Servers 101: OpenVPN in less than 2 minutes!
A VPN server is great when you want to hide your IP address. It is better than a proxy server as it usualy is system-wide. We are going to use Nyr's openvpn installer to kickstart our VPN server. Please, do not assume that you will have 100% anonymity. This is pretty hard to achieve
Other stuff in the Server 101 series:
- Intro and getting into your server - Single Article
- Basic Server Security - 3 Parts
- Setting up a Web Server - 4 Parts
- Managing Your Server - 4 Parts
- caddy - Lightweight Web Server - 1 Part
- Emailify your server! - 6 Parts
- Setting up a Password-Protected proxy server with Squid - 1 Part
Preconfig
At first, you need to enable TUN/TAP, and check your server provider's terms if they allow or not OpenVPN usage. If you have any questions for any of these (TUN/TAP and the Terms), contact your provider!
Installing and configuring
Run this command:
wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh && bash openvpn-install.sh
It will download the quickstart OpenVPN installer script from github, and ask you a couple of questions:
Welcome to this quick OpenVPN "road warrior" installer
I need to ask you a few questions before starting the setup
You can leave the default options and just press enter if you are ok with them
First I need to know the IPv4 address of the network interface you want OpenVPN
listening to.
IP address: YOUR IP ADDRESS HERE!
Which protocol do you want for OpenVPN connections?
1) UDP (recommended)
2) TCP
Protocol [1-2]: 1
What port do you want OpenVPN listening to?
Port: 1194
Which DNS do you want to use with the VPN?
1) Current system resolvers
2) Google
3) OpenDNS
4) NTT
5) Hurricane Electric
6) Verisign
DNS [1-6]: 1 (or whatever you like)
Finally, tell me your name for the client certificate
Please, use one word only, no special characters
Client name: yourusernamehere
Okay, that was all I needed. We are ready to setup your OpenVPN server now
Press any key to continue...
After pressing any key, the script will download and install OpenVPN, as well as configure your username.
An ovpn file will be created for you on the current directory. Download it to your computer, install the OpenVPN client and open the file. You should be ready to go!
Do not leak this file to anyone! They will be able to use your VPN server. If you suspect that someone used your key, rerun the script and you will be able to revoke the user, add a user or remove OpenVPN completely!
If you need a place to host your servers consider Vultr, Digital Ocean and BuyVM.
These are affiliate links. If you sign up through them, you support me and I will have more free time to write more content like this.
Also If you signup for Digital Ocean through my affiliate link, you will get $10 to try them out. Note: to battle abusers of this offer, you'll have to make a $5 deposit via Paypal or add your credit/debit card, so they can confirm that you are a new user. I did a deposit via Paypal to test them out, and then I added my credit card so I won't have to deposit money manually every now and then.
OpenVPN is a the tool of choice of many. I tend to use UDP for my VPN. what things do you look for when picking out VPNs? bitcoin payment and no logging in a decent country is a must for me. my favourite https://nordvpn.com/
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I guess I would look for anonymity (which means the service would accept bitcoin and/or other cryptos) and small log time retention (or 0 log time retention). As for the country, if I didn't have a specific need, I would choose Canada.
But I have no constant need for VPN, and when I need something, I quickly fire up an instance on Vultr on their Frankfurt or Amsterdam DC, do my job, and then delete the instance.