Set up on Linux

Linux Workaround

This was supplied by one of our customers as a work around that helped him. It may work for you but we hold no responsibility for these instructions. So like all good computer users, ensure that you backup everything first before trying this:

This is a quick how to for getting MY Expat Network to work on Linux and similar systems.
I am doing this on an XBMC Live version of Ubuntu 9.11 so it is possible that any other version of Linux or even Ubuntu may not produce the same results. And you will need to know the password for super user.

You need to download the MAC OS version of the software.
Extract the following files from the MAC version of the My Expat VPN download
ca.crt, client.ca, client.key and MyExpatNetwork.ovpn they are located in the MyExpatNet.app\Contents\Resources\Deploy directory.

I actually downloaded the zip file on to an XP machine then extracted the necessary files and put them on to the Linux machine. I stored them in Downloads/vpn but they can be anywhere.

Now you need to install open vpn for your linux distribution. Open a terminal window such as Xterm.
Type
sudo apt-get install openvpn

This will install openvpn on to your machine. That’s it for the install.

Now to using the vpn connection

If you are using a web based TV on demand service you will need to disable the screen saver and power management for the screen otherwise you will get a blank screen every 10minutes or so and will need to keep moving the mouse.
Type
sudo xset s off
This will switch off the screensaver.
Then type
sudo dpms 0 0 0
This will switch off the power management.
You now need to make sure you are in the same directory as your extracted files, so in the terminal window type
cd Downloads/vpn
This puts you in the correct directory.

No you are ready to run OpenVpn. Now type in the terminal window
sudo openvpn --config MyExpatNetwork.ovpn
This runs openvpn and uses the MyExpatNetwork.ovpn config file for the settings

And that’s it.

Just run your favourite browser and start enjoying your VPN connection To exit the VPN connection just press ctrl+Z

I did try various GUI interfaces, such as network-manager with the plugin for openvpn but I couldn’t get it to work at all. The above worked first time every time.

I have also included the command sequence from the xterm window when you want to start the VPN so you can see the messages you get when its working correctly.

Using a script

If you want to run the whole thing as a script then open up a text editor in Linux, I use GNU Nano, but they are all the same. Just make sure the editor saves the file as a text file.

Now write the following in the editor

#!bin/bash
#open vpn script
sudo xset s off
sudo xset dpms 0 0
cd Downloads/vpn
sudo openvpn --config MyExpatNetwork.ovpn
Save script as myvpn

To be able to execute it you will need to change its permissions. Type the following command
chmod 755 myvpn

Note: This will set read write execute(7) permission for owner, for group and other permission is read and execute only(5).

Now to run the script

Just type.
./myvpn

You will be asked to type in your SU password and that’s it.