Connect to a PPTP VPN Server from Linux Terminal

Step 1 : Install pptp client.

sudo apt-get -y install pptp-linux

Step 2 : Setup PPTP Client

Add secret:

File : /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

You can use:

sudo nano /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Syntax :

<username> <server_name> <password> <ip_address>

Example :

# Secrets for authentication using CHAP

# client        server  secret                  IP addresses

yourname         myvpn YourPassword             *

Step 3 : Create VPN connection:

Example for myvpn

sudo nano /etc/ppp/peers/myvpn

Example:

pty "pptp IP-OR-HOST-NAME --nolaunchpppd"

name yourname

remotename myvpn

require-mppe-128

file /etc/ppp/options.pptp

ipparam myvpn

Step 4 : Create a route script that will get run after the PPP connection establishes.

Create file :

sudo nano /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/99vpnroute

Then add:

#!/bin/bash

if [ "$PPP_IPPARAM" == "myvpn" ]; then

        route add -net 192.168.20.0/24 dev $PPP_IFACE

fi

Then Make the vpn route script executable:

sudo chmod +x /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/99vpnroute

Connecting to the PPTP VPN Server

To connect to the remote PPTP VPN server, issue the following command:

sudo pon myvpn

#or

sudo pppd call myvpn

Disconnecting from the PPTP VPN Server

The simplest way to disconnect from the PPP connection is to use the following command:

sudo poff myvpn

#To kill all active PPP connections, you can use the following:

sudo killall pppd

or

sudo kill `cat /var/run/ppp0.pid`

Log:

If the ppp connection doesn’t get established, check the /var/log/FILE log file for errors:

sudo tail -f /var/log/syslog

sudo tail -f /var/log/lastlog

sudo tail -n 25 /var/log/THE_LOG_FILE