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Alexandro · (This post was last modified: 2012-03-13, 16:01 by Alexandro.)

Dear developers.
An implementation of a simple VPN client would be a wonderful feature of XBMC. It will be specially useful for users who connect with XBMC out of their homeplace (where is the VPN server) and doesnt have a complicated router with a VPN features to use it as a client.
Do you think an integration of such function would be possible in near future?
Best regards.

YodaEXE · 2012-03-13, 21:23

There's absolutely no reason for this to be built into XBMC. Use the VPN software that is likely integrated within your OS, or use one of the many 3rd party pieces of software.

Alexandro · (This post was last modified: 2012-03-13, 22:12 by Alexandro.)

Thank you very much for your answer.
Thank you very much also enlighting me. I know very good what are my options when it comes to a third party software.
Probably you may assume that there are users who are not using windows as an OS so the options you suggested are not working at all. Take OpenElec as an example. You can't use any third party software there easily (without unsquashing, compile and squashing back). So my question was not if it's needed (your personal point of view) but is it easy to be built-in without a lot of efforts and pain.

jschoen · 2012-03-14, 15:46

Wouldn't you see openelec as a special case though and users that require VPN (and know what it is) would be savvy enough to handle it at the OS level?

While I do not think this would be easy to be built, the best option would be (if it would even be possible I dunno) if someone built an add on for this. I see add-ons to be the future with XBMC. It allows XBMC itself to be slimmed down to the bare essentials and things individual components to be updated separately without a major release. So I would not see the devs adding a feature that only a handful of users would use to the core of XBMC.

Alexandro · 2012-03-14, 17:58

I agree. Thank you for the reply.
Actually for an users point of view there is absolutely no difference when it comes to an addon or implementation in XBMC itself.
Yes, Openelec is a special case, but ATV1 and ATV2 users are in the same boat.
Best regards.

GJones · (This post was last modified: 2012-03-14, 18:41 by GJones.)

(2012-03-14, 17:58)Alexandro Wrote: I agree. Thank you for the reply.
Actually for an users point of view there is absolutely no difference when it comes to an addon or implementation in XBMC itself.
Yes, Openelec is a special case, but ATV1 and ATV2 users are in the same boat.
Best regards.

But VPN should not be an addon or a core feature. It should happen outside of XBMC altogether, as part of network configuration. This is on top of the fact that very few connections over VPN would have the bandwidth and lack of latency (different issues) to support viewing a remotely stored library.

Do you feel you would have a connection adequate enough for viewing content stored at the other end of a VPN? Keep in mind that the CPU would have to decode all of the content on the fly prior to XBMC decoding it for display. This would vastly increase the demands on the XBMC client box.

Or is your need more based on logging into services that are US-only? Only for web content and not "local" media? Even so, VPN should be done outside of XBMC as there are viable solutions on all platforms at the OS level.

Alexandro · 2012-03-14, 20:45

Thank you for your reply.
To make a long story short: In the region i live the internet speed is not an issue at all. Even the lowest plans starts from 40 guaranteed megabits upload/download so the speed is not a real problem.
I asked is it possible such service to be added in the core system itself because it is much more convenient for the end user just to add the IP of the VPN, username and password and in a very few steps to connect to the VPN server instead of the need to have a dedicated router with a VPN capabilities to achieve the same goal. Plus the fact that this way only the mediacenter will be a part of this VPN server instead the whole outside network.
According to your remarks about the speed: In my place I have a well build dedicated VPN server and a big RAID server storing all my movies, music and stuff. I did a lot of tests:
1. A direct connection from a windows or linux computers connected with their build-in VPN clients to the VPN server: No problem with downloading movies and watch them on the fly from the VPN network. 720p movies are working like a charm.
2. Then i attached an old Linksys WRT54GL and configured it as a client so that the XBMC machine in my vila to become a part of my home VPN. The result was a disaster. A huge decrease in speed, making the watching experience almost impossible. I can assume that this may be due to the fact of a poor hardware of the router but I doubt it.

