Vps Proxy
Maintaining Internet Security With Proxy Servers And Vpns.
Maintaining Internet Security With Proxy Servers And troductionYou may have heard these two names many times. Those who always use the internet and are concerned about their privacy should know these two concepts. Proxy servers and VPNs are used for security purposes, but both differ in serving it. If you are concerned about your privacy over the internet and seeking help, you are just one line away. Here is a guide to help you introduce you to some of the internet security options: How does a proxy server improves security and Virtual Private Networks (VPNs).
Virtual Private Network in briefA virtual private network is a technology where a private network connection is routed virtually between the nodes that provide you the internet resources from the server you addressed using encryption without connecting you to the public network. It forms an encrypted tunnel that protects your system information from the threats outside of the tunnel in the public network. It ensures your sensitive data safety by transmitting your information through the encrypted tunnels. VPN provides shielded security to users as it encrypts user requests even before your ISP, the Internet service provider gets and forwards them to the respective VPN node. It also disables the browsing activities of users.
VPNs are a reliable and secure internet security medium. The encrypted tunnels under VPN support all networking protocols used for transmission through the tunnels with their privacy and security options. PPTP, SSTP, and L2TP are the protocols used to construct the tunnel with high security. It provides you a unique IP address and establishes a tunnel between you and the requested sites over the internet to ensure the security principles of connection. It uses AES-256 encryption for the tunnels so that none can view your data or interfere in your transmission process even if it is a government authority.
You can switch VPN on or off as per your choice. You can also access to the blocked and hidden content in websites using the VPNs. It can provide safety to your data even though you are connected to any public Wi-Fi connections.
Pros and cons of VPNsA virtual private network is convenient in all ways. It provides encryption to traffic, and then no one can view it. It is a highly secured data transmission. VPN can protect your browsing activities and keep them hidden from everyone in the public network. It can help users send and receive data with an anonymous identity. ISPs slow down the speed of the internet when you have used a specific amount of data. Using a VPN connection avoids data throttling, even if you have used your data at a certain limit amount. It makes restore your normal data speed. Sometimes users face bandwidth throttling because of slow data speed. In this case, using a VPN can also avoid bandwidth throttling.
It can also help you access the geographically blocked sites and information by changing your IP address according to the geographical area where access is allowed. You can also access the sites and regional sports out of your geographical areas such as abroad sites, using a VPN. But it is important to understand the rules of that particular country or location before using VPN. Because you may have to give penalties for using a VPN, a virtual private network can also get you cheaper telephone charges for long-distance calls.
It can directly access to your internet service provider access point. You can also get cheaper servers for maintaining your business. As server maintenance can be costly, it is beneficial to use a VPN to reduce its cost.
Drawbacks of VPNAs there are several benefits of VPNs, Drawbacks come along with them. VPNs can face slower internet speed because it routes and encrypts the traffic every time for transmission. Also, some of the countries, locations have prohibited the use of VPNs. So, make sure you know your country’s rules and regulations. If you used it against the laws, you would have to pay the penalties. VPNs are a little difficult to set up. You will have to take help from the expert ones for setting up the VPNs. VPNs come in different types with various encryption qualities.
You will not be able to know the quality of your VPN unless you know encryption very well. So, it would help if you chose a good-quality VPN for your infrastructure. The cost of VPNs is also higher than the proxies. It comes in several types, so the cost is dependent on the type of VPN you want to purchase.
A proxy server in briefA proxy server often called a proxy, is the intermediate server or node between you and the internet that provides access to your requested sites by hiding your system’s original IP address and location. It acts as a gateway between your system and the public network that indirectly connects you with the web pages you requested anonymously. It takes a request for data from the client machine, i. e., your machine, and forwards it to the public network with anonymous identity and forwards back you the data you requested. You can access anything over the public internet without getting your IP address and location involved through the proxy servers. Because of anonymity, threats, and danger in the public network can not target your system as they can not see your system details. You can also access the hidden data of some websites using proxy servers.
Proxy servers and IP addressProxy servers only shield your IP addresses. Your other data remains visible to others in the same network because it doesn’t encrypt the data. HTTP and SOCKS are the protocols used to encrypt the data. But the encrypted data can be viewed by the cybercriminals who are connected through another proxy server. Mostly, these cybercriminals use these proxy servers to surf on the internet. They can easily make you fool by advertising a proxy server and then stealing your sensitive data when you connect with them.
