pfSense OpenVPN Setup Foolproof Step-by-Step!

UPDATED VIDEO: • Install OpenVPN on pfS...
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[@JoeMaza]

I followed this tutorial a few years ago and it worked! I recently installed a new pfSense router and, again, here I am following you step-by-step tutorial. Thanks for publishing this! I'm sure if I forget to setup a new router with OpenVPN, I'm watching this video yet again!

[@shawnlewis389]

I have already watched a couple of other videos on this topic and this one is the best one. You did a great job of making sure all necessary steps were covered. All of the other videos I watched left out stuff. I plan to watch more of your videos. I give it 5 stars!

[@wiresxuk8471]

Been putting off going back to the VPN as I couldn't work out what I had done wrong. This video really helped, all up and running Thank you

[@ioetrealter4313]

Pages and pages, videos and videos and this video is the only one that makes it work. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge. Thank you.

[@johngaltline9933]

This tutorial is perfect, showing step by step how to get this working, in an order that makes perfect sense. Side note, even with that, Comcast still boned me out of hours of my life. Even with a DMZ set up for my pfsense IP, comcast still seems to block port 1194. Spent hours pouring over various forums and such till hitting on a suggestion to try a different port. set it to 42400 and everything works now. May save some trouble for others seeing a TLS handshake failed message when trying to connect, just try a port in the 40k-60k range instead of 1194. Have to change it in the open vpn server and in the Wan rule.

[@zoltanhorvath1156]

Cool guide! So far the best I have seen in this topic. Thank you

[@azurite2926]

Excellent video man, I was having trouble setting it up and you explained everything very clearly. Subbed, would love to see more Pfsense vids in the future.

[@StefanRows]

Thanks, man! I'll do my best to provide em. Have something the making already :)

[@mieskeb8095]

Omg working for weeks now on the vpn. FINALLY IT WORKS THANKS TO YOUR VIDEO THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

[@StefanRows]

That's the mission I am set out on. Make tutorials that actually work :D Glad to hear it holds up :)

[@anrahz6089]

The best tutorial I have ever watched. Well done! Danke sehr . Will try it.

[@StefanRows]

Thanks a lot!

[@undsiesowow1182]

14:35 - Inter-client communication: If you don't check it, you'll be still able to put some firewall rules in place. I always do it that way because it is much more secure and you have much more control about what's going on. Great tutorial for beginners!

[@falazarte]

Dude, this is my go-to tutorial.It is on my favorites. I always come back to it. Thanks!!

[@kanes5105]

Thank you very much, I learned a ton and was able to access my pfSense remotely. This will also allow me to use OpenVPN when connected to public WiFi's when I'm away from home and stay safe.

[@StefanRows]

You're welcome!

[@MichaelKammer1]

Best video on this that I have seen. Excellent thorough walkthrough. 2 users, and Netbios working properly. Kudos!

[@Maleboligia]

Thank you, been meaning to do this for ages and guide was perfect.

[@petersilzer]

Hey, Thumbs up friend. This is by far the best tutorial out there for OpenVPN + pfSense. Well done.

[@StefanRows]

I highly appreciate your feedback. I am glad you liked the video. Thank you!

[@lazzsnazz4048]

holy crap man you saved me. this is day two of trying to get this working, everything that I had tried did not work almost gave up. thank you so much man!

[@StefanRows]

Glad to hear it worked! You'll help me out by subbing to my channel if you feel like it :)

[@mingyjj]

Hands down the best tutorial available. No skipped steps, no differing outcomes... Start here, end here.

[@StefanRows]

Thank you so much. I always aim for complete instructions. Nothing more frustrating than wasting time on incomplete tutorials. Would be happy to have you as a subscriber!

[@lachiu1]

1:55 - DNS setup (optional) 5:14 - Inital pfSense setup 6:21 - Setup DNS in pfSense 7:50 - Setup CA 8:55 - Server certificate 10:15 - Setup VPN users 11:28 - Install pfSense-pkg-openvpn-client-export 12:01 - Setup Wizards 15:43 - You did it! Congrats! 15:58 - Check OpenVPN status I gotta admit, I stopped watching then since it was too much blabla :P

[@miguelkennedy8052]

Thank you for this. I have watched quite a few how-to videos on setting up previous versions of OpenVPN on pfsense and you have covered this beginning to end. Thank you again outstanding job.

[@CaptainJackOC]

Excellent and well informed video. It was a life saver for me and my client. Once I went through all the steps it worked perfectly for Mac and PC. And thanks for the written article, I posted that into my help desk program for future reference. Thank You !!

