OpenVPN use case

[timconsidine]

Apologies if this is bit of a noob question.
I already use a VPN (ProtonVPN) on my desktop, laptop and phones. If I understand correctly, deploying a Cloudron OpenVPN instance will not offer much additional for device-->outside world.

But I also want to connect securely and easily between computers in different offices. Currently for this I use Splashtop (paid commercial service) which does the job, but doesn't handle wake on lan very well. (I'm attributing that to Splashtop but maybe it's a local issue.)

Will deploying a Cloudron OpenVPN allow me to connect between devices more easily (whether from countryA to countryB, or just from OfficeFloor3 to OfficeFloor1) ? And allow me to cease my Splashtop paid subscription.

Does OpenVPN support wake-on-lan type functionality ? Or that's a function of the device OS ?
BTW, all devices MAC and some Linux (ubuntu). No Windows.

[luckow]

My typical use cases for OpenVPN on Cloudron are:

• static IP (needed for restricted networks)
• VPN from inside public Wifi infrastructure
• Because of a German IP address, public German TV for my friends from Denmark

(And yes: Your use case for a VPN connection between two networks works too.)
To clarify my tests: I was able to "see" another VPN client from a remote location from my location through OpenVPN. If this is also true for complete networks, we have to ask around or try it by our own

[timconsidine]

@luckow Thank you.
Interesting point about getting a "cheap" way to get static IP.
I'll give it a bash and test it out - thanks for the confidence push that it's worth trying - time is precious.

[mehdi]

The LAN usecase should work really well, yeah, but I would be surprised if you could make wake-on-lan work : for it to work there has to be a device physically on the same network to send a magic-packet for the ethernet card to interpret and trigger wake up.

There are some ways to do wake-on-lan relays stuff, I believe, but you would still have to have a computer awake on the network on which you want to wake another.

[robi]

Wake-on-LAN is a hardware feature enabled in BIOS.

The sleep state of the CPU has to be integrated with the network card which listens for the wake packets.

So while a particular software may not be able to send a WoL packet, one can set up something that port-knocks on something that does. (Highly unusual)

[timconsidine]

@mehdi Thank you. Shame about wake-on-lan being local network only. I guess I can set up a wake/sleep schedule eg 8am-8pm so there is at least there is a known window. Or I can arrange for one device to never sleep and connect to that to wake others. Some playing around needed.

[timconsidine]

@robi Thanks. Port-knocking sounds interesting to research. When time permits !