Friday, May 17, 2013

How to Setup OpenVPN for Android App

In this tutorial you'll learn how to configure the app "OpenVPN for Android" (openvpnforandroid0.5.7_29.apk).

It will easily allow you to connect to the HMA VPN server via OpenVPN protocol - TCP and UDP. This is working on all Android versions and no root privileges are required! (If you don't like this connection method, check out our articles FeatVPN and OpenVPN Connect) There are 2 method to import the *.ovpn config files into the VPN application: a) via Dropbox app - by importing the config file folders into your own Dropbox, and then importing to the VPN application from there b) manually, by downloading the config files onto your SDcard, extracting them and importing to the VPN application Both are explained below.
a) Importing config files via Dropbox
On your Android device, browse here: http://tinyurl.com/hmavpnconfigs You can there import the config folders into your own Dropbox account by clicking on the It's required to have the Dropbox app installed.	Now you can open the Dropbox app and navigate to where you've downloaded the config files. Tap on one of the config files you'd like to import.	You'll get asked what you want to do with this file. Select "Import OpenVPN configuration" and "Always".

The OpenVPN for Android app will now appear, please resume the tutorial here: Confirm importing of the config file b) Importing config files manually
Install the app and run it. You'll see the main menu below. For now the list is empty, of course. Tap the folder/import button:	Navigate to the folder where you extracted the config files before. Select the config file of the server you'd like to connect to.	In this example we will use: USA.New.Jersey.Newark_LOC1S1.ovpn Select this config file and then tap "Select".

Confirm importing of the config file The following confirmation window will appear. Tap the save button:	The config file has been imported. In case the app closed, restart it. We still need to change some settings now. Tap the settings button:	Tap "Basic".

You can change the name if you want. But important here is just to fill in your username and password. Scroll down, you'll see the username and password field.	Enter your HMA account username and password, the same ones that you use to login @ http://vpn.hidemyass.com	Go back to the menu; (your changes will be saved automatically) Select "Routing".

In this routing settings, check "IPV4: Use default Route", to make sure that all traffic will be sent via VPN. Go back to the menu again. Now select "Advanced".	Here, uncheck "Enable Custom Options". Otherwise the app will be confused by some settings of the config files.	Go back to the "All your precious VPNs" list. Tap the "imported profile" (or whatever you named it) It will start to connect.

Lot of log info. When it show's the first transferred KiBs, then you're almost there. Once it shows "CONNECTED,SUCCESS,10.x.x.x" then you're successfully connected to the VPN.	You can verify your IP now e.g. @ http://ipaddress.com or http://tracemyip.org to make sure that the VPN is working. Open the status bar, you'll see the apps notification widget. Tap it to access its menu.	Here you can disconnect or change settings of the VPN connection, and also check duration of and bandwidth used by the connection.

How to Connect OpenVPN on Android

This tutorial explains how to configure the "OpenVPN Connect" app on Android devices for HMA! Pro VPN:

First you need to do 2 things:

1. Getting the configuration files:
Either get all config files as .zip archive from: http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/vpn-config.zip
Then extract the .zip somewhere, e.g. into /sdcard/Download
Alternatively, get the single config files from the servers you'd like to connect to from:
http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/TCP/
http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/UDP/

2. Install the app "OpenVPN Connect" from Google Play:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.openvpn.openvpn&hl=en

Now follow the steps below to configure the app ->

3. Start the OpenVPN Connect app and press the menu button	4. Select "Import" to import an OpenVPN config file

5. Select "Import Profile from SD card"	6. Browse to the folder where you saved the .ovpn config files. Select the config file from the server you'd like to connect to. Then tap "Select"*.

7. Enter your login credentials into "Username" and "Password". If you want to save it, check the "Save" box. Now tap "Connect".	8. You can see the connection progress -> "Connecting..."

