VPN services are more and more used to hide IP addresses and provide anonymity due to their simplicity and efficiency. Most of these services offer connections through PPTP protocol and some offer OpenVPN connections. Both are functionally the same, in that they both are VPNs (Virtual Private Networks). As far as anonymity, both offer encryption and they hide your IP address.
What is the difference between those two? Which one should you choose? Next, I will try to answer these questions.
PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol)
PPTP is popular because it is easy to configure and it was the first VPN protocol that was supported by Microsoft Dial-up Networking.
The problem is that PPTP does not provide confidentiality or encryption. It relies on the protocol being tunneled to provide privacy.
A typical upgrade path for PPTP is L2TP/IPsec. The adoption of improved VPN technologies has been slow because PPTP is convenient and easy to configure, whereas L2TP/IPsec requires a shared key or machine certificates.
OpenVPN
OpenVPN is a free and open source virtual private network (VPN) program for creating point-to-point or server-to-multiclient encrypted tunnels between host computers.
OpenVPN uses the OpenSSL library to provide encryption of both the data and control channels. It lets OpenSSL do all the encryption and authentication work, allowing OpenVPN to use all the ciphers available in the OpenSSL package.
PPTP or OpenVPN?
Let’s compare these two on the following criteria:
Installation
PPTP is still offered as a way to connect due to its simplicity. You can set up a PPTP connection with no software at all. OpenVPN is a little more difficult to set up but with the right tutorials an average computer user should not encounter any problems.
Security
OpenVPN is considered to be extremely secure when compared to the PPTP VPN, and also more stable. Plus one for OpenVPN.
Mobile Devices
Iphone, Ipod Touch, Windows Mobile, all work with PPTP. These are very easily setup, and just a Host Name, Login and Password will have you connected. OpenVPN does not work on such devices.
Conclusion
To sum up, if you are looking for high security and privacy you should choose OpenVPN. If you need easy-to-setup VPN, PPTP is a good choice. For mobile devices, PPTP is the only solution.
5 Comments
For Symbian OS 9.x based mobile phones (Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson) also exist PPTP VPN client – SymVPN from telexy.com. Works like a charm on my E71.
@Anta – I have written an article about SymVPN. Take a look here.
You can run Open VPN on the android OS
If you say “you can use OpenVPN with android”, you may want to point out how? And dont say “First you need to root your device”… This is not about rooted or jailbreak’d devices.
“First you need to root your device” – that’s sad truth for OpenVPN on Android.
Recently I found out that in order to turn off the shutter in my Galaxy S2 camera I also need to root the device…
Anyway, getting back to PPTP vs OpenVPN – from practical point of view it all depends on the client software: PPTP is ubiquitous on almost all devices (except BlackBerry) so it’s in plus, while OpenVPN have different clients and more flexible/complex configuration.
The most comprehensive comparison I found:
PPTP vs OpenVPN
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[...] There are two main technologies that you need to be aware of PPTP and OpenVPN. Check out the differences here. [...]
[...] you sign up and you get the login details, you need to set up a PPTP connection. Both services also offer OpenVPN option, but I recommend PPTP as it is faster. PPTP works for all [...]