Vpn connected but not being used - how to activate?
 

I have managed to get vpn set up on my Debian Sid (I think). I want to use a different server from my default.

I
But I am not using the vpn server instead of my usual one. Is there a way to make this happen?

dddd

Unfortunately this is exactly what I can't do! I imagine it is something to do with ip route, /etc/networking/interface, or both, but I really have no idea how to do it. I can see a route to the server I am trying to use (194.79.29.2) but it is not the default and I can't make it so.
I have tried various things without success. Could you very kindly tell me what I need to do?

You can see it but we can't!

Nobody (unless they are psychic) can tell you what you need to do unless you share what you have tried and what the results were.

Are you able to ping the VPN server you want to use?

Would you like to post the output of route -n?

Sorry, you are right!
Yes, I can ping the server.

a

OK, so IP routing to the VPN server is working. Which VPN software is running on the client and the server? You write that you are not able to "initiate a connection to something on the vpn subnet." Are you able to initiate a VPN session with the server itself? What do you do to initiate the VPN session? What are the symptoms of it working (or not) -- how do you test?

vpn softeware is pptp

I start VPN with "pon <name of tunnel>"

Perhaps it IS working, but my IP address appears as 94.30.27.224, whether I have vpn running or not. I think it should be different when I am running vpn. This IP address brings up my Netgear router for some reason - I don't understand this.

This is good, essential information for solving the problem. Unfortunately I know nothing about pptp, including whether your IP address should change when you run VPN (I don't think it should).

The best way forward might be to start a new thread mentioning pptp in the title. That should attract pptp-sperts with the knowledge necessary to test whether it is working and, if it is not, to analyse the problem and identify a solution.

it doesnt matter that your netgear router ip is showing. without the netgear router ip, you would never establish the pptp tunnel.
pptp vpn tunnel works much the same way as any vpn tunnel except minus the encryption.
what you want is to add a route for this vpn traffic OR show me what routes you already have in the table.

Ok edit:

i can see you yhave shown this info already... my bad...

If you can ping the server, then it is working.

Can you show the output from the ping and / or t raceroute to the vpn server or anything on that servers subnet

ttica:~:$ traceroute

ddd

I'm afraid I don't quite follow this. As the ppp0 interface doesn't seem to be doing anything I don't think there is anything. Or do I misunderstand what you are saying?

I don't recall the setting specifically but look at the pptp docs there is, if I recall correctly a setting in your pptp client config that will direct all traffic over the vpn connection, its like an option to use the vpn gateway.

I can't see any such option. I suppose it's possible that pppd is configured wrongly. Perhaps I should take up your suggestion of starting a new ppptp thread.

I'm extremely grateful for all the trouble you are taking with this.

Are you married to a pptp VPN, if you are not going to be using WIndows clients many other VPN solutions might be easier for you to work with. Even if you are using windows clients can you install VPN clients on those windows clients? Maybe OpenVPN might work better for you?