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I've been trying to find a way to run a torrent client strictly through a VPN. I am running Ubuntu 9.10, and use Ktorrent. I can connect to vpn.itshidden.com but I am worried about the connection dropping if I'm away from my computer. Any help would be appreciated.

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3 Answers

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Set up a cron job to do a ping to your VPN... Something like */10 * * * * root ping -c 3 any.vpn.ip.address in your /etc/crontab should do (it will do a ping every 10 minutes)

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I just tried what you told me but it didn't work. I copied exactly what you typed.. Did I need to change anything? I have to apologize, I'm not to familiar with this so you may have to explain. The VPN I'm trying to connect to is vpn.itshidden.com, did I need to put that in the place of any.vpn.Ip.address? – Al Mar 8 '10 at 13:22
Yes, put the hostname or IP address of something that requires the VPN. – Alexandre Nizoux Mar 8 '10 at 13:28
That didn't work – Al Mar 8 '10 at 15:01
What distro are you running? What did not work? – Alexandre Nizoux Mar 8 '10 at 16:25
I am running Ubuntu 9.10 32 bit. I copied and pasted */10 * * * * root ping -c 3 vpn.itshidden.com into /etc/crontab. I connected to my VPN account and it timed out and wouldn't come back on. I thought I may have had to restart the PC, but that didn't work either – Al Mar 8 '10 at 21:53
up vote 1 down vote

From VPNC seems to timeout quickly- how do I lengthen the timeout?

To keep the VPNC connection open indefinitely add this line
DPD idle timeout (our side) 0
to your .conf file in /etc/vpnc and I think that will effectively resolve the timeout problem.

For example:

IPSec gateway <your_gateway>
IPSec ID linux
IPSec secret <your_group_password>
Xauth username <your_username>
DPD idle timeout (our side) 0
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harrymc, thank you for your post. I just want to make sure I'm dong this right. When I type in my info, do I need to keep the < > signs? And does that just stay as (our side) or do I need to put something in there? Sorry if this sounds stupid, I'm new to this. – Al Mar 8 '10 at 14:21
2 more things: is the IPSec secret my VPN account password? And what name do I save the .conf file under? – Al Mar 8 '10 at 14:30
@Al: The <> have no meaning, and all the data relates to the VPN. See also this article: spiration.co.uk/post/1293/… – harrymc Mar 8 '10 at 16:22
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Have you tested to see if the connection drops when you are away from your computer?If your torrent client is passing data through the connection it should definitely stay alive.

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