Setup OpenVPN Connect

1. Download the OpenVPN Connect installer here: Windows OpenVPN Connect Client
2. Double-click the installer you've downloaded to start the installation. When you get the below 'Security Warning', just click 'Run' to continue the installation process.
   
3. As soon as it is installed, you will see the OpenVPN Connect icon on your desktop and on the system tray:
   
   Note:: When you reboot your computer, OpenVPN Connect may not start automatically and you won't see the icon on the system tray. Click the OpenVPN Connect icon on the desktop to start the client.

1. Visit our Network page at https://ironsocket.com/network#ovpn.
2. Select the OpenVPN server location you wish to connect to and click Get Profile.
   
3. Select the encryption level you would like to use and click Download to download your .ovpn profile.
   
4. Click the OpenVPN Connect icon in the system tray to open the OpenVPN menu.
5. Click Import and then select From local file...
   
6. Browse to the folder where the .ovpn configuration profile was downloaded. Select the config file that you'd like to use and then click Open.
7. After a successful import, you will see a bubble message that says The connection has been saved.

Connect to OpenVPN

1. If not started yet, double-click the OpenVPN Connect icon on the desktop.
2. Click the OpenVPN Connect icon on the system tray to open the OpenVPN menu, select the VPN profile you wish to use and then click Connect...
   
3. If you get an OpenVPN Warning to allow VPN connection, click Yes.
   
4. Enter your VPN Username and Password and click Connect. You can find your login credentials on your VPN Login Details page.
   
   Note: Your VPN login credentials are not the same as your IronSocket website login details..
   
5. When you have successfully connected, you will see a bubble message like The connection to uk-lon-2.isvpn.net has been established.
   

Disconnect from OpenVPN

1. Click the OpenVPN icon on the system tray to open the OpenVPN menu, then click for example Disconnect from uk-lon-2.isvpn.net.

Setup OpenVPN Community

1. Download the latest old stable community version (2.3.x) of the OpenVPN client (Windows Installer) at http://openvpn.net/index.php/open-source/downloads.html.
   
   Note: If you have a 32-bit Operating System, download the 32-bit version of the installer. You can check your System Type by going to Control Panel > System and Security > System.
2. Open the folder where installer is downloaded and double-click the openvpn-install-.exe file to begin installation.
3. You may encounter a Security Warning screen: "Do you want to run this software?". If you see the Security Warning screen, click Run to run the software.
4. The Setup Wizard prompt will appear. Click Next to continue.
5. The OpenVPN license agreement and terms appear. Click I Agree to continue.
6. The component selection dialog appears. Leave all components checked with their default settings and click Next.
7. Select your destination folder and click Install. Note the Destination Folder location during install (usually C:\Program Files\OpenVPN)
8. When the installation is complete, click Next.
9. The wizard will notify you of the completion of the installation and prompt you to click Finish.

1. Visit our Network page at https://ironsocket.com/network#ovpn.
2. Select the OpenVPN server location you wish to connect to and click Get Profile

3. Select the encryption level you would like to use and click Download to download your .ovpn.

4. Open the folder (usually the Downloads folder) where you have downloaded the profiles and then copy them to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config folder.
   
   Note:If you get a pop-up message that says "You’ll need to provide administrator permission to copy to this folder", click Continue.

Connect to OpenVPN

1. To connect, find the OpenVPN GUI icon on your desktop and double-click it to launch OpenVPN.
2. In the system tray, right click on the OpenVPN GUI icon.
Note: When you cannot find the icon on the system tray after starting OpenVPN GUI, check for hidden icons. Click the link below for how to view hidden systray icons: http://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch000734.htm.
3. Find the site to connect to from the menu, and choose Connect from the site's submenu.

4. Enter your VPN username and password when prompted and click OK.

5. The OpenVPN GUI icon in the tray will turn green once the secure connection is established.

6. To verify, open your browser, visit https://ironsocket.com and you should see a new location.

Disconnect from OpenVPN

1. Click the OpenVPN icon on the system tray to open the menu.
2. Select the active connection (the one with a check mark) and then click Disconnect.

Automatic login without manually entering VPN username and password

Are you thinking of "automatic login" without the need to enter password every time you want to connect to OpenVPN? If so, please read on.

Currently, there is no secure way to store the user name and password in Windows using OpenVPN. For security purposes, most versions of OpenVPN do not allow a user/password to be read from a file. If you are willing to take the security risk of having your login information saved in the clear on your hard drive, you can use the OpenVPN GUI client and set it up to automatically log in. Recognizing the security risks, the procedure is as follows:

1. If you do not have OpenVPN GUI installed yet, download and setup it up first.
2. Navigate to C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config folder.
3. Using a text editor like Wordpad or Notepad, create a file name password.txt.
   On the first line, type your VPN username (12345 in this example).
   On the second line, type your VPN password.

4. Save the file.
5. Next is to open and edit your .ovpn file with Wordpad and find the line that reads auth-user-pass. Change it to auth-user-pass password.txt (without the quotes). Save and exit.

6. Test the connection and see if it will connect automatically.

Troubleshooting

OpenVPN Connect stops working and the client shows 'No VPN Servers found'
If this happens, it could be because the OpenVPN Access Client service stopped. Try this as a fix:

1. Go to Control Panel > System and Security > Administrative Tools
2. Click Services
3. Scroll down and look for OpenVPN Access Client
4. If the Status column does not show Started, right-click OpenVPN Access Client and select Start
5. Try connecting again. You may need to restart your OpenVPN Connect application.

OpenVPN Connect shows 'The connection to ab-xyz-1.isvpn.net has been disconnected' when trying to connect.
Check and make sure the OpenVPN AS (OAS) TAP adapter is enabled.

1. Go to Control Panel > Network and Internet > Network and Internet Sharing Center
2. Click Change adapter settings on the left side.
3. Look for an adapter with TAP-Win32 Adapter OAS or TAP Adapter OAS NDIS6.0 under it's name and make sure it is enabled. When it is disabled, you will see 'Disabled' under the name.
4. To enable, right-click the adapter and select Enable

I am getting the message 'Authentication Failed' when trying to connect
Be sure to check that your account is still active. If it is, note that your VPN Username and Password is different than your IronSocket Website credentials. You can locate your VPN Username and Password on your VPN Login Details page.

After connecting I am unable to browse and I get disconnected after 1-2 minutes
Some routers and ISPs use abnormal UDP Network Address Translation (NAT) configurations which can result in your outgoing data jumping between different outgoing ports. This sort of connection is not supported by OpenVPN. Try switching to TCP to see if this resolves your connectivity issues. See how to do this below.

How do I switch between TCP and UDP protocols?
All of our .ovpn configuration files include both UDP and TCP connection information. By default UDP typically is used first as it appears first in the list of connection settings.

If you are using the OpenVPN Connect application you can simply adjust the settings to force the connection to use UDP or TCP. On Windows and Mac OSX this is an option in the Right-click / Control-click menu on the taskbar / menu bar icon. On iOS, in the general "Settings" area OpenVPN Connect can be selected and configured. On Android, the Preferences option can be selected by pressing the menu button within the OpenVPN Connect app.

If you are using OpenVPN Community or Tunnelblick you can edit the .ovpn file directly with a text editor and comment out the remote UDP or TCP lines. These lines appear at the bottom of the file and start with the word 'remote' and end with 'udp' or 'tcp'. To comment out a line just add a semi-colon ';' at the start of the line. For example change "remote uk-lon-1.isvpn.net 53 udp" to ";remote uk-lon-1.usvpn.net 53 udp". Save the file and re-import it into your application.