I have an openvpn (version 2.1_rc15 at both ends) connection setup between two gentoo boxes using shared keys. it works fine for the most part. I use mysql, http, ftp, scp over the vpn with no problems. But when I ssh from the client to the server over the vpn, weird things happen. I can login, i can execute some commands. But if i try to run an ncurses application like top, or i try to cat a file, the connection will stall and I'll have to sever the ssh session.

I can, for example, execute "echo blah; echo .; echo blah" and it will output the three lines of text over the ssh session fine. But if i execute "cat /etc/motd" the session will freeze the moment I press enter.

While it seems like a terminal emulation problem it makes no sense why using the vpn would affect the ability for ssh to render things correctly. I am at a loss to explain why everything else works, including scp, but ssh just breaks over the vpn. Any thoughts ?