hi,
for external ip i use a script as following;
#!/bin/sh echo "original IP:\tXX.XXX.XXX.XXX" ACTIVE_IP=$(wget -qO- http://ipecho.net/plain ; echo) echo -e "active IP:\t$ACTIVE_IP" exit
in the second line you can write instead the XX.XXX.XXX.XXX your right ip from your provider so that it shows booth, the provider ip and the openvpn ip (good to compare).
if you want to use it without script then that;
wget -qO- http://ipecho.net/plain ; echo
is enough.
and for the other thing;
ps | grep -v grep | grep openvpn
regards
Pike