so that's what i got:

-openvpn & openvpn-applet installed

-isp with openvpn: hotsplots.de

-their server address

-a file openvpn_key.tar ,which i should probably untar ;-) ( to any specific directory? )

questions:

-is there a sample configuration for /etc/openvpn?

-when i open the openvpn conf. dialogue i see stuff
like cert file / ca file /secret file & pkcs12 file - what's that
about?


thanks for any insights!

According to this page http://www.hotsplots.de/support/docu...envpn-doc.html , there should be some zip (or tar?) file which contains the configuration.

For working openvpn configuration you usually need more information than the server address and key.

sorry, but i think that's the openvpn binary, not a config?

cheers!

are you running openvpn via hotsplots.de?

cheers again!

No I am not.

This part is what gives you the config (or should, I really can't test it)
Entpacken Sie die ZIP-Datei in das config-Verzeichnis der OpenVPN-Installation. (Typischerweise C:\Programme\OpenVPN\config\).

o.k. that was a big help!!!

i did cp openvpn_key.tar into /etc/openvpn & untared it with "tar -xvvf myfile.tar" .

now i got in /etc/openvpn the following files:

user.crt

user.key

hotsplots-ca.crt

hotsplots.conf

& of course openvpn_key.tar

which should work for the first 4 fields of the openvpn-applet,

but what about "secret file" & "pkcs12 file" ?

thanks again!

With openvpn you "run" the .conf file, and this file refers to all the other files you need.

So open it up in notes and check where it expects the crt, key, ca.crt, secrets etc to be. If the conf doesn't refer to any of the files provided by hotsplots, then they may not be required.

If the .conf file doesn't have the same path /etc/openvpn for each of the files, you can just update the path to /etc/openvpn. They may have issued a .conf file that is more geared toward Windows users, so change the paths if so.

The .conf file isn't as hard to read as you might first think.

For openvph-applet all fields are not required. And because you already have the files in /etc/openvpn directory you don't need to import them again with openvpn-applet. Import function is only about copying files to /etc/openvpn

amazing, linked the fields in the applet and it w o r k s (testet it with www.heise.de/ip/)!

thanks a lot again!