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setting up home VPN with Raspberry Pi

Techicolors

so i've been looking into this sort of project, and i think it'll be interesting to do. mostly to protect myself from the net neutrality/privacy crapshow the US is in right now. and yes, i have considered paid VPN services, but i thought this particular route would be a nice change of pace. plus gives me an excuse to try a raspberry pi 

 

most research leads to this site http://www.pivpn.io/ 

appears you only have to run a script and complete a couple of instructions to personalize the VPN server (using OpenVPN), which seems simple enough. i heard that running scripts might be a little sketchy, but this particular one doesn't appear to have anything sketchy. i can always go the manual route, which is a bit more complicated 

 

before i get started though, i am wondering a few things..

- would this setup allow me to connect to the VPN server while travelling/outside the home? e.g. connect to public wifi > VPN server > encrypted traffic > device

- would this setup allow me to overcome regional locks? like watch US netflix while in the UK

- how many devices can i connect at once to the VPN server? as many as i want? the Pi is pretty low-powered, so i am a bit wary about client load. but it shouldn't matter as this is a home setup

- do i need a monitor and kb+m to manage the VPN server from the Pi? 

 

i also want to run PiHole along with piVPN. haven't looked much into that yet 

 

if this goes against community standards, sorry bout that 

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11 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

so i've been looking into this sort of project, and i think it'll be interesting to do. mostly to protect myself from the net neutrality/privacy crapshow the US is in right now. and yes, i have considered paid VPN services, but i thought this particular route would be a nice change of pace. plus gives me an excuse to try a raspberry pi 

 

most research leads to this site http://www.pivpn.io/ 

appears you only have to run a script and complete a couple of instructions to personalize the VPN server (using OpenVPN), which seems simple enough. i heard that running scripts might be a little sketchy, but this particular one doesn't appear to have anything sketchy. i can always go the manual route, which is a bit more complicated 

 

before i get started though, i am wondering a few things..

- would this setup allow me to connect to the VPN server while travelling/outside the home? e.g. connect to public wifi > VPN server > encrypted traffic > device

- would this setup allow me to overcome regional locks? like watch US netflix while in the UK

- how many devices can i connect at once to the VPN server? as many as i want? the Pi is pretty low-powered, so i am a bit wary about client load. but it shouldn't matter as this is a home setup

- do i need a monitor and kb+m to manage the VPN server from the Pi? 

 

i also want to run PiHole along with piVPN. haven't looked much into that yet 

 

if this goes against community standards, sorry bout that 

 

1. Yes

2. Technically speaking it will make your IP seem like its from your home connection so it would probably work.

3. Not too many, you're kind of limited in terms of processing power. I don't know enough about it to give you an accurate answer. My dual core VPS can handle probably 30-40, but it depends on the encryption method you use, as some use more processing power and throughput.

4. Not once its setup as you can SSH into the Pi (note: SSH server is disabled by default in Raspbian).

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The point of a VPN is to have a secure connection between you and the network on which your VPN server is located. Doing this project will allow you to securely access your home network on the go.

 

VPNs are entirely dependent on where you put the server.

 

If you want to protect yourself from the ISP privacy thing, you will want to rent a VPS somewhere and install OpenVPN on it.

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8 minutes ago, jakkuh_t said:

 

1. Yes

2. Technically speaking it will make your IP seem like its from your home connection so it would probably work.

3. Not too many, you're kind of limited in terms of processing power. I don't know enough about it to give you an accurate answer. My dual core VPS can handle probably 30-40, but it depends on the encryption method you use, as some use more processing power and throughput.

4. Not once its setup as you can SSH into the Pi (note: SSH server is disabled by default in Raspbian).

so i can use the openVPN GUI on windows (or any other openVPN installation) to manage the Pi server? 

 

11 minutes ago, DeadEyePsycho said:

The point of a VPN is to have a secure connection between you and the network on which your VPN server is located. Doing this project will allow you to securely access your home network on the go.

 

VPNs are entirely dependent on where you put the server.

 

If you want to protect yourself from the ISP privacy thing, you will want to rent a VPS somewhere and install OpenVPN on it.

i've thought about a VPS. would Amazon's AWS work? 

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Just now, Technicolors said:

so i can use the openVPN GUI on windows (or any other openVPN installation) to manage the Pi server? 

 

i've thought about a VPS. would Amazon's AWS work? 

I wouldn't recommend AWS since they charge per GB of network traffic, it adds up really fast when you watch videos.

 

@SamStrecker Would be the better person to talk to about VPS's.

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2 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

so i can use the openVPN GUI on windows (or any other openVPN installation) to manage the Pi server? 

 

i've thought about a VPS. would Amazon's AWS work? 

AWS isn't a very good idea because they charge for everything (data usage, etc). I've had really good experiences with SSDNodes and BuyVM.

 

https://www.ssdnodes.com/startup-specials/?utm_source=sales-chat&utm_campaign=sales-chat&utm_medium=homepage

https://buyvm.net/kvm-dedicated-server-slices

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1 minute ago, jakkuh_t said:

AWS isn't a very good idea because they charge for everything (data usage, etc). I've had really good experiences with SSDNodes and BuyVM.

 

https://www.ssdnodes.com/startup-specials/?utm_source=sales-chat&utm_campaign=sales-chat&utm_medium=homepage

https://buyvm.net/kvm-dedicated-server-slices

What does 1/4 core and up mean?

