From frustration to simplicity

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Today, I set out to configure a remote access VPN for my small office. My first choice was L2TP/IPsec with StrongSwan and xl2tpd, mainly because it’s supported natively by Windows. It seemed like a solid option; secure and well-documented. But several hours later, after wading through IKE version mismatches, arcane config options, and ambiguous Windows error codes, I hit a wall. Despite correctly setting up IPsec and L2TP, Windows insisted on trying IKEv2, and StrongSwan repeatedly rejected the connections.

Exhausted by endless logs and incompatible defaults, I decided to abandon the legacy stack and try something different: OpenVPN. In under ten minutes, using the widely respected OpenVPN install script by Angristan, I had a working VPN server. The script handled everything—certificates, firewall rules, user config—and generated a ready-to-go .ovpn file. I dropped it into OpenVPN Connect on Windows, hit "Connect", and just like that, it worked.

Sometimes the best tool isn’t the one with native OS support or the most complex configuration. It’s the one that works reliably with minimal friction. OpenVPN saved the day.

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