[...]Ubuntu Linux: How to setup a VPN connection to a SonicWall router using Openswan and Pre-shared Keys (PSK) :: Pelago :: web design & development blog[...]…

Do the ids for GroupVPN and identifier get replaced by actual values and do I keepthe @-sign? I.e, say my policy is called WAN GjroupVPN and the id is 12345, what would the to files look like?

leftid=@WAN GroupVPN or leftid=WAN GroupVPN or leftid=@GroupVPN?

rightid=@sonicwall.unique.identifier or rightid=@12345 or rightid=12345

and similar question for secrets file.

Hope some can help.

In the mean time, what works really well is this:

Set up a simple Windows XP VirtualBox inside of your linux machine. Make sure the box has two virtual network adaptors, 1 Bridged, and 1 Host-only.

Install the Sonic GlobalVPN client inside the Windows XP virtual box. Use the client to connect to the office LAN. Use Windows Connection Sharing to share this connection with the Host-Only network interface (you’ll need to use Virtual Box’s global settings to disable the DHCP server on that host-only virtual network, and you’ll need to set that interface in linux (it’s vbnet something, use ifconfig to see what it’s called) to get an IP address through DHCP. Finally, add some static routes in linux so that any connections to the office network’s family of IP addresses are routed through the IP address of the virtual box’s host-only interface.

Been using this since day one and the tunnel stays stable for days at a time, and my linux apps all have access to the office network. Every few weeks when I get in the right mood I try to get OpenSwan to work again and then give up after a few hours.