[asterisk-users] VPN between Asterisk server and phone client

[Salvatore Giudice]

SSL VPN's can be a bit sketchy when it comes to QoS. Usually IPSEC is
recommended for udp streaming media. However, people have shown some decent
success with SSL VPN's and VoIP. Free S/WAN is a good option if you want to
try IPSEC. It should be much more UDP friendly. 


The following aren't VPN's. They are more like encrypted data pipes:

Zebeedee is also a fun option for encrypted, compressed tunnels suitable for
UDP. http://www.winton.org.uk/zebedee/ You can do some fun stuff when you
setup IAX on an internal interface with a Zebeedee listener. It's not for
the faint of heart though since setup can be a bit encumbering.

Some people have also successfully use stunnel (SSL) and SSH to accomplish
the same thing. I personally avoid SSL altogether.

--------------------------------------------------
Salvatore Giudice
Salvatore.Giudice at VoIPSecurityTraining.com

VoIP Security Training, LLC
http://VoIPSecurityTraining.com

848 N. Rainbow Blvd. #1676
Las Vegas, NV 89107
Phone: (617) 959-7625
Fax: (214) 279-2906


-----Original Message-----
From: asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com
[mailto:asterisk-users-bounces at lists.digium.com] On Behalf Of Kai-Uwe Jensen
Sent: Wednesday, May 02, 2007 3:25 PM
To: Asterisk Users Mailing List - Non-Commercial Discussion
Subject: Re: [asterisk-users] VPN between Asterisk server and phone client

Concur with Steve: OpenVPN is your friend. At one time, I used "VPN on
Demand"-type functionality in my dial plan to trunk a certain subset
of calls to a different * server via OpenVPN. This is what that
dialplan looked like:

[trunkfreecallsviaoffsite]
exten => _X.,1,NoOp
exten => _X.,n,Playback(creating_vpn)
exten => _X.,n,System(/usr/local/bin/startvpn clientname ${CALLERID(name)})
exten => _X.,n,Wait(10)
exten => _X.,n,Playback(success_vpn)
exten => _X.,n,Dial(IAX2/vpnmaster/**${EXTEN},60,TW)
exten => _X.,n,Hangup

exten => h,1,System(/usr/local/bin/stopvpn clientname ${CALLERID(name)})
exten => h,n,Playback(stopping_vpn)

The startvpn and stopvpn scripts (which I've since managed to lose)
would establish the VPN between this server and the "vpnmaster"
server. The scripts would also keep track of current users
(${CALLERID(name)} of the VPN-trunk. As a side effect of user
tracking, I'd know when the VPN was already established, so I didn't
need to re-connect. Similarly, I'd only tear it down when no users
were left.

As I mentioned, this does not address your direct need to create a VPN
between an endpoint (softphone) and your server. My example simply
illustrates the straight-forward OpenVPN approach. You can install the
OpenVPN GUI tools on your desktop/laptop and create the VPN manually
when you need it.

BTW, I stopped using this technique when we added a second local
server, so I didn't have to go across the WAN for offloading certain
calls anymore.
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