[@contractorlanre9423]

Great Video Ceos3c! Just in case your pfSense firewall setup is like mine and the OpenVPN setup isn’t working for you. My pfSense is behind my ISP router (ISP router not bridged, kept like that for security reasons) and I have both outside (WAN) and inside(LAN) interfaces on my pfSense (WAN interface: 192.168.xx.xx/xx, Multiple LAN: XX.XX.XX.XX/XX); • Setup a DDNS (I use No-IP): Configured the DDNS account inside your ISP router, after you’ve created your DDNS account. (recommended if you don’t have a static IP from your ISP) • Your ISP router must support port forwarding (Most router does): configure Port Forwarding on your ISP router. For the External and Internal Port choose whatever local port you configured on your pfSense OpenVPN server setup (for this video, UDP 1194 was used). For the External IP Address, you can enter Any or enter specific Public IP addresse(s) if you want to restrict users’ logins per external IPs. For the internal IP address, choose your pfSense WAN interface IP (mine is 192.168.xx.xx). By doing this, you’re pointing all VPN login request to your pfSense, if not your ISP router will keep dropping all the requests because it doesn’t know where to forward them to. Before the port forwarding setup, these was the error logs from my OpenVPN client: Tue Nov 19 07:57:28 2019 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]69.140.xxxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 07:57:28 2019 UDP link local (bound): [AF_INET][undef]:0 Tue Nov 19 07:57:28 2019 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]69.140.xxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 07:58:28 2019 TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity) Tue Nov 19 07:58:28 2019 TLS Error: TLS handshake failed Tue Nov 19 07:58:28 2019 SIGUSR1[soft,tls-error] received, process restarting Tue Nov 19 07:58:33 2019 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]69.140.115.190:1194 Tue Nov 19 07:58:33 2019 UDP link local (bound): [AF_INET][undef]:0 Tue Nov 19 07:58:33 2019 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]69.140.xxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 07:59:00 2019 SIGTERM[hard,] received, process exiting After port forwarding was configured; Tue Nov 19 08:01:33 2019 TCP/UDP: Preserving recently used remote address: [AF_INET]69.140.xxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 08:01:33 2019 UDP link local (bound): [AF_INET][undef]:0 Tue Nov 19 08:01:33 2019 UDP link remote: [AF_INET]69.140.xxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 08:01:33 2019 WARNING: this configuration may cache passwords in memory -- use the auth-nocache option to prevent this Tue Nov 19 08:01:33 2019 [my DDNS(NO-IP)] Peer Connection Initiated with [AF_INET]69.140.xxx.xxx:1194 Tue Nov 19 08:01:35 2019 open_tun Tue Nov 19 08:01:35 2019 TAP-WIN32 device [Local Area Connection] opened: \\.\Global\{D84553BB-5ECF-4323-B5CB-02EF6F5AAD82}.tap Tue Nov 19 08:01:35 2019 Set TAP-Windows TUN subnet mode network/local/netmask = 30.30.30.0/30.30.30.2/255.255.255.240 [SUCCEEDED] Tue Nov 19 08:01:35 2019 Notified TAP-Windows driver to set a DHCP IP/netmask of 30.30.30.2/255.255.255.240 on interface {D84553BB-5ECF-4323-B5CB-02EF6F5AAD82} [DHCP-serv: 30.30.30.14, lease-time: 31536000] Tue Nov 19 08:01:35 2019 Successful ARP Flush on interface [23] {D84553BB-5ECF-4323-B5CB-02EF6F5AAD82} Tue Nov 19 08:01:40 2019 Initialization Sequence Completed Hopefully this helps someone. Note: If you don’t have a DDNS you’ll have to keep updating your dynamic public IP address in the pfSense OpenVPN Client Export Utility (Host Name Resolution).

[@StefanRows]

Thanks for the detailed information!

[@yiboli6000]

Thanks for your video. This is very helpful. For me, it is the first-time to setup OpenVPN on Pfsense and succeeds.

[@stewiemcfadden5366]

Thanks for the great video! I had an OpenVPN configured before, but I had some weird DNS issue. I started over and followed your steps and its working perfect now. Your the Best!

[@StefanRows]

Thanks! Great it worked!

[@rickhawkes3802]

This truly was a foolproof video and I am really happy to say that I got a VPN connection my first try. I have more than one user and am wondering if I have to setup a different user certificate for each one, or if everyone can use the certificate I generated from my account.