HTTP is a mostly used protocol than SOCKS. SOCKS5 is used to access the torrent services and web servers. Proxy servers are used in i. So there is always huge traffic of the users. Thus, the speed of the connection can be affected. If you want to access the blocked sites and surf over the internet, you can use proxy servers.
Pros and cons of Proxy serversThe first advantage of a proxy server is that it keeps your IP address hidden in the public network. The websites you are visiting through the proxy server case your system’s IP address. Because the proxy server shows its IP address to them instead of your system’s IP address, another benefit of proxies is you can access any geographically blocked sites or content. Websites will not be able to stop you from accessing as they will not see your IP address. Proxy servers store a cache of sites. So, whenever you visit a site, it will store it in the cache memory. When you revisit the page, the proxy will load it faster from the cache.
Proxy servers can also prevent your system from malware, viruses, and phishing. There are some websites over the internet with malicious content as a trap for visitors. But if you visit those sites using a proxy server, the malicious content will not affect your system. But the virus may enter the proxy server instead of any machine. One more benefit of a proxy server is that it is cheaper in the cost if compared to high-cost options like VPNs.
Proxy servers in hiding the IP addressYou have seen the benefits of proxy servers above. Now there are some disadvantages of proxy servers too. A proxy server can hide your real IP address from everyone, except some of the proxy providers. Your proxy provider can keep track of the browsing activities you are doing through the proxy servers. So, it is better to know the identity of your proxy provider before using proxy servers. Proxy servers will provide you all the benefits. Mostly they do not encrypt their connection. You can also get data encryption with SSL certificates from the proxy providers. But cybercriminals are so enhanced that they can decrypt your data by SSL stripping skills. It might be an issue for data security. In this case, you will see that the data is encrypted, but it is not in reality. Since your data is not encrypted, the server can also modify your data for any purpose. So this is a major drawback of proxy servers.
Using proxy server for information accessYou can use proxy servers for quick access of information with an anonymous identity. It is not efficient for long-term access to sites and information because it does not guarantee user data security. Another drawback of using proxy servers is that proxy servers store cache of information. It is a benefit along with risk in it. The cache information may be any data like passwords and usernames visible to the proxy provider. So, there is a risk of your private data being leaked. However, you will get many free proxy server connections over the internet, but they all have several security threats. So, do not hesitate to get a paid one if you want to maintain security.
Difference between the Proxy server and Virtual Private Network (VPN): Proxies and VPN both provide the same deliverables with a little difference in them. Many people get confused about the difference between the proxy servers and the virtual private networks. That’s why here are some constraints from which you can understand which the best is according to your needs.
Speed: Speed is the most important feature when it is about internet access. Proxy servers have a faster speed than the VPNs. VPNs are slow because they require encryption of data.
Cost: The cost of both proxy and VPN depends upon their qualities. VPNs are more expensive as they require to be maintained than the proxy servers.
Privacy and security: VPN provides encryption to the traffic while proxy doesn’t. A VPN hides your data from Internet service provider tracking, government authorities, cybercriminals, and hackers. Proxies do not protect your data except your IP addresses. So in case of security, the secured VPN should be used.
Area of work: The proxy server works on a specific application to route only the application’s traffic. But, VPN works with the operating system, and it can route and manage the traffic of the whole operating system.
Reliable connectivity: VPN provides a reliable connection once connected. But proxy server connection can fall frequently.
These are the points where VPN and proxy servers differ from each other. People should understand the concepts of proxy and VPNs, as well as the difference between them both. Because if a person used a proxy server for security purposes in the business, it could have the worst impact on the business. However, the VPN is better than a proxy server. But choosing the proper one depends on your requirements.
