Pi and VPN

The1nonly1 · 27 Aug 2017 at 18:49

Hi, first of all, I think this can be done but I'm not 100% sure.

I have a Pi that isn't doing anything at the minute and I want a VPN connection. Is it possible to install a VPN on the Pi (PIA) and have it constantly running? If it is, can I connect my phone to this Pi so that all traffic is routed through the VPN first before going through my router? Also will I be able to switch between the Pi and router if I don't want my phone going through a VPN?

Hope that make sense.

neodude · 27 Aug 2017 at 21:05

Clicky

neodude · 27 Aug 2017 at 21:06

Although, if it's just for your phone,why not just use the PIA Android App?

The1nonly1 · 27 Aug 2017 at 22:14

neodude said:
Clicky

Thanks

neodude said:
Although, if it's just for your phone,why not just use the PIA Android App?

I could but I would prefer there to be no apps running in the background.

ScoobyDoo · 27 Aug 2017 at 22:22

http://www.dickson.me.uk/2016/06/21/setting-up-a-raspberry-pi-as-a-vpn-router-updated/

Another guide which I found somewhat better.
I run my VPN on a pi2 and have done for the past year. Really solid and if it does go down then the tunnel doesn't let any traffic through and a quick reboot of the pi fixes it.

You're not going to get much throughput with a pi but I get around 25mb which is good enough for what I use it for

The1nonly1 · 27 Aug 2017 at 23:36

Thanks, it'll only be for web use mainly. How easy is it to switch between routing through VPN and non-VPN as I won't always need it. Would it require me to change the gateway each time?

ScoobyDoo · 28 Aug 2017 at 08:52

Yes I believe the easiest way is to change the gateway as if you stop the vpn service on the pi, the tunnel will know the vpn is down and it will stop routing traffic altogether meaning you'll have no access to the internet.

The1nonly1 · 28 Aug 2017 at 14:39

As I won't want this running all of the time, can I skip the the enable VPN at boot part and the VPN kill switch part?

For when I want it running, I would use 'sudo service openvpn start < vpn-name >' to start it and 'sudo service openvpn stop < vpn-name >' to stop it. Would this work? It would be easier than having to change the gateway each time.

ScoobyDoo · 28 Aug 2017 at 15:22

The1nonly1 said:
As I won't want this running all of the time, can I skip the the enable VPN at boot part and the VPN kill switch part?

For when I want it running, I would use 'sudo service openvpn start < vpn-name >' to start it and 'sudo service openvpn stop < vpn-name >' to stop it. Would this work? It would be easier than having to change the gateway each time.

Yes this would work fine if you don't want it running all the time.

The1nonly1 · 28 Aug 2017 at 15:23

Thanks

The1nonly1 · 29 Aug 2017 at 03:09

Set it up and works perfect. I can enable and disable as I please.

Edit: It did work fine until I rebooted the Pi. Now each time I use the command 'sudo service openvpn start /etc/openvpn/Paris.conf' to start it, I am asked for a username and password despite me adding my username and password for Purevpn to the login file /etc/openvpn/login and adding this line to my VPN file Paris.conf. Sometimes it wont even work when entering the username of password. It does work when I use the test command 'sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/Paris.conf' though without asking for a username or password.

auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/login

Any ideas?

ScoobyDoo · 1 Sep 2017 at 12:30

The1nonly1 said:
Set it up and works perfect. I can enable and disable as I please.

Edit: It did work fine until I rebooted the Pi. Now each time I use the command 'sudo service openvpn start /etc/openvpn/Paris.conf' to start it, I am asked for a username and password despite me adding my username and password for Purevpn to the login file /etc/openvpn/login and adding this line to my VPN file Paris.conf. Sometimes it wont even work when entering the username of password. It does work when I use the test command 'sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/Paris.conf' though without asking for a username or password.

auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/login

Any ideas?

Have you got anymore conf files in the openvpn directory?. If there are more than one than ive found openvpn will try to connect to each one and cause this issue with asking for a username/password. Make sure you've only got one conf file in the openvpn directory.

The1nonly1 · 1 Sep 2017 at 13:55

ScoobyDoo said:
Have you got anymore conf files in the openvpn directory?. If there are more than one than ive found openvpn will try to connect to each one and cause this issue with asking for a username/password. Make sure you've only got one conf file in the openvpn directory.

I did have yes, 5 to be exact as I was testing out different servers. I did see that when I was trying to connect to Ireland, it would show as France when I looked up the IP address. Fixed now though thanks by removing others and going over the guide again. Also used this one: https://www.novaspirit.com/2017/06/22/raspberry-pi-vpn-router-w-pia/