[ale] OpenVPN Question

[johnmills at speakeasy.net (John Mills)]

ALErs -

I will be trying out 'openvpn-2.0.9' from a Linux laptop and have a 
couple of questions:

1. I have file set with certificate, etc., for the connection. Where is it 
appropriate to save this, and with what permissions?

2. As a client I would like to open and close the tunnel manually (by 
screen widget for example). How can I achieve this?

TIA for any guidance.
 - Mills