Clients. Getting the VPN to work. Setting up VPN Clients, SoftEther Client , and OpenVPN Client


Very broadly speaking, there are 3 main ways to do this VPN stuff
_ a “low level” solution: In Windows you can set up VPN using existing operating system things, if you know what you are doing.
_ a “high level” solution: Download and install all encompassing “App”. Then click the button to Hide yourself.
_ An intermediate solution, requiring some software, but also requiring some understanding of your operating system in order to get it working like a an “App”

Here I will look at the last option. Later I might try out the first option

Client
In the context of things VPN, a Client is only loosely defined. It broadly is referring to the software part of the final VPN tunnelling solution that is on the users computer.
So we need to get at this software.
For the low level solution, it is hard to define a "Client", since the software is all or mostly already there, buried / integrated into the Internet parts of the controlling system/ operating system. Here we would be broadly referring to the control panel as the part of the operating system that we can influence. Within that are, amongst other things, various Internet sections and related Network sections. They are all imprecisely defined and organised. Hence giving a working solution example is preferable to a general discussion which would be of little practical use.
At the other, high level extreme, a simple to use “App”, such as that from hide.me for operating systems Windows 7 and higher ( https://hide.me/de/software/windows ) , would be referred to as their “own VPN Client-Software”

Getting the VPN to work
The software that we will be mostly using in the worked examples, is from two popular free sources, SoftEther and OpenVPN. Principally the software from those free sources is involved with VPN things. Specifically the software from them that we want either has the word Client somewhere in name of the files that we need, or is referred to loosely as their “Client software” or “VPN Client software”.
As we are at a “mid/intermediate level”, we will see that we have to have some knowledge of various parts of the control panel associated with Internet and Network.
Using the high level option such as the hide.me app, the solution would simply involve downloading and installing the app. After doing this, a simple to use , user friendly window then pops up after double clicking a desktop icon which appears after a successful instillation. Sometimes the pop up may come up when restarting the computer.
For the option of using SoftEther or OpenVPN, there are some extra steps to be taken after the client software is installed.




Recap: To remind us what we are doing
Lets just step back, and say again clearly what we are doing.
We will be looking at a way to do VPN. There are a few ways to do this. I am looking at the way that uses one of two popular freely available softwares. (Later I will look at OpenVPN)
The software’s basic function is to organise and encrypt what you send to and what you receive from, a Server elsewhere. It does that in such a way that the Server sends and receives as if it had sent itself from that Server: Think of it as you digging a tunnel from your house to the Server. Then you somehow make a connection possibility through various cables from your computer via the tunnel to the Server. You organise the connection such that you can both
use the server as a normal computer surfing the internet,
and
then send back what the Server receives from the internet to your computer via the connection in the tunnel.
The main reason usually for doing this is to effectively “hide” behind the server – You want everyone to think that you are using that server , rather than your own computer. (In this case, the remote Server is just acting as a computer for you, surfing the internet.)
SoftEther or OpenVPN could be thought of the thing that digs the tunnel and makes your connection, or rather gives you a switch to allow you to connect or disconnect to the remote Server as and when you choose to. ( Usually witjh such Client software, a final user friendly interface will allow you to connect or disconnect to different Servers situated at different remote locations around the real World ).
VPN has generally been around for some time, and there will be software in many Servers allowing this sort of connection to be made. Usually, once you have the Client software installed and/or organised , then only 3 further things are required to allow your chosen Client software to make use of such a connection, all of which you will usually receive from your VPN provider :
_ An internet address, ( one for each Server that you want to be able to connect to - ( Either the provider owns them or has some agreement with the owner to allow them/you to use them))
_ A Username
_ A Password
The last two may or may not be the same Password and Username which you use to create an account with a VPN provider. This will likely vary with provider.
For example,
_for the VPN provider hide.me , with the free service allows you to have one connection at any one time. Your account Password and Username is also used in this case to allow that one connection at any one time to any of the 5 servers available. For each server you will need an internet address:
For Netherlands - free-nl.hide.me
for Singapore -free-sg.hide.me
for Canada - free-ca.hide.me
for US free-us.hide.me
for US-East free-us-east.hide.me
for US-West free-us-west.hide.me
https://imgur.com/rXWYAyz
_ for the VPN provider hide.me with the paid ( premium ) service allows you to have up to 5 simultaneous VPN connections. In this case, you still use your normal account Password , but have a modified Username@devicetwo for each separate connection. These different passwords may be referred to as devices .

Most Clients, such as SoftEther VPN Client and OpenVPN Client will, once set up, allow you to have a user friendly interface from which you can select from a list of Servers. You will typically need to repeat a set of steps for each of the Servers you want to use. In Other words you need to repeat a set of steps to add them to the list in the user friendly interface from which you select your Server when you want to use VPN

Usually, if you use a providers own Client software, which is the “high level” solution for VPN, ( sometimes referred to as their Client “App” ) , then all their available Servers are effectively already set up in it, and the list to choose from is already there. To get your VPN up and running using such a solution , you need to do little more than download and install their “App”. Often their app will start each time you start your computer thereafter. Its use is fairly obvious.

We are looking at an intermediate level solution for VPN, so we need to do a bit of extra work after installing the Client software