9. Once it looks like in the screenshot below, you're successfully connected. You can see the connection stats and the "Disconnect" button now. To be sure you're properly connected, verify your IP and location at e.g. http://geoip.hidemyass.com	10. By pressing the menu button again and selecting "Preferences", you can see all possible settings for the app. You can leave them to default, but see below for options you might want to activate, e.g.: Seamless Tunnel, Reconnect on reboot, DNS Fallback, Notifications - they all increase security in some way. That's all :)

How to setup VPN on HP Touchpad

HP TouchPad instructions

On this page you will find setup instructions for setting up PPTP on your HP TouchPad.

1. Install the "PPTP VPN Plugin"

Navigate to HP App Catalog and search for "PPTP VPN Plugin", then install it.

2. Add VPN Profile

Navigate to HP Launcher and to the "SETTINGS" panel and tap the "VPN" icon

Tap "Add profile"

Select "PPTP" from "CONNECTION TYPE"
Login to http://vpn.hidemyass.com and navigate to your PPTP page to find server details.
Enter a server IP address into the "VPN SERVER" field, tap "Next".

Now you need to enter your username and PPTP password (this can be found on the PPTP page your PTTP password is different to your VPN account password)
within this screen, ensure only "MSCHAPv2" is checked within authentication methods.

Hit connect... you should now be connected.
If successful, a tick should be adjacent to the profile name and a little VPN icon in the top right corner.
You could verify your IP at websites like http://ipaddress.com now

How to setup VPN on Chrome OS

Chrome OS

In case you're running Chrome OS (e.g. on Chromebook, on a virtual machine, etc.), follow the steps below to create a L2TP or OpenVPN based VPN connection.
Note that when you want to connect simply via the ChromeOS GUI, you'll have to use L2TP protocol.
For using OpenVPN protocol, you'll have to use the console which might require that you get into developer mode. How to is explained below.

Setting up a VPN on Chromebook (quick instructions) To set up a VPN on your Chromebook, follow these quick instructions, or scroll down for the step-by-step tutorial with screenshots. Click the network icon in the top-right corner of your screen. In the list that appears, select Private networks. Click Add private network. In the box that appears, fill in the information below. Server hostname: One of the L2TP server IPs http://hidemyass.com/vpn/r4662 Service name: Name it as you like. Eg: HMA! L2TP. Provider type: Select L2TP/IPsec + Pre-shared key. Pre-shared key: HideMyAss (case sensitive!) Username: Your VPN account username Password: Your PPTP Password. Can be found at http://vpn.hidemyass.com > PPTP Servers > Login Details Click Connect.
Step by step tutorial with screenshots
First, rightclick the time-bar in the bottom right of your desktop. The settings overview will appear. Here, click "Settings".
We want to create a new private network connection, so please select "Add connection" and and then select "Add private network...".
The "Add private network" window will appear. Here, please enter: Server hostname: One of the L2TP server IPs http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/l2tp/ Service name: Anything you want, e.g. "HMA L2TP VPN" Provider type: L2TP/IPsec + pre-shared key Pre-shared key: HideMyAss (attention, case sensitive!!) Username: Your VPN account username Password: Your PPTP password (get it from the VPN control panel under "PPTP servers") Leave everything else to default (like in this screenshot). Now click "Connect" and Chromium will attempt to connect to the VPN server you chose.
While Chromium is still connecting, you'll see this icon next to the private network connection you just created: Once the connection has been made, the icon will change to
You should now see the icon, which means that the connection has successfully beem made. You can now select "Network options..." to get into a status window of the newly created connection. Or you can select "Disconnect" here, to disconnect from the VPN again.
This is the "Network options..." window that shows you additional info about the connection, and allows you to set proxy-settings (in case you're connected to the internet through a local proxyserver) You can disconnect here as well. That's all. To verify your current IP, go to websites like http://ipaddress.com

Additional notes:

There have been reports of a bug making your VPN experience a bit annoying: about every 5 minutes, it automatically disconnects from your VPN and you can't reconnect unless you log out and in again, or delete your VPN and configure it again.
The Chrome OS developers are aware of this problem and you can keep track of this problem here and here. Star this issue in order to get it fixed earlier.
A workaround for now is opening a terminal (Ctrl+Alt+T) and starting an endless ping using ping google.com. This seems to work fine for affected systems.

