I thought this would be a good place to talk about companies that support or abandon Linux. Synology has their own VPN on their router called VPN Plus. To log in from a web browser, you have to have THEIR VPN client running on your laptop or remote computer trying to connect.
Much to my surprise after buying their RT6600ax and three of their mesh routers to extend my network, I found I couldn’t log into my VPN with my Linux laptop from outside the office.
Why? Because while they still show that clients as being available for Windows, Apple, iOS, Android and Linux, they quietly stopped supporting the Linux one several years ago. Here’s their download page. The last update that supported the Linux client was way back in version 1.3.9-0472. https://archive.synology.com/download/Utility/VPNPlusClient
When I download and installed the .deb file the link in the login process directs me to, it installs but it won’t run. It’s VERY old version, for Ubuntu 14.04. It gives the error ./vpnclient: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory when run in a terminal. These libraries have long since been deprecated.
So when I take my linux laptop on the road and try to log into the Synology SSL VPN, I can’t. I opened a ticket. They basically said that they stopped supporting the Linux client but maybe one day they would look at it.
So when you think about companies that consider Linux a viable community to support, look elsewhere.
This is either intentional FUD/misinformation or a significant lack of basic configuration options. The VPN Plus Package manages a wide range of VPN options. Among the VPN options is the ability to setup SSTP, OpenVPN, L2TP/IPsec, and PPTP vpns. All but SSTP have various open source clients that can be configured to connect to them.
That’s sad, any chance you can work around it by installing it inside a distrobox container of the right Ubuntu version or use their latest android version through Waydroid?
Try linking whatever ssl libraries you have (1.1.1 or 3.0.0, etc.) to libssl.so.1.0.0. Lots of times you you can get away with doing this. You might have to link libcrypt.so as well.
They, like (insert name of company here) leverage Linux and try to abide by the GPL for bits and pieces of GPL’d code they modify. But as for things built using FOSS libraries, they don’t publish that (well, in most cases).
Can’t tell you the vast number of companies to which the above applies.
Sure, there are a handful of companies that “get it”, but most are wanting to be a “vapor”, here today, and gone tomorrow.
Synology makes very cheap gear at an expensive price that’s based on very very old concepts and is quite antiquated today. With that said, there’s plenty of these “grandpa” style companies out there.
So, just based on that, I’d never recommend them or most of the other grandpa companies they claim to be their competitors.
As others have mentioned, there are more FOSS oriented ways of establishing a VPN with an old school Synology device. I’d recommend that in your case.
Damn, I was actually looking into buying this exact router for its parental controls. Is there no way to circumvent their vpn? I need to be able to login remotely from my work laptop, which is on Windows 10.
Correct, but the one I was interested in was not supported, despite there being a download link and a representation of the 5 supported platforms. Please show me a Linux (open source or otherwise) client that will allow me to connect through a browser to the Synology SSL VPN.
That will work if OpenVPN was my choice, but I wanted to use Synology’s VPN Plus, and the only client that will connect is their own. Their Windows, Android, Apple and iOS versions work fine. They dropped linux.
Maybe I’m a grandpa but Synology devices just work for me and need almost no maintenance for many many years (support is awesome). What would be good alternatives?