Can pfsense be a client of any VPN type other than OpenVPN?

VPN
1

Hey folks, the title says my question but I’ll elaborate:

I’ve got a VPN subscription from ivacy.com and they provide several connection options including OpenVPN, IKE, IPsec, and L2TP.

I’m having trouble with their OpenVPN connection profile (namely, the domain names in their server list don’t resolve). While I’m waiting for support to respond to that issue I figured I’d try one of the other connection types.

In the VPN list in the pfsense admin console, I see options for IPsec and L2TP, but when reviewing the screens and the documentation, it seems like these are only for server configurations where pfsense would be the destination for remote clients to connect to. By comparison, the OpenVPN screen allows pfsense to either be a server that others connect to, or for pfsense to be a client connecting to a remote server.

Is it possible for pfsense to be a client connecting to a remote server using either IKE, IPsec, or L2TP? If so, can you point me to documentation describing how to set that up?

Thank you for any help you can share!

2

A few things:

IKE is a part of IPSec. They’re not distinct things, really. IKE is just a component of IPSec.

IPSec doesn’t operate in a traditional client/server relationship unless you’re talking about Mobile IPSec where mobile devices will always be initiator. Either side can be a “client” or a “server”. It refers to this as initiator and responder. If your VPN provider supports policy-based or VTI/routed IPSec you can use this in pfSense no problem.

Don’t use L2TP. It’s ancient and only included in pfSense for legacy purposes. NOBODY should be setting up a new L2TP connection in 2023 and pfSense only supports it for Mobile connections anyway. IKEv2 IPSec is better.

Ivacy appears to support Wireguard and OpenVPN, based on their documentation, so you should be able to use either of those as well.