Final words about proxy server If you want your team to share and access all the modules remotely and securely, you can use a virtual private network. But if you want to see what your users are accessing, you can use proxy servers here. So, it is necessary to get familiar with every detail of proxy servers and VPNs before using more:What Is A Web Server And Apache
Wondering About How To Use Free Google SMTP Server? Here’s What You Need To Know
VPS vs VPN – What’s the Difference? | HostGator
VPS and VPN are two commonly confused terms. Their acronyms are similar, so it’s common for the two to get mixed up. However, they each refer to two very different types of sentially, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a form of web hosting, while a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service and technology that allows you to remain completely private and anonymous when using the though these are very different services, they’re commonly grouped together due to their names. Mixing up these two terms can be confusing, especially when you’re just starting your journey we explore what a VPS is and how it works, along with how it differs from a VPN in our VPS vs VPN comparison. What is a VPS? Before we can do our comparison, it’s first important to identify what VPS hosting is and discuss how it is unique from other platforms. Like we mentioned in the introduction, VPS stands for Virtual Private Server. It’s a form of web hosting offered by hosting companies that provide you with a virtual server environment to host your that’s a bit confusing, we’ll break it down a bit further. A server is a computer that’s used to store website files and data. When you type a domain name into a browser the browser communicates with the server and renders all of the stored site ’s a multitude of different forms of web hosting, including dedicated hosting, shared hosting, managed hosting, WordPress VPS hosting, cloud hosting and hosting uses virtualization technology to split a single physical server into multiple different virtual servers. This makes it so you have greater access to server resources, along with the ability to expand the virtual server when your needs it’s a virtual server you’re not tied to the limitations of a single physical server. Also, since it’s a private server environment you won’t be sharing server resources with any other, you will be sharing actual physical servers, but with the employed virtualization technology there won’t be any overlap of server Does VPS Hosting Work? Let’s dig into what happens behind the scenes that allow VPS hosting to work. At the core, it operates similarly to software like VMware. This style of software enables you to run multiple virtualized operating systems from a single machine. So, if you currently have a MacBook running MacOS, you can quickly switch over to Windows 10 without having to restart your computer. A VPS server uses similar technology to run a virtual server environment. Let’s say you have a standard dedicated server. On top of that dedicated server, you can create several virtual servers that act as their own dedicated server environments. Typically a VPS server will pull from multiple different dedicated servers as well. That way if one goes offline, or is undergoing routine maintenance it won’t affect the performance of your VPS server is completely isolated and private from any other virtual server that’s using the same physical server. Pros of VPS HostingVPS hosting is a solid choice for users who need more than a shared server but aren’t quite ready for a dedicated are some of the biggest advantages of using VPS hosting:It’s cost-effective. With VPS hosting you basically have access to a dedicated server, without the cost of a physical dedicated server. Greater server customization. Generally, you’ll pay for what you want and be able to only add features that you require to run your website. Easy to scale your server. With VPS hosting you can gradually expand the number of server resources you have access to, and won’t have to pay for server resources you don’t require. Greater server control. When you compare VPS vs. shared hosting, you’ll get a higher level of access to your server, plus root access, and the ability to run certain server scripts. Solid technical support. With VPS hosting you’ll generally have access to improved technical support staff and will have more hand-holding when compared to a standard dedicated server. Cons of VPS HostingStill, VPS hosting isn’t perfect for every kind of website owner. In fact, you should probably only consider VPS hosting once you’ve “graduated” from a shared hosting it’s time to migrate your shared hosting to VPS, you’ll be given more space and flexibility for managing your site.,. Still, there are some disadvantages you’ll want to be aware are the biggest drawbacks to VPS hosting:It’s comparatively more expensive. If you’re coming from shared hosting, then know that VPS will be more expensive than shared hosting. It’s not as expensive as dedicated hosting. But the price will depend on your overall resource requirements. Overall, it’s cost effective, but you will be paying a higher monthly rate. You can run into resource allocation issues. In some cases, you can run into resource allocation issues. This is when another site running a VPS uses too large a volume of physical server resources and your site’s performance will slow down. However, this typically only happens if you’re using a low-quality VPS host. When Should I Use VPS Hosting? VPS is a common next step after your site has outgrown the limits of a basic shared hosting plan. It’s a nice in-between for those who don’t want to upgrade to a fully dedicated server but can no longer use shared, what is VPS hosting used for? Take a look at the situations below:You need speed and performance. If your site is growing in size and you’re experiencing a higher volume of traffic, then you’ll need a hosting plan that can keep up. VPS hosting is scalable and can support large and high-traffic sites. You need a custom server setup. With a VPS server you get more control over your server environment. Not only