Look, dont get me wrong. I don't really NEED this service desperately. I just noticed that there is a lack of such functionalities in XBMC and as long as this platform is the best I have ever seen in my life I thought that such a function would make XBMC even better.

I have already spoke with some guys from the openelec support and they said that such an option may be added (as an addon) and there are not any limitations in doing so. For now i will just install ubuntu and will compile xbmc over it and will configure a vpn client directly under linux, but all the guys who are using openelec or AppleTV (a huge percent of XBMC users) will be in the same position.

GJones · 2012-03-19, 14:14

(2012-03-14, 20:45)Alexandro Wrote: I have already spoke with some guys from the openelec support and they said that such an option may be added (as an addon) and there are not any limitations in doing so. For now i will just install ubuntu and will compile xbmc over it and will configure a vpn client directly under linux, but all the guys who are using openelec or AppleTV (a huge percent of XBMC users) will be in the same position.

And that is my point. OpenElec is an operating system. XBMC runs on top of it. OpenElec would be a good place for VPN, outside of XBMC. On other platforms, VPN should be handled appropriately for that OS.

Alexandro · 2012-03-19, 16:45

The OpenElec VPN add-on is already a fact. The developer included a nice and simple GUI as well. Saddly no PPTP for now but from what i tested the OVPN protocol is working perfect.

**lrusak** · 2012-03-19, 17:51

Just use Dd-wrt or openwrt router firmware and run the VPN on that. It makes way more sense

Alexandro · 2012-03-20, 00:11

Have you ever tried this combination?
DD-WRT dramatically slows down the trafic due to the incredibly slow CPU of the most routers (WRT54Gx based) and some limitations of the DD-WRT itself. Tested many times.

Admins, please close this thread as the issue was solved.
Thanks to all of the participants.

bym007 · 2012-03-24, 17:57

(2012-03-14, 20:45)Alexandro Wrote: 2. Then i attached an old Linksys WRT54GL and configured it as a client so that the XBMC machine in my vila to become a part of my home VPN. The result was a disaster. A huge decrease in speed, making the watching experience almost impossible. I can assume that this may be due to the fact of a poor hardware of the router but I doubt it.

Your router is the weakest link in this chain.. I have tried and never obtained a better speed than 25-30 Mbps from the WRT-54** family of routers without VPN. With VPN encapsulation/decapsulation, it will use even more CPU cycles, hence your connectivity is choppy. I will suggest you did some basic speed tests using your WRT54GL router over the VPN tunnel to guage your best and average speeds.

Going forward, my recommendation would be to upgrate the router to a better Buffalo or recent Cisco/Linksys's... Hope this helps.

donglobal · 2012-08-07, 00:06

(2012-03-20, 00:11)Alexandro Wrote: Have you ever tried this combination?
DD-WRT dramatically slows down the trafic due to the incredibly slow CPU of the most routers (WRT54Gx based) and some limitations of the DD-WRT itself. Tested many times.

Admins, please close this thread as the issue was solved.
Thanks to all of the participants.

How did you solve this, it is definitely something I have been looking to do as well.

themoddingden · 2012-10-01, 02:39

In dd-wrt it will not work tried somethings not working on my version v24 sp2 big latest saw a thread that open vpn was broken beside 18777 build. tried it with a vpn i just paid for with giganews.
also xbmc in ubuntu will not let me use add-ons on the ubuntu box but oh well.
my other /htpc is openelec now and plugins work.

zivodevo · 2013-08-04, 10:00

(2012-03-19, 16:45)Alexandro Wrote: The OpenElec VPN add-on is already a fact. The developer included a nice and simple GUI as well. Saddly no PPTP for now but from what i tested the OVPN protocol is working perfect.

@Alexandro

Just wondering if you can elude as to how you got openVPN working on OE? With the GUI or command line? I'm trying to get 3.1.5 working with either PPTP or openVPN and neither work (via the GUI). Using openvpn .config/vpn-config/vpnbook.ovpn from the command line works when I copy over one of the vpnbook (443) files and rename it.