My OpenVPN client and server say “Connection Initiated with x.x.x.x” but I cannot ping the server through the VPN. Why?
This usually occurs because a firewall on the server or client is blocking the TUN/TAP interface. If you already have a firewall on your system, chances are high that it will block incoming connections on new interfaces by default, so you will need to add explicit firewall rules to allow connections via the TUN/TAP interface. In general, it’s reasonable to open up TUN/TAP interfaces to all traffic, since any incoming connections over these interfaces will already have been authenticated by OpenVPN. An exception to this rule would be if you don’t fully trust the OpenVPN clients connecting to the server. Assuming that’s not the case, on Linux, TUN/TAP interfaces can be opened up with the iptables shell command: # Allow TUN interface connections to OpenVPN server iptables -A INPUT -i tun+ -j ACCEPT # Allow TUN interface connections to be forwarded through other interfaces iptables -A FORWARD -i tun+ -j ACCEPT # Allow TAP interface connections to OpenVPN server iptables -A INPUT -i tap+ -j
