How to set-up PPTP Client on Debian

Quick guide to set-up a PPTP Client on Debian GNU/Linux KVM

Most commands should be run as root!

1. Install pptp client

# apt-get update
# apt-get install pptp-linux

2. Edit "secrets" file with your favorite text editor:

- Here You have to specify credentials about this connection

# nano /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Format is:

username service password server-ip
VPNusername PPTP VPNpassword *

3. Create new peer (connection settings)

- Open new file for edit, which is named upon the alias of the connection

# nano /etc/ppp/peers/VPNnameHere
pty "pptp vpn-server-hostname-or-ip-address --nolaunchpppd"
name VPNusername
remotename PPTP
require-mppe-128file
/etc/ppp/options.pptp
ipparam VPNnameHere

4. Start PPTP connection after system boot

- Open "interfaces" file:

# nano /etc/network/interfaces

- Append this in the end:

auto ppp0
iface ppp0 inet ppp
provider VPNnameHere

- Save file

5.(Optional) Add routes through the PPTP Connection

- Open new file for edit, which is named to represent its content

# nano /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/vpn1-route

- Inside add the routes you want lke this:

#!/bin/bash
route add -net 10.0.0.0/8 dev ppp0

- Save the file

- Make it executable:

# chmod +x /etc/ppp/ip-up.d/vpn1-route

6. Manually start the connection with the following command:

# pppd call VPNnameHere

You can check if the connection is successful with:

# ifconfig ppp0

Example output:

ppp0 Link encap:Point-to-Point Protocol
inet addr:192.168.99.201 P-t-P:192.168.99.200 Mask:255.255.255.255
UP POINTOPOINT RUNNING NOARP MULTICAST  MTU:1446  Metric:1
RX packets:461185 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 frame:0
TX packets:4636192 errors:0 dropped:0 overruns:0 carrier:0
collisions:0 txqueuelen:3
RX bytes:577112246 (550.3 MiB)  TX bytes:6276776402 (5.8 GiB)

Also You can check connection progress messages with:

# tail /var/log/messages | grep ppp

Example output:

Oct  4 04:32:53 YourTestDomain pppd[9180]: pppd 2.4.6 started by root, uid 0
Oct  4 04:32:53 YourTestDomain pppd[9180]: Using interface ppp0
Oct  4 04:32:53 YourTestDomain pppd[9180]: Connect: ppp0 <--> /dev/pts/0
Oct  4 04:32:54 YourTestDomain pppd[9180]: CHAP authentication succeeded
Oct  4 04:32:54 YourTestDomain pppd[9180]: MPPE 128-bit stateless compression enabled

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