OpenVPN on ChromeOS

Connecting via OpenVPN protocol on ChromeOS is a little bit tricky, because it currently does not accept common certificates and keys.
That means you can't connect using the ChromeOS GUI, like you would do with L2TP protocol as explained above.
So you'll have to use a small workaround:

First you need to get into the console mode. On some ChromeOS systems/devices this requires to enable the developer mode first.
How this is done differs from device to device, here's a list with links to instructions: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/developer-information-for-chrome-os-devices
General information on how to access console/terminal and other related info can be found at: http://www.chromium.org/chromium-os/poking-around-your-chrome-os-device

Now you have 2 options to get into the console mode. Which one you use, does not matter.

Option 1: Console mode:
To get into the console mode, try either

CTRL+ALT+F2 or
CTRL+ALT+RIGHTARROW

You should now get asked for a username and password.
If you didn't change any usernames/passwords of the system before, try:

User: chronos Password: facepunch
Other possible usernames and passwords: chronos, chroneos, chrome, chromeos, facepunch

Option 2: Terminal mode:
To create a new terminal mode window, hit

CTRL+ALT+T

You should see this:
crosh>
Here, enter "shell"

You're now logged in with a restricted user account.
The next step is to get root access.
Enter: "sudo su"
You should now get asked to select a root password. Make sure to write it down somewhere, in case you forget it!
Now is the time to connect to the VPN.
You'll need the *.ovpn config files of the serves you'd like to connect to. Get them from

To connect via OpenVPN-TCP: http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/TCP
To connect via OpenVPN-UDP: http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/TCP
TCP+UDP config files as .zip archive: http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/vpn-config.zip

You can of course download them from your normal desktop
and put them into a specific folder where you can find them later.
To leave the console mode, hit CTRL+ALT+F1 or CTRL+ALT+LEFTARROW
to leave the terminal mode, hit ALT+TAB
To download a config file from the console/terminal mode, you could enter e.g.
"wget http://hidemyass.com/vpn-config/UDP/Bulgaria.Sofia.UDP.ovpn"
Now the file has been saved into the folder you're currently in.

That said, as long as you're in a folder that contains the *.ovpn config files within the console mode,
you can simply connect to the VPN by running:
"openvpn Bulgaria.Sofia.UDP.ovpn"
You'll then get asked for your HMA! Pro VPN username + password (the same that you use to login to the VPN control panel), and the client will connect.
Once the client shows you something like
"Sun Apr 21 07:45:21 2013 Initialization Sequence Completed",
that means you are successfully connected and you can go back to your normal desktop.

To leave the console mode, hit CTRL+ALT+F1 or CTRL+ALT+LEFTARROW
to leave the terminal mode, hit ALT+TAB

To confirm that you are successfully connected, you could e.g. browse to http://ipaddress.com
and verify your IP, ISP and location.

To disconnect from the VPN, go back to console mode (CTRL+ALT+F2 or CTRL+ALT+RIGHTARROW, for terminal mode just ALT+TAB )
and hit CTRL+C.

How to use all VPN protocols

HideMyAss is offering the following VPN protocols: OpenVPN-TCP (standard), OpenVPN-UDP, PPTP and L2TP.
This article will show how to use each of them for different devices and operating systems.
Especially when experiencing any kind of connection issues, the first thing to do is to try all protocols.

Windows

When using the HMA Pro VPN client software, you can use the protocols OpenVPN-TCP and PPTP.
See the screenshot on the right for how to change between both protocols (marked red):
Should you experience any kind of connection issues, try several servers, and both protocols.
Below are links to articles on how to use the other protocols, and what client applications you can also use.

OpenVPN-TCP:

OpenVPN-UDP:

PPTP:

Use the HMA Pro VPN client software
Create a manual PPTP connection directly from within Windows:

Use our dialer

L2TP:

Create manual L2TP connection directly from within Windows:

Use our dialer

Mac