Tutorial for Deploying / Build Your Own Linux OpenVPN Server In The Cloud Or At Home

Networking & Firewalls
1

Hey there, I am new to this forum.

I have been learning about freenas and openvpn lately, and I find them fascinating. I must say that Tom Lawrence, you do a very good job teaching about all of these stuff. I am really glad you decided to do this.

I wanted to play around with all the stuff I had learned, So I downloaded Virtualbox and installed FreeNAS VM and Ubuntu VM.

I have some queries regarding the Openvpn video that you posted.

I wanted to create a Openvpn server on my Ubuntu Guest VM and install a client on my Windows host. It took me long time to figure what was wrong, but then i finally figured it out.

  1. Since I was using a bridged network adapter for my VM, I had to put my public IP into the openvpn roadwarrior installer prompt.
  2. This was the hardest though… Port forwarding. I had to port forward the Ubuntu internal IP and Port 1194 manually from my router. Once I figured out this was the major problem, I went about fixing this and Voila! I was connected.

So here is my query,

  1. In your video, you had a linode server set up in another location other than your client. And when you connected to VPN your IP showed that you were in the Server location.

Now in my case you see that my VM Ubuntu Guest is in the same location as Client.

Is there any way I can do what you did with the different location with my VM without paying for Linode or any other VPS. I am sorry if this a stupid question?

  1. Is there a better or easy way to set up a VPN server to spoof my locaton i.e to show that I am in a different location? {For FREE}

  2. The method of VPN setup I did here, what applications can it be used for? I know that location spoofing is not working in the application, but I was wonderinng if something like remote desktop between two windows clients that are connect to the same VPN Server in Ubuntu guest VM would be possible.

I would like to see more tutorials from Tom Lawrence in the future.
I hope I get these queries answered.

Keep up the good work.

Cheers!
Terin Tom

2

You need an outside server to make it appear that you are somewhere other than your home IP. Tor is free, but slow, everything else will have a cost. I like PIA VPN, they are reasonably priced https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/buy-vpn/LRNSYS

3

Yeah I figured that I would need an outside server. Thanks for the reply.
However I ran into another problem with the VM after going through a restart. Turns out, since the public IP of the Ubuntu guest VM changes from time to time, I won’t be able to use the same client open VPN configuration file everytime. This is a pain.
I hear PIA is a very good paid option. Linus from Linus tech tips suggests the same.
I also have Tor but I am looking for an alternate means of achieving the same.
I found an option by using softether VPN client. It is a very effective way of setting up VPN. Check it out, it is project by the University of Tsukuba.
It has many public VPN servers which can be used for spoofing locations. You can also use the client to create your own VPN server for secure access to your server etc.

Again, thanks for the reply.
Keep up the good work.

Cheers
Terin Tom

1 Like
4

I used this tutorial to build my own cloud-based OpenVPN with Pi-hole. You could do the same and not use Pi-hole if you wanted.

It works great for my needs.

https://docs.pi-hole.net/guides/vpn/overview/