BoxeeVPN 2.0 - release

[mwpei]

BOXEE VPN 2.0

I finally got my repository working so please download from http://boxeeatca.fileave.com using the "app box" in boxee.
(NOTE: This does NOT download and install openvpn)



This is my 2nd main release of the openvpn controller “BoxeeVPN 2.0”, redeveloped as a skin application and with a few new features. (keep in mind it is still in alpha)

Special thanks goes out the the hulu-feed plugin team as I used their skin as a starting point and learned lots about how skins work from reviewing their code.

This plugin allows you to control your openvpn (start and stop it) as well it allows you to configure up-to 5 different vpn connections. (one connection to the US, one to the UK, etc...) You do need to have a vpn provider that has servers in the different countries.

here is the Link to the zip file (boxeevpn-2.0.zip)
Link: http://code.google.com/p/boxeevpn/downloads/list

Until I get this into a repository that app box can link too, do the following to install:

1. download and unzip file
2. place the boxee-vpn directory (and all it's contents) into your [User]/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/apps/
3. update your sources.xml file ([User]/Library/Application Support/BOXEE/UserData/profiles/[boxeeUser]/sources.xml) to include the follow (don't forget to remove the boxeevpn 1.0 from your sources file if you had it installed) :

        <source>
            <name>Boxee VPN</name>
            <path>app://boxee-vpn/</path>
            <thumbnail>http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e0/Crystal_Clear_action_encrypted.png</thumbnail>
            <private>true</private>
        </source>

VPN Configuration:
You must now configure your vpn's by clicking on the configure icon, you can select witch of the 5 you want to configure by selecting the configure icon and moving up or down to select the vpn you want to configure (unconfigured vpn's will appear as you navigate to them)
The plugin will ask you a few questions:

1. A VPN name to be used on the GUI.
2. The openvpn application. This needs to be the actual openvpn file, not the “hotspot sheild.app”. You will find the openvpn application inside the contents of the .app. (hotspot sheild.app/contents/resources/openvpn)
3. The vpn config file. This is the config file provided by your vpn provider. If you have a provider with multiple servers you can make copies of your config file and edit the server address inside them so that you can have multiple vpns configured for different countries.
4. Your admin/root password, this is required because openvpn is run under the root user.

New Features:

1. Can be run on other platforms other then just atv now. (tested on mac and atv - I don't think it will work on windows yet)
2. VPN Configuration (as talked about in the vpn configuration section) and the reason why it works on other platforms
3. Control up to 5 different vpn set-ups
4. New Location and IP indicator that shows if your vpn is connected and what IP you are using. (you can press the refresh button to update this info – but see know issue #3)
5. Spaces in directories and names are now supported (You no longer have to rename “hotspot shield.app” to “hotspot.app”)
6. You can remove vpn's by simply clicking the “x” on the given vpn. (just removes it from the list does not remove any files from your system)
7. And the best is the sexy new look...

Known issues:

1. I still get the "2009 Mac OS X ifconfig failed: shell command fork failed" error some times.
2. I have not been able to get the vpn.txt file to be displayed when you press the view log button, so currently the view log button has been disabled (and visible has been set to false)
3. The vpn connection takes a few seconds to actually connect so after you start your vpn you have to wait before refreshing the location indicator.
4. The plugin is using the xbmc file navigator window, and this control does not allow you to access all areas of your hard drive, as a result I would suggest copying your tunnelblick.app or hotspot sheild.app into a sub directory of your users folder (maybe under Library/openvpn or something like that)
5. Plugin likely will not run under windows because it makes some cmd os calls to start openvpn. Maybe with the help of some window users they can help me figure out how to run openvpn in it's own thread on windows.

If you need to install Hotspot or TunnelBlick you can read over the following posts:
http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?p=35536
or take a look at the boxeevpn v1.0 post:
http://forum.boxee.tv/showthread.php?t=5682

If you have problems, there is a log file produced with the output of the commands that are used to start the vpn. It will be located in the same directory as your vpn config file.
Please check this file if you are having problems.

If you used the first plugin you will notice that I removed the pause and resume options, I did not find that these options where that useful but if you find that you can't live with out them let me know and maybe we can put them back in.

Also, If anyone thinks they need more then 5 vpn connection we could add more, I picked 5 because I figured no one would every need more then 5 but I have been known to be wrong on things like this...

As always, comments and suggestion to make things better are always welcome, just try to provide as much info as posable.

Happy VPNing


on a side note:
I am still trying to figure out how to setup a repository that can be read by the "app box" so if someone can help me I would really appreciate it.

[jdog]

great work! I can verify this works on both Mac and Apple TV.

however, I ran into some challenges on Mac...

my setup: copied Tunnelblick.app to ~/Library/openvpn (original still at /Applications)

1) when VPN connected through your boxee plugin, can't access Internet in Web browser
a) after trying Web browser, VPN plugin page wouldn't load in boxee
b) Web browser works again after quitting boxee and quit/restart /Applications/Tunnelblick.app (see challenge 2)

2) Tunnelblick menu in OS X menubar becomes blank and unusable
a) after quit/restart /Applications/Tunnelblick, menu has two different connection choices: "personalVPN" and "openVPN"
b) "personalVPN" works like it used to and enables system-wide VPN
c) "openVPN" prompts for admin password and doesn't activate VPN connection at all - seems to point at openvpn.conf template under ~/Library/openvpn/Tunnelblick.app (created for boxee)
d) trashing ~/Library/openvpn/Tunnelblick.app removes "openVPN" from Tunnelblick menu but then boxee VPN doesn't work

Ideally I'd like to have only one copy of Tunnelblick.app (at /Applications) that enables system-wide VPN regardless of whether it's run from OS X menubar or through your boxee plugin.

