Protect Your Network Connections with an Easy-to-Set Up VPN Server on a Raspberry Pi

A step-by-step guide to setting up an OpenVPN server on your Raspberry Pi, allowing you to protect your internet connections and access geo-restricted content. …


Updated October 17, 2023

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A step-by-step guide to setting up an OpenVPN server on your Raspberry Pi, allowing you to protect your internet connections and access geo-restricted content.

OpenVPN is a powerful tool for encrypting your internet connections and accessing geo-restricted content from around the world. It works by creating a virtual private network (VPN) between your device and a server, sending all data through this encrypted tunnel to mask your real IP address and location. This makes it ideal for protecting your privacy online and accessing content that may be blocked in certain regions. In this article, we’ll show you how to set up an OpenVPN server on your Raspberry Pi - a small, affordable device that is perfect for running VPNs.

Prerequisites:

Before getting started, make sure you have the following:

  • A Raspberry Pi with the latest version of Raspbian installed (tested on Raspbian Buster)
  • An Ethernet cable or WiFi dongle to connect your Raspberry Pi to your router
  • Access to the internet via Ethernet or WiFi on the device
  • An account with a cloud VPN provider, such as NordVPN or Private Internet Access (we’ll be using NordVPN for this tutorial)

Step 1: Update Your Raspberry Pi

The first step is to ensure your Raspberry Pi has all the latest updates. Open a terminal window and run the following commands:

sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get upgrade

This will download and install any necessary software updates.

Step 2: Install OpenVPN

Next, we’ll install the OpenVPN package on your Raspberry Pi. Run the following command:

sudo apt-get install openvpn

Once this is done, you can move on to setting up your cloud VPN provider account.

Step 3: Set Up Your Cloud VPN Provider Account

  1. Sign up for a NordVPN or Private Internet Access account (or another OpenVPN-compatible provider) and purchase a plan.
  2. Download the appropriate configuration files (.ovpn) from your provider’s website. These will include the necessary certificates to connect to their VPN servers.
  3. Transfer these .ovpn files to your Raspberry Pi using a USB drive or other file transfer method.

Step 4: Configure OpenVPN on Your Raspberry Pi

  1. Create a new directory for your OpenVPN configuration files:
sudo mkdir /etc/openvpn/client
  1. Move the downloaded .ovpn files to this directory:
sudo mv ~/Downloads/*.ovpn /etc/openvpn/client/

Make sure to replace ~/Downloads with the path where you saved your configuration files, if different. 3. Edit the OpenVPN configuration file to include your NordVPN username and password:

sudo nano /etc/openvpn/client/nordvpn.conf
  1. Find the line that starts with auth-user-pass and add your credentials below it in the following format:
auth-user-pass
username
password

Save and exit the file by pressing Ctrl + X, then Y, and finally Enter. 5. Create a new directory for OpenVPN logs:

sudo mkdir /var/log/openvpn
  1. Set the correct permissions on this folder:
sudo chown nobody:nogroup /var/log/openvpn
  1. Configure systemd to start OpenVPN at boot:
sudo systemctl enable openvpn@client

Step 5: Start Your VPN Connection

To connect to the VPN, run the following command:

sudo systemctl start openvpn@client

You should now be connected to your chosen VPN provider. To verify this, visit a website like What is my IP and check that your IP address has changed to the VPN server location.

Step 6: Set Up Auto-Start on Boot (Optional)

If you want OpenVPN to automatically start when your Raspberry Pi boots, run this command:

sudo systemctl enable openvpn@client

You can also restart your Raspberry Pi to test that the auto-start functionality works correctly.

Conclusion

Congratulations! You have successfully set up an OpenVPN server on your Raspberry Pi and secured your internet connections. Now you can access geo-restricted content and protect your privacy online. Remember, however, that you should regularly update your software and VPN provider credentials to keep everything secure.