[@StefanRows]

Thank you! Well, you could, but out of security reasons you should create one with each new user, so you can delete a user and cancel his access. Otherwise, if the user still has the certificate that is in use, it could be used for malicious intent later on.

[@ffiit5864]

@@StefanRows so i can create different users but use only one certificate? Danke!

[@hammar324]

Thank you for an excellent tutorial. Everything worked flawlessly on the first try thanks to you.

[@StefanRows]

Thanks for leaving a comment :)

[@rjy8960]

Hey Stefan, thank you for this! Really helpful in that you cover the certificates side of this which is what I was missing. Up and running without any problems.

[@marc0hh]

Thanks a bunch! I used your tutorial as a reference to set up openvpn on my pfsense(s!), at least twice now! Works great! ;)

[@rayanalazmi1772]

I don't know if you still see the comments or not, but thanks a lot your tutorial was great

[@StefanRows]

Always checking comments. Thanks for letting me know!

[@drjohnt4197]

Great video. Really helped me sort out the mess I created so I could get it all working. Thanks!

[@photosbyms]

Thanks for the video. All I had to do was move the wizard firewall rule above default block rules.

[@avirald]

If anyone has issues with iOS, where it connects to the VPN but does not load anything, what helped me was adding a DNS resolver Access List (on pfsense go to services -> DNS resolver -> Access list -> add -> for network put in the tunnel network/mask)

[@nandurx]

It still works in Sep 2020. Thanks.

[@craigdavidson52]

Works perfect, thanks. I can connect to my backend devices however have no internet on my phone? For example I can't connect to youtube or google search. Is there a setting for this? Thanks.

[@braybraycooldude1238]

Thanks bro. This was the most clear and concise guide I could find

[@troyboulton2230]

Awesome instructions - clear, concise and precise... I got my VPN running 1st go. Have subscribed to your channel - like your straightforward approach (plus the music you have in the background ;)

[@StefanRows]

Thanks a lot for the praise! Good to have you on board :)

[@MrGAZZAband]

Great video thank you. Wanted to learn more about pfSense and how to control my home broadband and internal network devices remotely to control access for my kids and monitor activity. Many thanks :D

[@StefanRows]

Got a Udemy Course coming out soon :)

[@MrGAZZAband]

@@StefanRows Hello Ceos3c after some help and advice. So I have pfSense set up as a VM in Hyper on a Windows 10 host. The WAN is DHCP connected to my home router and has an address of 192.168.1.166/24. I can ping the router from 192.168.1.1 from pfSense but not the LAN subnet which is 192.168.10.1/24 Also when I try to set up OpenVPN following your instructions I cannot get a connection it will error and say TLS key negotiation failed to occur. Am I missing something? Thanks

[@DevinAkin]

Well done. This was extremely helpful!

[@undergod1987]

thank you for your time on this.. Great vid. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for explaining a little extra. the people like us who don't know much about pfSense thank you.

[@StefanRows]

Oh thank you Curtis! Those comments are my favorite. I try to put as much detail as possible in my videos so everyone can understand them. Thank you for leaving a nice comment!

[@ElektroHak]

Thank you bro. Your video is the only valid guide that works for me!

[@theabshow6570]

Thank you! This was very easy to follow and worked perfectly!

[@head2g0]

Very Good Tutorial Sir. Thank you so much!! 😄 Greetings from Buenos Aires!

[@yfs9035]

I am really not a huge fan of user/pass for VPN, I'd much rather use certificates, pfsense is a little odd for me to do this on though. I'll figure it out I guess, thanks for the pointers. Also my damn audio is broken so I can't even hear lol. Noticed my comment was hearted, I got it, it was super easy, use the wizard and just change the server type and add a CA and certs :) Client export tool is amazing package for this too, one click configs

[@oriagranat9]

great tutorial, one thing i couldn't figure out tho is the open vpn for android for some reason windows works but not android

[@sdkoncepts3361]

How do we connect using Android device and pfsense having dual wan setup as failover/load balance

[@ppem84]

It Works for my pfsense box.

[@MeridiusMaximus]

Great Video, thank you! What if I need to hide my IP address when I connect to Internet, how do I do that? Can be done using this OpenVPN?

[@liviumarianiordache]

What ip do you want to hide? If you want to go to internet from let's say your laptop with the public IP of your vpn server you have to check the box at "Redirect IPv4 Gateway" in your vpn server settings.

