Strongswan VPN setup - need a little guidance

English Network/Internet
1

So I’ve set up my desktop with openSUSE, and installed strongswan in order to use it as a VPN server. I’m connecting with my laptop, which is running Windows 7. I’ve got everything configured and working so that the server id’s itself with a certificate, and I log in from the laptop with username/password combo. Everything in that respect works, and I can then ping and ssh into the VPN server just fine.

The next step is what I’m having trouble with, and can’t seem to find information on how to do it. Basically, because I travel a fair bit, I’d like to access certain webpages from my home country, so I want to be able to access the internet when connected to the VPN server. With my setup so far though, I can’t even ping the router that the server is connected to, nor any other computers on the network, yet alone any outside websites. Anything I turn up through Google talks about routing and ip tables, but it all goes right over my head, unfortunately.

Can anyone offer any kind of assistance, or point me in the direction of some easy to understand guide to setting up the server so that this is possible?

Thanks in advance!

2

I would suggest using openvpn. It does everything you seem to want and does it for free with the free license for two users. The guide is great and the server very easy to configure (through https GUI) although it is easier on CentOS, Fedora and Ubuntu as there are packages for those ready to download from the site.
OpenVPN - Open Source VPN
Access Server Software Packages

3

I too would suggest you to use openvpn. I will help you step to step, just write me in private message.

4

Hmm, I was kind of hoping to use Strongswan, as it supports the built-in Windows VPN protocols, rather than having to install yet another client program on my laptop. OpenVPN seems to be easy enough to use, though. I guess if there’s no suggestions on how to get Strongswan working the way I want, I’ll go that route.