Since the U.S. government passed legislation allowing Internet service providers to sell their users’ browsing history, the web has exploded with conversations about how to protect yourself from your ISP’s surveillance. The best method is to use a VPN to protect your Internet traffic. A VPN makes it impossible for your ISP to spy on you by passing all your web traffic through an encrypted “tunnel,” hiding the contents of your web browsing session from view.
Getting a VPN set up typically isn’t too challenging. You’ll need to sign up with a VPN provider first, and then follow their setup instructions. Most VPN providers supply their customers with custom VPN clients to connect to their network. This software ranges from inoffensive to non-functional, and it can be a point of frustration for users.
If you’re annoyed by your provider’s software, you probably don’t have to use it. Most providers also support OpenVPN, which is an open-source VPN application that runs through a separate software client. The best-knowing application to set up OpenVPN configurations on your Mac is Tunnelblick, and it’s excellent. Follow the steps below to set up OpenVPN configurations with Tunnelblick and ditch your VPN provider’s clunky client.
Set Up OpenVPN with Tunnelblick
To set up OpenVPN on your Mac, you’ll need to install Tunnelblick from the developer’s website and install the necessary OpenVPN configuration files from your VPN provider.
Click on the Mac icon to begin download. Wait until the download completes, and then open it (the exact procedure varies a bit per browser). Open the ‘OpenVPN Connect installer’ to start the installation. Connecting Tunnelblick on macOS. Open the Tunnelblick application from the search app, click on the magnifying glass icon at the top right of the screen and the search field will appear. Type 'Tunnelblick', wait a bit and click on the tunnel icon of the application in the list of results. File Locations - Tunnelblick Free open source OpenVPN VPN client server software GUI for Mac OS X. Includes OpenVPN, OpenSSL, easy-rsa, and drivers. Tunnelblick is free software that many VPN service providers recommend or supply to their customers. We do not provide VPN service, just software. For a list of Mac-friendly VPN service providers, see Getting VPN Service. If your VPN was set up by someone else, they are the best source for support.
1. Download and install the most recent stable version of Tunnelblick from the developer’s website.
2. The first time you open Tunnelblick, you’ll see a message about requiring VPN configuration files. Click I have configuration files – you’ll get these from your VPN provider in the next steps.
3. The next window explains how to set up OpenVPN configuration files. Click OK.
4. The above-mentioned OpenVPN configuration files should be available from your VPN provider. You’ll likely received a ZIP archive containing a variety of files with the .ovpn extension. These files include all the data about your VPN services that Tunnelblick will need to get the connection functioning. To obtain these files, you might need to contact customer service, visit your VPN’s support pages, or do some Googling.
5. After you’ve downloaded the necessary OpenVPN files, open Tunnelblick’s configuration screen by clicking on its icon in the menu bar. Select VPN Details… from the drop down menu.
6. To add configuration files to Tunnelblick, drag and drop the .ovpn files from Finder into Tunnelblick’s left-side menu pane. Do not drag over any other file types, like .crt or .pem files.
7. Tick “Apply to All” and click “Only Me” in the next window.
8. The configurations will automatically be added to Tunnelblick’s menu and available for connection.
Connecting & Disconnecting from VPN Configurations
Now that we’ve set up OpenVPN configurations, we can connect to them from the same Tunnelblick menu.
1. To start a new VPN connection, click on the Tunnelblick menubar icon and click on a configuration.
2. Enter your username and password for your VPN provider and click OK.
3. A small notification window will pop up in the upper-right showing your VPN connection status. Once the connection is complete, the notification’s text will turn green and the window will fade away.
4. The Tunnelblick icon will also animate while the connection processes. When Tunnelblick’s icon turns black instead of light grey, you’ve connected successfully.
5. To see your connection status and public IP address, click the Tunnelblick icon and look at the first line. To disconnect, click that same menu item labelled Disconnect All.
Tunnelblick For Ipad
Sharing Credentials Across VPN Configurations
If your VPN provider has multiple exit nodes or configurations, you can set up Tunnelblick to use the same login credentials for all of them. This saves you constantly retyping your credentials, which can be long and hard to remember.
In testing, this process has proven a little buggy. If possible, set up sharing credentials immediately after you’ve installed your VPN configurations to avoid any potential issues.
1. Click on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar.
2. Select VPN Details… to open the configuration menu.
3. In the configuration menu, click on the Settings tab. Then click the button labelled Advanced… to open the advanced configuration menu.
4. Under the VPN Credentials tab, tick the box next to All configurations use Common credentials. This will set all your VPN configurations to use the same username and password.
5. To save the username and password that the credentials will use, log in to a VPN connection that doesn’t already have saved credentials.
6. Type in your username and password. Tick Save in Keychain under both the username and password to save your login information as common credentials.
![Tunnelblick Tunnelblick](/uploads/1/1/0/4/110457803/317889433.png)
7. After you log in, Tunnelblick will save those credentials and apply them to any other VPN connections you initiate.
Conclusion
Openvpn Tunnelblick
Tunnelblick is a strong OpenVPN client for macOS that can handle multiple configurations at one time. It can also help improve security and ease of use if your VPN provider’s client is buggy or badly designed. Just get OpenVPN configuration files from your VPN provider and you’ll be good to go.
