Most OpenWrt soft-router systems we use day to day include the LuCI interface . It provides a convenient visual admin page, and thanks to contributions from many developers, it also supports plenty of easy-to-use graphical apps. luci-app-OpenVPN-server is one of the more common VPN server apps for LuCI.
In simple terms, luci-app-OpenVPN-server is a LuCI interface for the OpenVPN server. With it, you can avoid the troublesome command line and configure your OpenVPN server directly through a web UI. Combined with OpenVPN client apps on major platforms, you can connect to your home LAN from anywhere for internal access or file transfer.
Normally, if you fill in the configuration information as prompted in LuCI, the OpenVPN server can run successfully. Then you click the one-click .ovpn download button, import the downloaded config file into an OpenVPN client, and start using it.
However, the default configuration of luci-app-OpenVPN-server only allows one client to log in at a time. When a second client connects, the first one is forced offline. In everyday use, multiple devices connecting at the same time is very common. So how can we make luci-app-OpenVPN-server support multiple simultaneous devices?
The OpenVPN server itself does support multiple device connections. According to this GitHub issue , all we need to do is add one line to the OpenVPN configuration file.
First, log in to your OpenWrt router via SSH. You can search for the specific tools and methods yourself. I usually use Microsoft’s Windows Terminal . After logging in successfully, enter this command to edit the OpenVPN configuration file:
vim /etc/config/OpenVPN
If the file does not open, your OpenWrt system may not have vim, a command-line text editor, installed. Please search for how to install it; I will not go into that here.
After entering the editor, press I to enter insert mode. Move the cursor to the end of the file and paste this line as the final line:
option duplicate_cn '1'
After editing, press ESC, then enter the following command to save and exit:
:qw
After completing these steps, restart the router. If nothing unexpected happens, multiple clients should now be able to connect to your LAN at the same time.