do you get root server access but you’ll have the ability to choose your own operating system and make other customizations as well. You want flexible server resources. With VPS hosting you can more easily scale up your server resource needs as your site grows, or you’re experiencing a large volume of traffic. Since you’re not constrained to a single physical server it’s much easier to expand your resource requirements. Essentially, a VPS offers you offers you the same benefits that a private server will give you, all while sharing the cost of hosting services. What is a VPN and How Does it Work? VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. Essentially, a VPN creates a private and secure network, which then extends across your entire network connection. It offers you a way to remain anonymous online, while securing any data that passes over the you fire up your VPN software of choice your VPN client will automatically encrypt any data that are sent over a network connection. Before any data passes over a network connection first it’ll pass through the VPN. The VPN will then encrypt the traffic and pass it online portal you end up on will see the transmitted data as originating from the VPN server, not your home (or coffee shop) you connect to the internet without a VPN enabled, any data you’re transmitting is essentially open to anyone with the right tools. For most situations, this will be perfectly fine, but if you’re sharing sensitive information, like your banking details, emails, or anything else, then you might want another layer of you’re using a VPN any data that you transmit over the internet goes directly from your ISP to the VPN server, then the VPN connects to the internet for you. This helps to diminish or completely reduce a lot of the most common security risks you’ll run into example, when you’re using a VPN it’s very difficult to connect your computer back to any data that you’re transmitting. Plus, all of your data will be encrypted, so if your information is intercepted no one will be able to interpret your data. Pros of Using a VPNWhen you use a VPN you’ll help to keep yourself more secure while using the web. But, beyond achieving a higher level of security there’s a myriad of other benefits you’ll receive when using a VPN are some of the biggest benefits of using a VPN:Access georestricted content. A VPN allows you to get around certain content restrictions. For example, you might want to watch a Netflix show that isn’t available in your country. You can bypass this with a VPN. Protects your data. Since VPNs encrypt your data before sending it over the network, your data will always be safe and secure from prying eyes. Keeps you safe online. If you routinely access wi-fi networks that are unsecured, you can use a VPN to bolster your security and ensure you stay safe online. Not only will using a VPN give you all of those advantages above. But, it’s also surprisingly affordable. The monthly cost of a VPN is usually on par with a cheap shared hosting plan. Cons of Using a VPNEven though using a VPN is a great step to take towards protecting yourself online it isn’t without its are some of the most common drawbacks you’ll experience when using a VPN:Slower internet connection. Since a VPN adds layers of encryption to your data this will slow down your internet connection. If you already have a slow internet connection, this could make your internet connection virtually unusable. Security issues can still arise. VPNs aren’t perfect. Often achieving a high level of security will rely upon configuring your VPN properly. There have also been circumstances where DNS and IP leaks occur, exposing your once secured data. Your VPN connection can drop. If your VPN connection drops you lose any existing anonymity. Although some VPNs employ a kill switch feature which will disconnect you from the internet if a drop occurs. When Should I Use a VPN? Most people can benefit from using a VPN, especially if you’re concerned about your online privacy. You can use a VPN whenever you connect to the internet. Since it runs in the background it won’t impede any existing online activities, however, it might impact your internet speeds depending on your connection, and the VPN software you’re sically, if any of the following circumstances sound like you, then consider using a quality VPN:You want to get around content blocks. Some countries censor their internet content. To access this content you’ll need a way to get around country-specific blocks while remaining anonymous online. Beyond a censored internet, you can use a VPN to get around country geo-restrictions on streaming content like Netflix. You want secure data and network connections. With a VPN behind you, your internet connection will be incredibly secure. Any private data you share over the internet will be encrypted and safe. You want to remain anonymous online. Since you’re using the VPN IP address, your IP and other personal information will be fully ’re using unsecured wi-fi networks. Accessing public wi-fi networks can put your information at risk. If you regularly access wifi from outside of your home, a VPN will keep your information safe. VPS vs. VPNVPS hosting is a service that allows you to host your website on a virtual server environment, while a VPN is a user-oriented tool that lets you browse the web safely and obably the only thing that a VPS and VPN have in common (beyond a closely-related acronym) is the virtualization aspect of each of the both serve completely different needs, although as a user you can rely upon both services. For example, if you have a large and high-traffic website you can use VPS hosting to host your site. Then, you can use VPN software while you’re accessing the internet to manage your site, to protect any data you’re sending over the internet. Hopefully, you have a better understanding of how VPS hosting and VPNs work, along with the unique purposes they serve. Whether you want to learn how to build a website or register a domain name, our HostGator experts can help you with all your web hosting questions. Contact us today to learn how to build your dream website.