[@superzapatat]

helppp it doesnt work for me i got everytime TLS error ;(

[@ierosgr]

Kinda worked..... did everything to the letter except the ip network of the client. Since mine is in the range of 2.0, gave the client 3.0 (while you gave 2.0) Had no errors even connected the client to me (tried 2 machines) and both had the same issue. They connect no errors they take the 3.2 ip but they cant browse even ping anywhere. PS Tried disabling firewall but no effect. The only thing I suspect is the DNS server at the VPN Server configuration page which you gave your pfsense ip and so I did.

[@mperez738]

easy to understand, good work!

[@StefanRows]

Thanks my friend!

[@uakondjakahorongo7131]

HI Great video but i'm getting this error when i connect (TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity) can you one assist?

[@christianbingman7746]

I am having the exact same issue. Could really use some help!

[@Henry-ct3vg]

Same ... :(

[@sp276]

Very nice tutorial but would you be able to tell me why I can't access the share once I am connected to the VPN. I can only ping the router but not the clients.

[@markf72]

Thanks. Good guide :) Worked well.

[@StefanRows]

Thanks!

[@rexuzelac5493]

Great step-by-step! Thank you

[@chrisumali9841]

Thanks for this clear and helpful tutorial. Have a great day

[@StefanRows]

Thanks Chris, the same to you. Have a good start in the new year!

[@mervinmercado4755]

Great video men, I will try this

[@umar7565]

Great video, but it works with Interface IP address for me only, not working with when i change to dynamic ip hostname resolution. Any suggestions? thanks

[@madnutter]

Great video - easy to follow. Thanks

[@it-everything]

Thank you so much very well explained, However it is not showing the OpenVPN Clients even i can't see the user and certificate name and they are created and exist? Thanking you in advance for any help if you can.

[@Xinud]

Great Video and Info! I implemented successfully!. One question, how do you configure pfsense to allow VPN clients to have outgoing / public Internet access while connected to VPN server? I can access internal systems but not public sites when connect by vpn.

[@hazemsalam7331]

Two valuable lessons: 1- Setting the right Host Name Resolution 2- Checking if the service is running or not before you start pulling your hair wondering why it's not connecting

[@johnsnyder1494]

Very clear tutorial. The only issue I faced was when using DuckDNS there was no spot to enter a Hostname. I found that one had to select "Other" and then enter a Hostname on the next screen.

[@StefanRows]

Thanks! Jup, not all services are covered. Good you figured it out!

[@jeytis72]

Very interesting indeed. I have a question. Can it work if Pfsense is behind double NAT? My router, where pfsense is connected, is connected in turn to my ISP's router. Thanks.

[@vladthegiant]

Thank you once again for another amazing tutorial!

[@ierosgr]

Nice tutor... I noticed during completing the setup that the Pfsense sees a different IP than what it was supposed to be. What I mean is that noip monitors a masked ip because of the ExpressVPN setup on PFsense I had accomplished months ago. Can both these services co-exist? If yes which IP should PFsense monitor ? Thank you

[@InThisVideoITV]

wow! great! gotta try this. Thnx

[@kazimriaz8319]

Very helpful thanks buddy.

[@lahirusandaruwan6124]

do you can explain how to setup opnvpn on pfsense using public static ip address sir? and is wa nt port forward in office router?

[@kartikasingh8047]

Hii, it is really a great video but I am having a issue while connecting from other networks that is tls handshake failed Please help me with this

[@alexiswiftrock]

The music is enthralling...any links to your playlist?

[@StefanRows]

It's actually from the KZbin Audio Library. (kzbin.infomusic) I mostly chose stuff from Electronic/Dark or Electronic/calm or something like that. Hope that helps.

[@donjenkins2465]

Great video... Got my OpenVPN server up in no time... Can't get Netbios to work though...

[@danmackell9529]

DID NO IP WORK IT DIDN't FOR ME

[@cloud5trike]

I follow your guide, I can connect to VPN but I cannot access internet on Client, could you help me how to config firewall rules?

[@prudentialpropertiesl.l.c2778]

Excellent lovely Please make more videos

[@user-rq3vi4oe7b]

Good afternoon, you have a video tutorial on IPSec certificate ssl

[@ffiit5864]

Greate video.. I managed to connect to VPN and my pfSense server can see that the user is connected.. but I can't do anything at the connection.. I can't ping a pc within my network or access my internal web server... Help much appreciated here. ThankS!

[@glenntrinidad9817]

Good day Sir. What if I have a Static IP address from my internet provider? Does it have same configuration? And also my ISP connection type is Route and IP Mode is PPPoE. Can you help me configure this for OpenVPN? Thanks in advance.

