OpenVPN on Android - what's the fastest way to get connected?

[shaglord]

Hey fellas

I just got an A13 phone where L2TP is missing. The second best option is going to be OpenVPN.

The reason I've never transitioned over to OpenVPN is because of the hassle of adding a profile. Alternatives just take 60 seconds to add the profile and boom.

I'm wondering. What's the easiest/fastest way to get an OpenVPN profile into a phone if you're out and about? I don't have a computer nearby running SE Manager. I just have a SE server with OpenVPN enabled on the listening ports.

Does SE support adding OpenVPN profiles with url?

Before anyone suggests to prepare all the profile files in a cloud or something, consider that you've got like 10 LAN networks that all have SE running. At the time of server setup, openvpn wasn't a concern until a year later when you just happen to need to connect from the road.

Thanks!

[solo]

Before anyone suggests to prepare all the profile files in a cloud or something, consider that you've got like 10 LAN networks that all have SE running.

Prepare 10 per-network profiles in a cloud. Since "auth-user-pass" authentication is used, you don't need per-user profiles.

[shakibamoshiri]

Hey fellas

I just got an A13 phone where L2TP is missing. The second best option is going to be OpenVPN.

The reason I've never transitioned over to OpenVPN is because of the hassle of adding a profile. Alternatives just take 60 seconds to add the profile and boom.

I'm wondering. What's the easiest/fastest way to get an OpenVPN profile into a phone if you're out and about? I don't have a computer nearby running SE Manager. I just have a SE server with OpenVPN enabled on the listening ports.

Does SE support adding OpenVPN profiles with url?

Before anyone suggests to prepare all the profile files in a cloud or something, consider that you've got like 10 LAN networks that all have SE running. At the time of server setup, openvpn wasn't a concern until a year later when you just happen to need to connect from the road.

Thanks!

The L2TP is faster than OpenVPN and if the OS dropped L2TP , then IKEv2 is faster than OpenVPN
if you cannot use IKEv2, then the easiest way with OpenVPN is to use it with "Certificate Authentication" (nopass)

With SE dev version you can create
- a user
- set pass and date
- then generate a self-signed cert for a specific user
- load the cert for that user
- generate the final "ovpn" file
- give it to a user (send a link to a messenger or even text it)
- load to OpenVPN client (no username or pass is needed)
- done

A URL profile is another alternative, but I tested once, did not work.

hint
it should be scripted

[shaglord]

What about alternative android apps? Have you had any positive experience?

I remember using an SSTP app but the connection was very ustable at best.

[shakibamoshiri]

which app is the best, mostly depends on the condition you are in

as general rule of thumps
- UDP is faster than TCP (e.g OpenVPN > SSTP)
- Less encryption layer is faster than more encryption layer (L2TP > OpenVPN)
- VPN server architecture (WireGuard > SoftEther)
- VPN server location, the closer to the client the faster
- VPN server machine inet link, the nigher the faster (Hetzner 10X > OVH 1x)
- newer devices are faster than old devices


SSTP is good when other protocols are blocked by ISPs, governments, etc,
and specifically about SSTP app for SoftEther is good when the ISP net is stable, otherwise it disconnects too much + you cannot use self-signed certificate with SSTP, it should be a valid one
Also I tested (when ISP net is stable) SSTP app with SoftEther (TCP) was faster than OpenConnect app (UDP)

[shaglord]

I didn't think of that. Running L2TP from android app. I wonder which... hmm.