Running a VPN server on your VPS – Everything you need to know
A VPN, or Virtual Private Network, is a service that creates an encrypted tunnel between the location of your computer and a remote server.
All of your Internet traffic is routed through this tunnel, effectively masking your real location since your computer will seem to have the IP address of the VPN server.
In addition, all traffic is encrypted so your data remains safe at all times, even if intercepted by a hacker or your network administrator.
Why do you need a VPN?
The two main benefits of a VPN, anonymity and encryption, have made these services hugely popular. In the modern world, most aspects of our lives are transmitted in one way or another over the Internet.
Every single action that you perform online, like visiting a site or clicking on a photo, is recorded and traced back to your IP address. If you are concerned about your online privacy, using a VPN has become almost mandatory.
Anonymous browsing doesn’t only protect your privacy, but also provides a number of other benefits. Virtual private networks have been used for a long time in countries like China, in order to bypass censorship and Internet access restrictions.
They also allow users to view live streams from all around the world or elude the strict network rules of university access points.
Since the VPN tunnel is always encrypted, you no longer have to worry about using unsecured networks. You can connect to any public WiFi hotspot and do online banking for example, without any risks.
VPN alternatives
If you need a VPN, there are three main options: using a free service, a paid one or setting up your own VPN server.
Free services are a bad idea because they are not really secure and have serious limitations, we have already detailed why you should avoid them in a previous article.
Paid VPNs are more reliable but even these are not fully secure and there have been cases when the providers were forced to disclose client data to investigators.
In addition, a monthly VPN subscription is usually more expensive that the cost of setting up your own server. Today, you can provision a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for a really low price and configure it as a VPN in order to hide and secure your Internet traffic. While setting up a VPN is not an easy task, we will guide you through all the steps in this article.
Prerequisites
There are several applications that can be used to install a VPN server. In this article, we will use OpenVPN, which provides a very flexible solution.
OpenVPN can be installed on various operating systems, from Windows to Linux or MacOS. It has very low system requirements, so the cheapest VPS has enough resources to run it effectively. Your server must have a dedicated static IP address.
We will use a CentOS 7. 6 VPS with 2 CPU cores and 2 GB RAM but you can go even lower if you want. Before the installation, run a general system update in order to make sure that all packages are upgraded to their latest version.
Getting your VPS server
Make sure you have a VPS you can run your VPN service on. You can get the best service quality for the lowest price point by getting one of our cheap VPS servers.
Installing OpenVPN
The installation process is pretty straightforward. Since OpenVPN is not available from the standard CentOS repositories, the first step is to install EPEL and refresh the list of available packages:
yum install epel-release
yum update
You can now install OpenVPN:
yum install openvpn
We will also install EasyRSA, a tool that simplifies the setup of an internal certificate authority (CA) on the server and SSL key generation. The package is also available in the EPEL repository and can be easily installed with yum:
yum install easy-rsa
Configuring OpenVPN
Open VPN has many configuration options, which can be quite complex. Fortunately, a sample configuration file is provided, with comments that explain the functions of each line. Copy it to the default configuration folder and use it as a basis for your own settings file:
cp /usr/share/doc/openvpn-2. 4. 6/sample/sample-config-files/ /etc/openvpn
Open the file with your favorite text editor; we will use vim in this example. Since vim’s default color scheme makes comments difficult to read, you can switch to a different one (with a command like:colorscheme desert):
vim /etc/openvpn/
Start by changing the default port and protocol to 443 tcp:
port 443
proto tcp
Next, you have to modify the location of the certificates that will be used by the server:
ca /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/
cert /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/issued/
key /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/private/
dh /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/
The next two lines that have to be uncommented are:
topology subnet
server 10. 8. 0. 0 255. 255. 0
These will create a subnetwork that allocates addresses to client machines. The server will use the first address in the subnet (10. 1), while the first client will be assigned the IP 10. 2.
