SoftEther VPN Project

News

• March 8, 2013.
  The web site is initially released, and the download has begun.
• March 15, 2013. SoftEther VPN is not VPN Gate!
  Great appreciation on many network & security news articles around the World. Thank you very much for your concern. However, some news articles misunderstood between SoftEther VPN and VPN Gate. We apology our lack of explanation in advance.
  We explain on the What is different between SoftEther VPN and VPN Gate? page to clear up the misunderstanding.

What is SoftEther VPN ?

SoftEther VPN ("SoftEther" means "Software Ethernet") is one of the world's most powerful and easy-to-use multi-protocol VPN software. It runs on Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD and Solaris.

SoftEther VPN is freeware. You can use SoftEther for any personal or commercial use for free of charge.

SoftEther VPN is an optimum alternative to OpenVPN and Microsoft's VPN servers. SoftEther VPN has a clone-function of OpenVPN Server. You can integrate from OpenVPN to SoftEther VPN smoothly. SoftEther VPN is faster than OpenVPN. SoftEther VPN also supports Microsoft SSTP VPN for Windows Vista / 7 / 8. No more need to pay expensive Windows Server license-fee for Remote-Access VPN function.

SoftEther VPN can be used to realize BYOD (Bring your own device) on your business. If you have smartphones, tablets or laptop PCs, SoftEther VPN's L2TP/IPsec server function helps you to establish a remote-access VPN from remote to your local network. SoftEther VPN's L2TP VPN Server has strong compatible with Windows, Mac, iOS and Android.

SoftEther VPN is not only an alternative VPN server to existing VPN products (OpenVPN, IPsec and MS-SSTP). SoftEther VPN has also original strong SSL-VPN protocol to penetrate any kinds of firewalls. Ultra-optimized SSL-VPN Protocol of SoftEther VPN has very fast throughput, low latency and firewall resistance.

SoftEther VPN has strong resistance against firewalls than ever. Built-in NAT-traversal penetrates your network admin's troublesome firewall for overprotection. You can setup your own VPN server behind the firewall or NAT in your company, and you can reach to that VPN server in the corporate private network from your home or mobile place, without any modification of firewall settings. Any deep-packet inspection firewalls cannot detect SoftEther VPN's transport packets as a VPN tunnel, because SoftEther VPN uses Ethernet over HTTPS for camouflage.

Easy to imagine, design and implement your VPN topology with SoftEther VPN. It virtualizes Ethernet by software-enumeration. SoftEther VPN Client implements Virtual Network Adapter, and SoftEther VPN Server implements Virtual Ethernet Switch. You can easily build both Remote-Access VPN and Site-to-Site VPN, as expansion of Ethernet-based L2 VPN. Of course, traditional IP-routing L3 based VPN can be built by SoftEther VPN.

SoftEther VPN has strong compatibility to today's most popular VPN products. It has the interoperability with OpenVPN, L2TP, IPsec, EtherIP, L2TPv3, Cisco VPN Routers and MS-SSTP VPN Clients. SoftEther VPN is the world's only VPN software which supports SSL-VPN, OpenVPN, L2TP, EtherIP, L2TPv3 and IPsec, as a single VPN software.

SoftEther VPN is freeware because it was developed as Daiyuu Nobori's Master Thesis research in the University. You can download and use it today. The source-code of SoftEther VPN is going to be available under GPL license.

Features

• Freeware.
  (Become open-source in mid 2013.)
• Easy to establish both remote-access and site-to-site VPN.
• SSL-VPN Tunneling on HTTPS to pass through NATs and firewalls.
• Revolutionary VPN over ICMP and VPN over DNS features.
• Resistance to highly-restricted firewall.
• Ethernet-bridging (L2) and IP-routing (L3) over VPN.
• Embedded dynamic-DNS and NAT-traversal so that no static nor fixed IP address is required.
• AES 256-bit and RSA 4096-bit encryptions.
• Sufficient security features such as logging and firewall inner VPN tunnel.
• 1Gbps-class high-speed throughput performance with low memory and CPU usage.
• Windows, Linux, Mac, Android, iPhone, iPad and Windows Phone are supported.
• SSL-VPN (HTTPS) and 6 major VPN protocols (OpenVPN, IPsec, L2TP, MS-SSTP, L2TPv3 and EtherIP) are all supported as VPN tunneling underlay protocols.
• The OpenVPN clone function supports legacy OpenVPN clients.
• IPv4 / IPv6 dual-stack.
• The VPN server runs on Windows, Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris and Mac OS X.
• Configure All settings on GUI.
• Multi-languages (English, Japanese and Simplified-Chinese).
• More details at Specification.

Screenshots

SoftEther VPN consists of three software: VPN Client, VPN Server and VPN Bridge.

SoftEther VPN Client

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SoftEther VPN Server Admin Tool

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