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Step 11: Download VPN Configuration

AWS provides a configuration file containing all the parameters needed to configure your router. This step covers downloading and understanding the configuration file.

Download the Configuration File

  1. Navigate to VPC Dashboard and select VPN Connections.
  1. Select your VPN connection (My-Company-VPN).
  1. Click Download Configuration.
  1. Select your router type:
  • If your router is listed: Select the vendor, platform, and software version
  • If your router is NOT listed: Select these generic settings:
  • Vendor: Generic
  • Platform: Generic
  • Software: Vendor Agnostic
  1. Click Download.

The configuration file downloads as a .TXT file.

Key Configuration Parameters

Open the downloaded file and locate the IPSec Tunnel #1 section. Record these important parameters:

IKE (Phase 1) parameters

Parameter Typical Value
Authentication Method Pre-Shared Key
Pre-Shared Key (Unique key generated by AWS)
Authentication Algorithm sha256
Encryption Algorithm aes-256-cbc
Lifetime 28800 seconds
Phase 1 Negotiation Mode main
Perfect Forward Secrecy Diffie-Hellman Group 14 or higher

IPSec (Phase 2) parameters

Parameter Typical Value
Protocol ESP
Authentication Algorithm hmac-sha256-128
Encryption Algorithm aes-256-cbc
Lifetime 3600 seconds
Mode Tunnel
Perfect Forward Secrecy Diffie-Hellman Group 14 or higher

IP addresses

Address Type Description
Customer Gateway Outside IP Your router's public IP address
Virtual Private Gateway Outside IP AWS tunnel endpoint (e.g., 52.xx.xx.xxx)
Customer Gateway Inside IP Your tunnel interface IP (e.g., 169.254.xx.1xx/30)
Virtual Private Gateway Inside IP AWS tunnel interface IP (e.g., 169.254.xx.2xx/30)

Tunnel settings

Setting Value
MTU 1436 bytes
MSS 1396 bytes

Note: The configuration file contains two tunnels. You can configure both for redundancy, or just configure Tunnel #1 for basic connectivity.

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