blog.erik.rainey.name

I just got OpenVPN working on my MacBook Pro and I thought I'd share how it's done.

1. Download TunnelBlick 3.0 RC2 or better and install in /Applications/
2. Create your Root Certificate and Key, and all your client keys on the OpenVPN server (reference).
3. Copy the required files ca.crt and the client keys to ~/Library/openvpn/ on your Mac
4. Create a .conf file in that directory which will serve as your connection description. If your familiar with the Windows versions, be sure to name your dev items (usually "tun0") and your dev-node items (usually "/dev/tun0") correctly (see reference again for sample config files). Be sure to match the type of tunnel as with the type on your server (tcp to tcp, tun to tun, etc).
5. Expose the OpenVPN port (which is configurable on the server) to the outside, beyond the firewall.
6. Add entries into your hosts file to support name resolution over your tunnel, or setup a Split DNS Server.
7. Connect!

If you're an SSH tunneler like myself, you know that you can't use RDP with a tunnel reflected off yourself (localhost). I just figured out how to do this. Though, it's rather simple and I'm somewhat ashamed that I didn't think of it before. Just add a line to your C:\Windows\system32\drivers\etc\hosts file. 127.0.0.1 me I then used an SSH tunnel to redirect the port number as well. ssh ... -L 3390:192.168.0.85:3389 ... This will redirect port 3390 to the RDP port, 3389. Now connect to me:3390 for RDP.

Forwarding your iTunes library to your work computer is not as hard as one might think. All you need to do is follow these steps.

1.) Enable Library Sharing on home machine's iTunes.

2.) You have to be familiar with ssh tunneling (try here for a tutorial) or if you don't use a tunnel, add the port forwarders to your firewall. For ssh tunnels, you want something like this:

$ ssh -g -L 3689:192.168.0.86:3689 my.home.net

Where "192.168.0.86" is the local net IP of the home machine and "my.home.net" is the name of your computer on the internet. Of course, you'll have to be forwarding the ssh port to your home machine too.

3.) Get RendezvousProxy, which mimcs some of the UDP traffic that won't come through some firewalls. Add an entry for the tunneling machine if you are using that. Be sure to use the iTunes protocol (_daap._tcp.local.).

4.) iTunes should automatically detect your machine. You might want to add a password to your library so other people at work don't cruise your stuff.