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OpenVPN for Windows

Installing

To set it up on Windows , download and run the appropriate OpenVPN installer for your version of Windows. At the time of writing, the Windows 10 installer can be found at https://openvpn.net/community-downloads/

Important note - which OpenVPN version to download?

  • The OpenVPN website usually offers many versions of the software to download. We usually recommend that you download the latest version which is not labelled as being a beta release, but some experimentation may be required depending on your operating system version.
  • You may be asked if you want to allow the program to make changes to the computer: select "Yes".
  • You will be shown a "Welcome to the setup wizard" screen: click "Next".
  • You will be asked to review the licence agreement: Click "I agree."
  • You will be asked to choose components. Leave all the components ticked and click 'Next'.
  • You will asked to choose a location for OpenVPN. Accept the default and click 'Install'.
  • You may be asked to approve the installation of a TAP adapter. If so, click 'Install'.
  • You will see some messages which should end with the line 'Completed'. Click 'Next'.
  • You will be given the option to show the 'README' file. Click 'Finish'.

To configure OpenVPN to connect to the Chemistry department:

 

  • Download this config file and this dummy credentials file .  (Right-click the links and select 'Save Link as...' and save to the hard disk).
  • Copy the files into the OpenVPN config directory. If you installed the program to the default location (c:\Program Files (x86)\OpenVPN), that directory will be c:\Program Files (x86)\OpenVPN\config\ . In the latest versions of the program you can also save the config files directly into your personal space at C:\Users\<your username>\OpenVPN\config . You will need to edit the dummy credentials file - see next bullet point.
  • Edit the credentials file in Notepad or another text editor. Replace the dummy credentials with your username and ChemNet token. You can collect the token from https://apps.ch.cam.ac.uk/ssms/collectchemnet . The username is your CRSID (in lowercase) followed by @ch.2021.cam.ac.uk . 
  • Please note: if OpenVPN does not succesfully log in, try manually typing your ChemNet token in the credentials file as copy/pasting from the webpage does not always work

Connecting

To connect to the department, find the 'OpenVPN GUI' start icon and doubleclick it. An icon of a white computer screen will appear in the system tray. Right click that icon and select 'connect'. A window will pop up showing logs as the connection is made. When the VPN is connected, the system tray icon will change to have a green line around the computer screen.

Troubleshooting

There is a set of troubleshooting suggestions at  https://www.ch.cam.ac.uk/computing/openvpn-troubleshooting

System status 

System monitoring page

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