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Highlighted Articles News Installing Tunnelblick Uninstalling Tunnelblick Setting up Configurations Using Tunnelblick Getting VPN Service Common Problems Configuring OpenVPN Release Notes Thanks FAQ Discussion Group Read Before You Post | On This Page Starting Tunnelblick Quitting Tunnelblick Automatically Starting Tunnelblick Upon Login Normal Tunnelblick Operation The 'VPN Details' Window Configurations Appearance Preferences Utilities Info Keyboard Shortcuts Using More than One VPN Configuration Connecting to More than One VPN Simultaneously Command-Line Interface Starting TunnelblickTo launch Tunnelblick, double-click Tunnelblick in the Applications folder. Tunnelblick will automatically be launched the next time you log in if you do not quit Tunnelblick before you log out, shut down, or restart your computer. Tunnelblick requires few computer resources when no VPN is connected, so most people leave it running all the time. Quitting TunnelblickTo quit Tunnelblick, click on the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen, then click 'Quit Tunnelblick'. You can also type quit Tunnelblick by typing Command-Q when a Tunnelblick window is at the front of the display.
Automatically Starting Tunnelblick Upon LoginTunnelblick is a menu bar item, not an application. If Tunnelblick is running when you log out, shut down, or restart your computer, Tunnelblick will automatically launch the next time you log in. If you do not want Tunnelblick to launch automatically the next time you log in, quit Tunnelblick before you log out, shut down, or restart. Tunnelblick will also be launched automatically if any VPNs are active when you log in. (Don't confuse the automatic launch of Tunnelblick upon login with the 'automatically connect on launch” option, which causes a connection to be established whenever Tunnelblick is launched.) Normal Tunnelblick OperationOnce Tunnelblick has been launched, you control it from the Tunnelblick icon in the menu bar at the top of your screen. The Tunnelblick icon is usually placed near the Spotlight icon. When no VPN connection is active, the icon is dim: When a VPN is connected, the icon is dark: If you click on the icon, you'll see a drop down menu similar to the following: There will be a 'Connect” menu item for each available VPN configuration; configurations in subfolders appear on submenus. Click on a 'Connect' item to establish the corresponding VPN connection. While the connection is being established, a dash will appear in the menu item and the Tunnelblick icon will darken and lighten repeatedly. Depending on your setup, you may be asked for a passphrase and/or username/password. You can save your passphrase, username, or password in Apple's Keychain by checking the appropriate checkbox. The connection will be active until you disconnect it or log out. Putting your computer to sleep will close the connection; when the computer wakes up Tunnelblick will attempt to reestablish the connection. (This behavior may be modified using Tunnelblick's 'Advanced' settings window.) Use 'Disconnect” from the drop-down menu to close the VPN connection. Use 'Quit” to close all open connections and quit the program and prevent Tunnelblick from starting itself at your next login at your computer. Note: Tunnelblick will not automatically disconnect a configuration that is set up to automatically connect 'when the computer starts'. The connection will remain open until your computer shuts down or you specifically disconnect it. The 'VPN Details' WindowWhen the Tunnelblick menu is displayed, if you click on 'VPN Details” a window similar to the following will appear: This window has five panels: Configurations, Appearance, Preferences, Utilities, and Info. Select a panel by clicking on its button in the toolbar at the top of the window. The 'Configurations' panel is shown above. ConfigurationsThe Configurations panel has an entry for each configuration on the left side. Tabs with the log and settings for the configuration selected on the left side are displayed on the right side. You may adjust the relative sizes of the left and right side by dragging the small dot between the two sides. Note: The username and password of a computer administrator are required for most changes to configurations. At the bottom of the list of configurations on the left side of the window there are three small buttons:
'Connect' and 'Disconnect' buttons connect or disconnect the configuration selected on the left side of the window. Another button allows you to copy diagnostic info to the Clipboard so you may paste it into an email or other document to get help troubleshooting a problem, and a help button displays detailed help. The 'Log' tab (shown above) displays the log for the configuration. The 'Settings' tab (shown above) allows you to see and modify several settings for the configuration 'Connect” specifies when the configuration should be connected:
'Set DNS/WINS' specifies how to handle DNS and WINS settings when the VPN is active:
'Monitor network settings' causes network settings to be monitored for changes. It is available only when 'Set nameserver' or 'Set nameserver 3.1' is selected. When a change is detected, the connection will be disconnected and reconnected. Other actions and actions for changes to specific network settings can be specified on the 'While Connected' tab of the 'Advanced' settings window. 'Route all IPv4 traffic through the VPN' causes Tunnelblick to start OpenVPN with the '--redirect-gateway def1' option. 'Disable IPv6 (tun only)' disables IPv6 on all network interfaces while the configuration is connected. 'Check if the apparent public IP address changed after connecting' checks the IP address before and after connecting. This can be used to detect some DNS problems. 'Reset the primary interface after disconnecting' will restore network connectivity after disconnecting from some configurations which are badly written. Additional settings may be examined and modified by clicking the 'Advanced' button. AppearanceThe 'Appearance' panel of the 'VPN Details' window allows you to modify Tunnelblick's appearance: PreferencesThe 'Preferences' panel of the 'VPN Details' window allows you to modify Tunnelblick's behavior, check for updates, and reset disabled warnings: UtilitiesThe 'Utilities' panel of the 'VPN Details' window has buttons to perform several tasks related to Tunnelblick or OpenVPN: InfoThe 'Info' panel of the 'VPN Details' window displays information about the Tunnelblick program and the people who have contributed to it: (Note: the credits scroll to reveal additional contributors; not all contributors are displayed in the above screenshot.) Keyboard ShortcutsYou may use the standard keyboard shortcuts in the 'VPN Details' window:
Using More than One VPN ConfigurationYou can have any number of configurations installed; each of the configurations will be available in the drop down menu and in the 'Details” window. Connecting to More than One VPN SimultaneouslyTunnelblick can maintain multiple simultaneous open connections to different VPNs. However, this is for experts only:
Command-Line InterfaceTunnelblick has support for AppleScript, allowing you to list configurations and connect or disconnect them via AppleScript or the command line. |