[@krypton8784]

Thanks for your contribution

[@iB4se]

Hello, I have a question about your tutorial. I set up everythink you do incl dyndns and the VPN works fine. But if i use it on mobile divises with cellular I can not connect to the internet or see my server. Do i need to set up some rules at pfsense? Greets and thanks

[@austinjones7942]

Thank you this was the best walkthrough

[@StefanRows]

Thanks!!

[@HK-sw3vi]

man it worked! les goooo!

[@jonathanlacroes266]

when I tried to access the VPN from another network it doesn't work

[@Rickety3263]

Success!! THANK. YOU. I set up my dynamic DNS through google, because it's a free service they offer with their domain names... (at $12/year including private listing status, it's the best deal on the planet). I used port forwarding for UDP 1194 on a daisy chain of routers to reach my pfSense box, and it worked like a charm. VPN access is blocked on some "guest" and "public" networks though. Any suggestions? I'm going to try changing the default port but I want to be immune from deep packet inspection as well. Using a linux client with the openVPN add-on to network-manager.

[@aratouniyans8290]

Awesome tutorial, thx, i was able to set it up and connect to my pfsense. I am to ping pfsense IP but when I try to ping my servers and my PC's I am not able to reach, times out. I have a few servers that I am running AD/DNS/DHCP/HyperV/zabbix and about 50 PC's that are domain joined. I cannot reach none of them. Any idea what config I need to do?

[@karimidres6140]

great job, Merci , Dank. best tuto ever - by any chance did you build a site to site vpn using IPsec

[@StefanRows]

Thanks for the praise! I did, kind of. Its between AWS and pfSense, but maybe it helps you anyway: www.ceos3c.com/pfsense/site-to-site-vpn-between-pfsense-and-aws-vpc/

[@namansharma4965]

Great Video. Is that possible to bind vpn with client Mac address so that client can't share vpn with anyone else

[@rohanshet484]

Hi... Your tutorial was good... Now I want to setup open VPN on pfsense to pfsense... So can u tel me how to configure that...?

[@srshankar29]

Hey, Thanks for the video, can you do a video on configuring VPN using IPV6 only. :)

[@rohailnasir2430]

Thanx a lot man, It worked for me

[@daansteijvers3206]

thank you!!! saved my life!!!!

[@Rohambili]

if i have multiply computers on my network all needed different users and CA certificates? Or just make another username and use the same certificates? another question... how to use with service autoconnect thing in windows? Cant figure out.

[@msyachril]

nice and clear..

[@aamirabdulwahiddarweesh2444]

You are really awesome brother... thanks very much

[@StefanRows]

So nice of you

[@richard.meriveles]

it says Wed Jul 24 15:09:50 2019 TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity) Wed Jul 24 15:09:50 2019 TLS Error: TLS handshake failed

[@Henry-ct3vg]

Have the same Problem!

[@contractorlanre9423]

check my comment, hopefully it helps.

[@contractorlanre9423]

@@Henry-ct3vg check my comment, hopefully it helps.

[@attilavidacs24]

Please help I'm getting this error: TLS Error: TLS key negotiation failed to occur within 60 seconds (check your network connectivity) TLS Error: TLS handshake failed

[@mimigotteron]

I have the same problem. i use a static IP but i dont see where i typ this static IP in all those settings... no idea how this VPN should find my Router like that. did u solved the Problem?

[@sinshawt7435]

. I used two different networks in locally so if I used VPN it well removed the other two network configurations ? . the other on all the local and the VPN connect client are pass the follow on the VPN connection ?

[@perfabrinsrensen1746]

I just installed VPN on my pfsense 2.5 and the guide works on that also. But for some reason i can not access the local folders throug VPN. Is this an expected behaviour? I guess it's a routing problem?

[@rgolaboratory8998]

hi Master... how about connecting 2 pfsense with different ISP? i can't figure out what gone wrong on my setup been trying for days

[@joperez1980]

Great tutorial. Thank you!

[@StefanRows]

Thanks, man!

[@davsyl94]

Thank you!

[@mohsinalibhatti7072]

i have Public ip on my dsl modem from my ISP, please let me know know to setup things so i can connect from anywhere to my pfsense network.

[@comet4242]

i did this.. but since i have 2 different Openvpns servers its not directing to Firewall Tabs properly.. how do you get it to when you have 2 OpenVpn Interfaces, goto there corresponding Firewall Tab and not constantly goto OpenVpn firewall tab.. is there a way to delete... and force it to goto the right Firewall tab and do those restrictions i set for it

[@adrianmiras7511]

thanks and God bless you