp0 inet ppp
provider myprovider
Where ppp0 is the name of the network interface (like eth0) and myprovider is the name created using pptpconfig to represent this connection.

However, adding routes to enable me to see all the computers in the remote network proved more difficult. I tried adding "route add" statements to the /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/myprovider file, but that wasn't working. "run-parts /etc/ppp/ip-up.d" returned:
run-parts: failed to exec /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/myprovider: Exec format error
run-parts: /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/myprovider exited with return code 1
So, I put the "route add" statements directly into the /etc/ppp/ip-up file for now, and it works great. If anyone has any ideas what might be causing this problem, please suggest them. Oh, the contents of my myprovider file:
#!/bin/sh
route add ...
route add ...
Thanks!

[ubuntunooob]

This is awesome. Major barrier to me converting my home PC. Only other problem for me - how to specify an IP address for the connection? Under Windows, I would specify an IP address under the tcp/ip setttings. I don't see that option here. Basically, VPN server assigns IP addy via DHCP. When I'm in the office, trying to connect back home, I want to be able to know what my VPN ip address is, so I can always map to it or tsc (vnc) in back home. Any ideas?

[Balachmar]

I have tried connecting with vpnc, but that doesn't seem to work. Now I'm trying this, and it does seem to connect, but it creates a network loop or something. And it is sending bytes like crazy, and my processor is loaded heavily. This is the route table:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
131.155.14.99 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
192.168.2.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
0.0.0.0 192.168.2.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

And it breaks after a minute or so.
What do I do wrong?

[chiefofthejojos]

I'm not sure, but that first line looks kind of funky, panticularly the part where the genmask is 255.255.255.255. I think it should be 255.255.255.0. Is that a manually added route or did the gui add that?

[chiefofthejojos]

Has anybody here successfully set up a VPN tunnel to thier office and actually viewed files on their work network? Could one of you explain how you did it?

Yes, I have. Simply open nautilus and hit ctrl+L. Type in smb:// followed by the full domain name or ip address of any machine on the vpn and press enter. A little dialog should pop up asking for your username/domain name and password. Fill these in correctly and your golden!

[Balachmar]

I'm not sure, but that first line looks kind of funky, panticularly the part where the genmask is 255.255.255.255. I think it should be 255.255.255.0. Is that a manually added route or did the gui add that?

I guess it is something the GUI added, since I didn't do anything with the route.
Also when I quit the gui it looks like this:
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.2.0 * 255.255.255.0 U 0 0 0 eth1
default 192.168.2.1 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

[Balachmar]

Anyone?

[chiefofthejojos]

I'm sorry, I really don't know why it would do that, but maybe it would help if I offered my routes for comparison. When the tunneling has started, my routing table has three new routes. I added a route for 10.0.0.0/8 using the gui. You may want to do the same.
<private> 192.168.1.1 255.255.255.255 UGH 0 0 0 eth0
10.1.0.115 * 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
10.0.0.0 * 255.0.0.0 U 0 0 0 ppp0

this isn't my whole routing table, just the routes created by pptp.
I see a lot of differences in the top line there, unfortunately I have no idea why it is different. I think the second and third lines are a result of the route I added (10.0.0.0/8). This route gives me the ability to reference all of the computers on the vpn by their local ip because they are all on the same 10.0.0.0 subnet.
Good luck.

[Bone Down]

First off thanks for this post, I have utilized twice now on two different installs.
My situation is this, I am able to connect (at least it says I am connected), but I am unable to hit my works secure intranet site.
I am unable to check my emails.
I am unable to surf the inet period.

Following is a log from pptpconfig:
pptpconfig: debug information dump begins
WARNING: security sensitive information follows
pptpconfig 1.2 2004/06/19 08:57:15
# pppd --version
pppd version 2.4.3
# uname -a
Linux DC-Comics 2.6.12-10-386 #1 Thu Dec 22 11:37:10 UTC 2005 i686 GNU/Linux
# grep mppe /proc/modules
# modinfo ppp_mppe
Array
(
[name] => kwevpn
[server] => xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
[domain] =>
[username] => login
[password] => (hidden by pptpconfig)
[pppd-options] =>
[pptp-options] =>
[resolv] =>
[dns-options] =>
[routing] => routing_client_to_lan
[usepeerdns] => 1
[require-mppe] => 1
[nomppe-40] =>
[nomppe-128] =>
[refuse-eap] => 1
[mppe-stateful] =>
[autostart] =>
[iconify] =>
[persist] =>
[debug] => 1
[client-to-lan] =>
)
# route -n (before pppd)
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
192.168.99.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.128 U 0 0 0 eth1
0.0.0.0 192.168.99.99 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1
pptpconfig: debug information dump ends,
Cannot determine ethernet address for proxy ARP
local IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
remote IP address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
primary DNS address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
secondary DNS address xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx
# route -n (after pppd exit)
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
192.168.99.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.128 U 0 0 0 eth1
0.0.0.0 192.168.99.99 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1
pptpconfig: pppd process exit status 0 (started)
ip route add xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx via 192.168.99.99 dev eth1 src 192.168.99.105
RTNETLINK answers: File exists

pptpconfig: command failed, exit code 2
pptpconfig: routes added to remote networks
pptpconfig: DNS changes made to /etc/resolv.conf
pptpconfig: connected
# route -n (after completion)
Kernel IP routing table
Destination Gateway Genmask Flags Metric Ref Use Iface
xxx.xxx.xxx.xxx 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.255 UH 0 0 0 ppp0
192.168.99.0 0.0.0.0 255.255.255.128 U 0 0 0 eth1
0.0.0.0 192.168.99.99 0.0.0.0 UG 0 0 0 eth1

Please point me into the correct direction so that I can at least get my work email to function.

Thanks in advance for your guidence and support.

BD