What is Bandwidth
Virtual Private Networks (VPNs) come in many shapes and forms. OpenVPN is one of the most popular VPN systems out there and has been such ever since its original introduction in 2001. OpenVPN creates secure point-to-point or site-to-site connectivity. To do so, it uses either bridged or routed configurations, as well as remote access facilities. OpenVPN works both on the end of the client and the server. James Yonan, who developed OpenVPN released it as GNU General Public License version 2 (GPLv2). At the same time, today commercial versions of the system also exist.
Operation of OpenVPN
OpenVPN requires users on both sides of the connection to authenticate themselves. They do that either with pre-shared secret keys, username/password, certificates, or a combination of any of the three. The system uses OpenSSL for encryption, along with the TLS protocol on top of a custom security protocol. One of the main benefits of using OpenVPN is that it is capable of traversing firewalls and NATs (network address translators). In cases when OpenVPN is used on a configuration employing multiple servers, the servers release authentication certificates to each peer. Nowadays, OpenVPN is an integral part of several systems, including DD-WRT – the Linux-based router firmware. Even SoftEther VPN, the popular multi-protocol VPN server, employs the OpenVPN protocol extensively.