Ubuntu TUN/TAP (for bridging) AirVPN connection

[bananaphone69 0]

Hi.

 

I use AirVPN in Ubuntu's network manager and would like to use it as tap0, as opposed to tun0, so that I can bridge my connection via ethernet cable to another device (one which is not as easy to configure) and have it connect to the Internet the same way a virtual machine would (i. e. connecting through AirVPN the way my PC would).

 

Unfortunately, I have found no way to bridge (or otherwise sharee) the connection besides using a TAP device. However, upon changing the .ovpn files from 'dev tun' and 'persist-tun' to 'dev tap' and 'persist-tap', I have found that I am unable to access the Internet. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot out there on sharing a VPN connection via Ubuntu, so I'd appreciate any suggestions that you might have for me.

 

Oh, and if this is possible, I wonder why AirVPN files pick TUN over TAP. Is it in any way safer? Would I be compromising security in this case to get a little more functionality?

[Staff 9972]

Hello!

 

In our service OpenVPN works in routing mode, so tun interface is necessary, not tap. For differences between routing and bridging (from which you will also understand why we picked routing) please see here:

https://community.openvpn.net/openvpn/wiki/BridgingAndRouting

 

Kind regards

[bananaphone69 0]

Hi staff,

 

Thank you for the prompt response. All else aside, as a user of over 6 months, I have to say that I absolutely adore your service. I have never spent money on the Internet on anything but this and I couldn't have picked better. Your service, in my experience, has never wavered, never slowed, or otherwise been an inconvenience. I trust that you do not keep logs. And you do business in a very open and flexible way, providing an abundance of options in the way that people interact with this product. Thank you, thank you - believe me when I say I would be willing to pay ten times what I do for AirVPN, perhaps even fifty times as much.

 

I'm afraid I'm not technically equipped enough to follow a thing like that page, but I'll take your word for it. Have you any other suggestions for how to share this connection? I know I'm allowed to set AirVPN up on up to three devices, but my other device (non-PC, closed source) is not easy to configure and I do not have access to my router. What I would love to do is use my Ubuntu PC as almost a router, which, connected to wi-fi and my AirVPN configuration, would have the ability to share its connection with my other device via ethernet cable. Is that at all possible somehow? I feel that it should be, since I can do this in virtual machines that sit in my Ubuntu PC.

[jonbrock 0]

bananaphone, you should be able to simply share your regular internet connection in Ubuntu. Then when the VPN is connected, all the traffic on that device will go through the VPN, including the traffic coming from other computers that are sharing the connection.

 

However, when the VPN is down, the connection will still be shared so your non-PC device would be using the regular internet.