[Openvpn-users] Routes disappearing...

[f00ty <footplus@xxxxxxxxx>]

Hi,

I have setup a VPN based on OpenVpn, and it works pretty well. At one
exception, but it's weird and i don't know where to investigate, or
what debug option i should enable to see what's wrong with my setup. [
i know it's not an optimal setup. But it's the only solution i have.
The aim of this setup is to bypass the socks 5 server, because of the
poor windows and mac os x socks5 support.

In a simplified version, here is my physical network:

host C -\
host A -- [ sw ] -- host G -- [socks] -- [ internet ] -- server X
host B -/
host D /

and the virtual :

host D -[vpn]- server X

ok, so :

the hosts ABCD are on a private network, the host G acts as a gateway
to a socks 5 server. i'm using a TCP-based vpn, and openvpn 2.0. All
the OS are Gentoo Linux 2.6.x, x >= 12. But i should be able to add a
windows or mac os x host, having host D as gateway.

my openvpn client is on host D. The default gateway of host D is the
server X, which routes to the internet. Of course, the gateway for
accessing the socks server from host D is host G.

So if i ping google from host D, the virtual path is :

host D -> Server X -> internet

and the real path is :

host D -> host G -> socks -> internet -> server X -> internet.

Host D acts as a gateway to the internet too. So i can ping google
from host C if it has host D as default gateway.

The whole thing works well. But, after a few hours, the host D stops
routing. I can still ping the internet from host D, but not anymore
from host C, or B, or A. A simple restart of openvpn makes it work
again. The routing table is unchanged. According to iptables, the
packets are simply vanishing. A traceroute from host C shows just host
D and then the packets are lost. And i can't figure out why. Actually,
i have two leads :

- The socks server is resetting the connexions every hours. This is
not dependant of me.
- I'm using tsocks to socksify openvpn. i have to use socks 5 authentication.

Since i have approximatively the save setup on the other side of the
server, on a real internet connexion, and it works without any
problem, i'm thinking it's a problem tied to the socks usage. But how
?

Have you heard of similar cases, or can you tell me where to look ?
The logs contains no inhabitual messages, nor dmesg. I'm using the VPN
tun driver, which is compiled in the kernel.

Thanks.

Best regards,
--
f00ty
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