[mwpei]

great work! I can verify this works on both Mac and Apple TV.

however, I ran into some challenges on Mac...

my setup: copied Tunnelblick.app to ~/Library/openvpn (original still at /Applications)

1) when VPN connected through your boxee plugin, can't access Internet in Web browser
a) after trying Web browser, VPN plugin page wouldn't load in boxee
b) Web browser works again after quitting boxee and quit/restart /Applications/Tunnelblick.app (see challenge 2)

2) Tunnelblick menu in OS X menubar becomes blank and unusable
a) after quit/restart /Applications/Tunnelblick, menu has two different connection choices: "personalVPN" and "openVPN"
b) "personalVPN" works like it used to and enables system-wide VPN
c) "openVPN" prompts for admin password and doesn't activate VPN connection at all - seems to point at openvpn.conf template under ~/Library/openvpn/Tunnelblick.app (created for boxee)
d) trashing ~/Library/openvpn/Tunnelblick.app removes "openVPN" from Tunnelblick menu but then boxee VPN doesn't work

Ideally I'd like to have only one copy of Tunnelblick.app (at /Applications) that enables system-wide VPN regardless of whether it's run from OS X menubar or through your boxee plugin.

I think I may have found a way around having two copies of tunnelblick on the mac. go into your sources.xml file and add the applications folder as a source, it should look something like the following after (at bottom of source.xml file)

    <files>
        <default></default>
        <source>
            <name>Applications</name>
            <path>/Applications/</path>
        </source>
    </files>

I am not sure if this has any negative affects as I just tried it out to see what happens and it seems to work. Please give it a try and let me know if fixes the problem.

thanks

[jdog]

OK, added /Applications/ to sources.xml as you suggested and modified my VPN configuration for your plug-in (on Mac not Apple TV). confirmed this works as expected both from your plugin in boxee and from the Mac OS X menubar.

some suggestions for improving usability:

1) figure out a way to show status and to toggle on/off one favorite VPN config (or to switch between two configs) in the main boxee left-hand menu. makes sense to surface this higher in UI since the need for VPN crosses content types (video, music and pictures).

2) use single multi-state icon for VPN on/off. or come up with icons that are more different. even just adding words "on" and "off" on top of the locks would help).

3) don't force re-type of name and re-select of app/conf locations when editing a config - actually support editing.

[mwpei]

OK, added /Applications/ to sources.xml as you suggested and modified my VPN configuration for your plug-in (on Mac not Apple TV). confirmed this works as expected both from your plugin in boxee and from the Mac OS X menubar.

some suggestions for improving usability:

1) figure out a way to show status and to toggle on/off one favorite VPN config (or to switch between two configs) in the main boxee left-hand menu. makes sense to surface this higher in UI since the need for VPN crosses content types (video, music and pictures).

2) use single multi-state icon for VPN on/off. or come up with icons that are more different. even just adding words "on" and "off" on top of the locks would help).

3) don't force re-type of name and re-select of app/conf locations when editing a config - actually support editing.

I like your suggestions, here are a few comments.

#1 - this would be nice but it would be a change to the actual boxee code, maybe something the boxee team can look into.

#2 - This one is a bit hard to do, as it is hard to tell what VPN is actually running and what state it is in. I have a very alpha test version that does provide an overall "connected/not connected" status but when the vpn is not running trying to get this info causes boxee to crash. I will continue to work on trying to get something working here to make this better.
The ON/OFF idea is a good one and I will make this change in the next version. (If anyone has better suggestions for icons, or would like to create a set of icons for me that would be great. I am limited to what free icons I can find on line right now)

#3 - will be done, I think I figured out how to do this at the last minute but did not what to make a bunch of changes and have to retest but I will include it in the next version.

Thanks for the review, it is very helpful.

[Gormanimal]

Wow! Great job. Look forward to dropping this on my ATV and getting my VPN back. Thanks.

[ijer]

Works well on my Apple TV. Great UI! The only issue I had is that "Location" is always set to "United States" (whenever my VPN is off or on) although I'm in Canada right now.

Thanks for this plugin mwpei!

[thomasj]

Excellent work, mate... really hope to see this on a repository sometime soon...

[mwpei]

Works well on my Apple TV. Great UI! The only issue I had is that "Location" is always set to "United States" (whenever my VPN is off or on) although I'm in Canada right now.

Thanks for this plugin mwpei!

that is interesting, does hulu work with your normal ip address?

Currently the plugin is using http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.ht...mplate=xml.txt to look up the location information, maybe it is not that good of a service (but it is free). If anyone has a better free service I could change it for the next version.

[ijer]

that is interesting, does hulu work with your normal ip address?

Currently the plugin is using http://www.geobytes.com/IpLocator.ht...mplate=xml.txt to look up the location information, maybe it is not that good of a service (but it is free). If anyone has a better free service I could change it for the next version.

hulu doesn't work with my normal IP address, so they probably use another geo-detection service...