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Setting up an OpenVPN server with Netgear and Viscosity

Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) can be utilized for a number of very useful applications. You can securely connect to any public WiFi hotspot. You can overcome geo-blocking restrictions on your favourite websites. And you can even connect to your home or office network from anywhere in the world, as if you were sitting right at your desk. This guide will walk you through the process of setting up your own OpenVPN server, and connecting to it with your copy of Viscosity.

Running your own OpenVPN server will allow you to encrypt everything you do on the internet, so that you can safely do your online banking on the free WiFi at your favourite cafe. Anything you send over the VPN connection will be encrypted from your device until it reaches your OpenVPN server at home. Setting up your OpenVPN server to access your home or office network gives you full access to all your files on your network.

This guide will walk you through the steps involved in setting up an OpenVPN server on a Netgear router that allows you to securely access your home/office network from a remote location and optionally send all of your network traffic through it so you can access the internet securely as well.

This guide won't treat any issues related to setting up your router. We will assume that the Netgear router has a direct connection to the internet and its own IP address. Therefore we will not be considering any issues related to having your Netgear router behind another router.

Preparation

For this guide, we assume:

  • Your Netgear router has been set up with at least a WAN interface and a LAN interface
  • You are connected with your client device to the Netgear router via its LAN interface during this guide
  • You already have a copy of Viscosity installed on your client device

If you are running a different Netgear router to the one used in this guide (D7000), it's very likely that many or even all of the steps outlined in this guide will still apply. If you are looking to setup an OpenVPN server on a different operating system, please check out our other guides.

Your client device needs to be connected to the Netgear router via the LAN interface. This is necessary so that you can access the NETGEAR genie to set up the router configuration. The specifics of how you can achieve this depend on your particular network configuration.

If you don't have a copy of Viscosity already installed on your client, then please check out this setup guide for installing Viscosity (Mac | Windows).

Support

Unfortunately we cannot provide any direct support for setting up your own OpenVPN server. We provide this guide as a courtesy to help you get started with, and make the most of, your copy of Viscosity. We've thoroughly tested the steps in this guide to ensure that, if you follow the instructions detailed below, you should be well on your way to enjoying the benefits of running your own OpenVPN server.

For further information or help with your Netgear router, we recommend contacting Netgear support or the community forums:

Getting Started

First you need to log in to the NETGEAR genie from your client device connected to the LAN interface of the Netgear router. Open a browser on your client and navigate to http://www.routerlogin.net. You will need to login. The default credentials are:

User: admin
Password: password

For security the router admin password should be changed. In the Advanced tab, click on Administration > Set Password and set a new password. Click Apply when done.


Dynamic DNS

If your ISP assigns your router IP address via DHCP, the IP address will change frequently. To allow consistent access to your OpenVPN server, you can set up a dynamic DNS service. There are a number of dynamic DNS service providers, such as www.dyndns.com|DynDNS and www.no-ip.com|No-IP. Once you have set up a dynamic DNS address with one of these service providers:

  1. In the sidebar, click on Advanced Setup > Dynamic DNS.
  2. Check the Use a Dynamic DNS Service checkbox.
  3. Select the Service Provider you setup above.
  4. Enter the dynamic DNS details in the Host Name, Username and Password.
  5. Click Apply when done.



DNS Server

Set the IP address of the DNS servers we will use:

  1. In the sidebar, click Setup > Internet Setup.
  2. In the Domain Name Server (DNS) Address section, click on Use These DNS Servers.
  3. Set the Primary DNS and Secondary DNS to 8.8.8.8 and 8.8.4.4, respectively (Google DNS). If you want to use different DNS servers, feel free to use them here instead.



  4. In the NAT (Network Address Translation) section, click Enable.



  5. Click Apply at the top when done.

OpenVPN Configuration

To configure the OpenVPN server settings:

  1. Click Advanced Setup > VPN Service.
  2. Check the Enable VPN Service checkbox at the top.
  3. In the Advanced Configurations at the bottom, set the TAP Mode Service Type to UDP.
  4. Set the TAP Mode Service Port to 12974.
  5. Set the TUN Mode Service Type to UDP and the TUN Mode Service Port to 12973.
  6. Set Clients will use this VPN connection to access to All sites on the Internet & Home Network.
  7. When done, click Apply at the top.



  8. You will be informed that the VPN Service configurations have changed. Click Close.

Both a TAP and TUN connection are available to our OpenVPN server. We will demonstrate the steps for the TUN server, however if you wish to connect via a TAP interface, download the 'For non-Windows' configuration.

  1. In Advanced Setup > VPN Service, click on the For Smart Phone button to download the TUN connection configuration.
  2. This will download a folder called "smartphone".
  3. Inside this folder is four files, ca.crt, client.crt, client.key, and client_phone.ovpn.

You may need to reboot the router for these VPN Service settings to take effect:

  1. On the sidebar, click on Administration > Router Status.
  2. In the Router Information box, click the Reboot button.

Setting Up Viscosity

The interface provided by the Mac and Windows versions of Viscosity are intentionally very similar. As such, we will focus our guide on the Mac version, pointing out any differences with the Windows version as they arise.

If you do not have Viscosity already running, start Viscosity now. In the Mac version you will see the Viscosity icon appear in the menu bar. In the Windows version you will see the Viscosity icon appear in the system tray.

Click the Viscosity icon in the menu bar (Windows: system tray) and select 'Preferences...':



 


This shows you the list of available VPN connections. We assume you recently installed Viscosity, so this list is empty. Click on the '+' button and select Import Connection > From File...:



 

Navigate to the location of the client_phone.ovpn file downloaded previously and open it. You will see a pop up message to indicate that the connection has been imported.

Configuring the Connection

Double click on the connection in the Preferences window to bring up the connection settings. You will now need to set the connection parameters as outlined below:

  1. In the General tab, replace the connection name with your desired name for the connection, for example "DemoConnection".


     

  2. The Address should be set to your dynamic DNS address. The Port should be set to 12973, the Protocol set to UDP and the Device set to tun.
  3. Click on the Networking tab and enter "10.8.0.1" into the "Servers" field in the DNS Settings section.


     

  4. Click the Save button to save these changes.

(Optional) Allowing Access to the Internet

By default the VPN connection will allow access to the file server and other computers on the home/office (LAN) network. However if you also wish to have all internet traffic sent through the VPN connection it's necessary to make a final edit to the connection:

  1. Double-click on your connection in the Viscosity Preferences window to open the connection editor
  2. Click on the Networking tab.
  3. Click the "All Traffic" drop down and select the "Send all traffic over VPN connection" option. It is not necessary to enter a Default Gateway.
  4. Click the Save button.

Connecting and Using Your VPN Connection

You are now ready to connect. Click on the Viscosity icon in the macOS menu bar or Windows system tray to open the Viscosity Menu, select the connection you created, and Viscosity will connect.

To check that the VPN is up and running, you can open the Details window from the Viscosity Menu. This will allow you to view connection details, traffic and the OpenVPN log.



 

That's it, you've set up your very own OpenVPN server. Congratulations, you are now free to enjoy the benefits of operating your own OpenVPN server!