This looks interesting.

 

I am using one of a thousand VPNs right now,

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1 minute ago, yathis said:

What does 1/4 core and up mean?

This looks interesting.

 

I am using one of a thousand VPNs right now,

The VPS offerings from BuyVM I listed are dedicated, so you have you fair share of a CPU core usage equivalent to 1/4 of the core, ie. 25% of the cores processing power.


EDIT: And if you rent an entire core, its yours alone, you don't share the processing power of that specific core with anyone.

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9 minutes ago, Technicolors said:

so i can use the openVPN GUI on windows (or any other openVPN installation) to manage the Pi server? 

 

i've thought about a VPS. would Amazon's AWS work? 

Oh, and if you need some help setting up a VPN server after you rent a VPS lemme know. I'm happy to help :o

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1 minute ago, jakkuh_t said:

The VPS offerings from BuyVM I listed are dedicated, so you have you fair share of a CPU core usage equivalent to 1/4 of the core, ie. 25% of the cores processing power.


EDIT: And if you rent an entire core, its yours alone, you don't share the processing power of that specific core with anyone.

And it's worth noting that for a single user 1/4th of a Xeon core is plenty even for higher encryption levels.

-KuJoe

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SSD Nodes has a sale on, I buy my VPN in chunks of 3 months for the same price as SSD Nodes.

 

I am sure Netflix have all the VPN's IP's, so SSD Nodes is better quality for P2P and Regional Resitriction bypass.

 

 

SSD Nodes you get min 2 cores. Sale ends in an hour, Im gunna buy.

But you say I need my own server pc.

 

 

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My advice when searching for a VPS provider is to find one that is close to your physical location. If you can provide a general location I can provide some cheap options close to you.

-KuJoe

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Just now, KuJoe said:

And it's worth noting that for a single user 1/4th of a Xeon core is plenty even for higher encryption levels.

Its also worth noting that BuyVM uses really high single core performance Xeons so that 1/4 of a core is better than most VPS providers. (E3 1270v3)

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1 minute ago, jakkuh_t said:

Its also worth noting that BuyVM uses really high single core performance Xeons so that 1/4 of a core is better than most VPS providers. (E3 1270v3)

Which one is better?

Node or VM?

And I need my own dedicated pc or no?

Confused on that part

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Just now, yathis said:

Which one is better?

Node or VM?

Depends on what you want. If you're trying to keep it cheap I'd go with SSDNode.

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Just now, jakkuh_t said:

Its also worth noting that BuyVM uses really high single core performance Xeons so that 1/4 of a core is better than most VPS providers. (E3 1270v3)

Yup, but even older Xeons are plenty for VPNs. I'm running L2TP VPNs on ARM devices without any issues and minimal CPU usage.

-KuJoe

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2 minutes ago, jakkuh_t said:

Depends on what you want. If you're trying to keep it cheap I'd go with SSDNode.

A buck here or there does not concern me at all.

But one has higher ram, other has higher cpu, unmetered BW

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1 minute ago, yathis said:

Which one is better?

Node or VM?

And I need my own dedicated pc or no?

Confused on that part

I don't know about Node but BuyVM has test IPs you can look up and ping/traceroute to. Try the test IPs and see which has the best latency.

-KuJoe

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Just now, yathis said:

A buck here or there does not concern me at all.

But one has higher ram, other has higher cpu.

Neither will impact your VPN performance at all. I have clients running VPNs on a VPS with 64MB of RAM on an ancient L5420 CPU without any performance issues.

-KuJoe

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Just now, KuJoe said:

I don't know about Node but BuyVM has test IPs you can look up and ping/traceroute to. Try the test IPs and see which has the best latency.

I'm running a VPN on one of SSDNodes seattle servers and being located in Vancouver I get like 15-20 ping on average which is great for me. BuyVM is great if you want DDoS protection or something like that.

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Alright so I figure I need OpenVPN on a dedicated pc using Linux in my house, then I buy SSDNode or BuyVM KVM on a monthly/yearly service and this will kick ass from VPN Unlimited or the like.

 

I want to use it for Netflix and P2P, so unlimited data on BuyVM with its lower RAM and lower CPU core.

Plus the usual surfing the web, and privacy.

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Just now, jakkuh_t said:

I'm running a VPN on one of SSDNodes seattle servers and being located in Vancouver I get like 15-20 ping on average which is great for me. BuyVM is great if you want DDoS protection or something like that.

Have you tried RamNode? They have a location in Seattle also which has some great connectivity and performance (and offers DDoS protection if needed).

-KuJoe

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1 minute ago, yathis said:

Alright so I figure I need OpenVPN on a dedicated pc in my house, then I buy SSDNode or BuyVM KVM on a monthly/yearly service and this will kick ass from VPN Unlimited or the like.

I would recommend L2TP w/IPSEC over OpenVPN. The encryption is the same, the performance is better, it's easier to install than OpenVPN, and it is supported by ever OS I can think of out of the box (including all mobile OS options). OpenVPN requires software to install and can be tricky to install..

-KuJoe

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1 minute ago, KuJoe said:

Have you tried RamNode? They have a location in Seattle also which has some great connectivity and performance (and offers DDoS protection if needed).

Yeah, I ended up canceling for a refund because they didn't perform as good as I wanted for the cost.

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