Transmission Jail setup with OpenVPN and DNS Leak protection

[FreeVel]

FreeVel submitted a new resource:

Transmission Jail setup with OpenVPN and DNS Leak protection - DNS leak

Note: this guide is complementary to many guides on how to setup Transmission with OpenVPN, hence it assumes you have already followed those guides and your. need some extra security protection

Problem

Case 1 : Your OpenVPN client refuses to use your VPN Provider's DNS server hence you resort to all sort of tricks to ensure your normal DNS server is not exposed.

Case 2 : You use OpenVPN client to secure your Jail's traffic via your favourite VPN provider, but when...

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[CrabbyPatties]

Just left a 5 star review for this short, easily to follow and well explained guide. One question - you don't explain why this problem occurs (and I can't work out why it occurred with me). The guide I followed was for a simple install of OpenVPN as a client with no 'up' or 'down' scripts. Is it correct that without these OpenVPN will continue to use the DNS server given by the local router? If so, are all these guides leaving people with leaky DNS queries - and is this a general problem or was it maybe something peculiar about my set up that has caused this?

 

[FreeVel]

The guide I followed was for a simple install of OpenVPN as a client with no 'up' or 'down' scripts. Is it correct that without these OpenVPN will continue to use the DNS server given by the local router?

Yes. It is highly likely that the VPN client won't be using the VPN server's DNS settings. I feel most are exposed to the issue, leaking their DNS queries.

 

[CrabbyPatties]

That's quite an issue - amazing that the standard guides don't point this out. Leaky DNS pretty undermines much of the point of a VPN. Thanks for highlighting this issue and offering an easy fix.

 

[jgreco]

That's quite an issue - amazing that the standard guides don't point this out. Leaky DNS pretty undermines much of the point of a VPN. Thanks for highlighting this issue and offering an easy fix.

The point of a VPN isn't necessarily to hide all of your traffic. I realize that the current generation of pirates who wish to evade detection by their local authorities seem to think that VPN technology was developed especially for this purpose, but there are many legitimate uses for VPNs for building networks where this isn't the case.