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villasv
Asked: 2017-02-07 11:16:10 +0800 CST

Connect to OpenVPN using Windows 10 built-in VPN

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I have an OpenVPN network with a pretty much standard configuration:

  • auth.txt file with user and password
  • ca.crt file with the certificate
  • my-nat.pem file with the identity for my VPC

and the OpenVPN config:

client
dev tun
proto udp
remote some-ip-here some-port-here
ca /etc/openvpn/keys/ca.crt
auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/keys/auth.txt
resolv-retry infinite
nobind
persist-key
persist-tun
ns-cert-type server
cipher AES-128-CBC
comp-lzo
status /var/log/openvpn-status.log
log /var/log/openvpn.log
log-append /var/log/openvpn.log
verb 3

And connect command: ssh -i "my-nat.pem" Ubuntu@machine-ip-here

How can I translate these files/config so I can use it with the built-in VPN connection on Windows 10?

vpn openvpn windows-10

3 Answers

  1. Best Answer

    VPNs do have multiple protocols and for different protocols, different type of configurations are needed.

    Here are the top 5 VPN protocols are explained: https://www.makeuseof.com/tag/major-vpn-protocols-explained/

    As per this document, Windows 10 VPN supports L2TP, PPTP, SSTP and IKEv2 protocols and there is no support for OpenVPN protocol.

    In these cases, you need to download the OpenVPN software which will eventually register a Virtual Network driver and your VPN will work over that virtual driver.

    • 19

  2. The OpenVPN protocol is not one that is built into Windows. Therefore a client program is required that can handle capturing the traffic you wish to send through the OpenVPN tunnel, and encrypting it and passing it to the OpenVPN server.

    Reference:
    https://openvpn.net/vpn-server-resources/connecting-to-access-server-with-windows/

    • 2

  3. The OpenVPN protocol is not built-in to Windows. OpenVPN is released under the GPLv2 license, which Microsoft won't use.

    The Windows 10 built-in VPN support is not limited to only the protocols shipped by Microsoft (PPTP, L2TP, IPsec, SSTP, IKEv2). It can be extended using 3rd-party VPN provider plug-ins, but to my knowledge this is rare and there are none for OpenVPN, although there is an open issue requesting it. Instead, you should use the official OpenVPN Connect Client or one of the many 3rd-party OpenVPN clients.

    • 1