The most important line that must be uncommented is this one:
push “redirect-gateway def1 bypass-dhcp”
It basically instructs client machines to redirect all their traffic through the VPN, instead of their local gateway. Since using this route will ignore the local network’s DNS servers, new ones have to be defined. In this example, we will use the most popular public DNS servers, provided by Google and Cloudflare:
push “dhcp-option DNS 8. 8”
push “dhcp-option DNS 1. 1. 1”
In order to improve security and follow official OpenVPN guidelines, enable TLS authentication. Comment the line that begins with tls-auth and define an encryption key that you’ll generate with the name of your choice ( in this example):;tls-auth 0
tls-crypt
Adding this line will harden security checks even further:
remote-cert-eku “TLS Web Client Authentication”
You can also enable compression by uncommenting these two options:
compress lz4-v2
push “compress lz4-v2”
Finally, configure OpenVPN to run with the user and group nobody, so the service doesn’t have any privileges after it starts. The lines that have to be uncommented are:
user nobody
group nobody
The last line of the file also has to be changed, because this option is not compatible with the TCP protocol:
explicit-exit-notify 0
You now have a solid basic configuration in place, so save the file and exit. Since all directives are very well documented in the file, you can tweak other parameters if you want.
Don’t forget to generate the static encryption key by executing this command:
openvpn –genkey –secret /etc/openvpn/
Generate SSL keys and certificates
While keys and certificates can be generated in several ways, the scripts installed by EasyRSA make this task very simple.
Create a folder in order to store the keys and certificates that will be generated:
mkdir -p /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
Copy the EasyRSA scripts from their initial location to this folder:
cp -r /usr/share/easy-rsa/3. 0/* /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa
Navigate to the configuration folder and run the scripts in order to initialize a new PKI and build a certificate authority (CA):
cd /etc/openvpn/easy-rsa. /easyrsa init-pki. /easyrsa build-ca
In order to build the CA, you have to enter a PEM pass phrase as well as a Common Name (CN) for your server, or just press Enter for the default value. Make sure that you remember the PEM password, since you will need it later.
The next step is to generate the keys and certificates of the actual OpenVPN server, in this example we will use “server” as the filename. The PEM password is required by the signing request script:. /easyrsa gen-req server nopass. /easyrsa sign-req server server
The DH parameters used during the TLS handshake with clients are generated by the following command, which takes some time to finish:. /easyrsa gen-dh
Every client also needs a certificate in order to connect to the server. It is very important to keep this certificate safe and not share it with others, in order to avoid a massive security risk. If you want to allow other people to use your OpenVPN server, generate a separate certificate for them using the same procedure.
In this example, we will generate a key and certificate for client1, the PEM password is needed again:. /easyrsa gen-req client1. /easyrsa sign-req client client1
Congratulations, all certificates have been generated. You will need the following four files in order to configure the client side of the VPN:
/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/
/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/issued/
/etc/openvpn/easy-rsa/pki/private/
/etc/openvpn/
System configuration
In order to enable routing, some firewall rules have to be defined. We will use firewalld in this example but other firewalls such as CSF or the basic iptables work as well.
Add the openvpn service to the list of trusted zones and check if it was included correctly:
firewall-cmd –zone=trusted –add-service openvpn
firewall-cmd –zone=trusted –add-service openvpn –permanent
firewall-cmd –list-services –zone=trusted
Configure a masquerade both on your current instance and permanently:
firewall-cmd –add-masquerade
firewall-cmd –permanent –add-masquerade
Create a variable, then use it to add a permanent routing rule on your main network interface:
VAR=$(ip route get 8. 8 | awk ‘NR==1 {print $(NF-2)}’)
firewall-cmd –permanent –direct –passthrough ipv4 -t nat -A POSTROUTING -s 10. 0/24 -o $VAR -j MASQUERADE
The final step is to reload firewalld in order to implement all these changes:
firewall-cmd –reload
In CentOS, packet forwarding is disabled by default but you can easily enable it by editing the file /etc/ and adding the line:
net. ipv4. ip_forward=1
Execute the following commands to restart the network with the new rules:
sysctl –p
systemctl restart network
Start the service
Everything is now configured, it is time to start the service and enable it, so it loads automatically every time the system reboots:
systemctl start rvice
systemctl enable rvice
Check if everything is in order, the command output should be active (running):
systemctl status rvice
Configure a Windows client
Assuming your local desktop/laptop runs Window, you will want to set up a client to connect to your VPN server.
Download and execute the installer from OpenVPN’s website, the application must be run with administrator rights.
The default configuration folder is /Program Files/OpenVPN/config, copy the four files (,, and) there.
Create a new file named in the same folder, with the following content (replace IP with the actual IP address of your OpenVPN server):
client
tls-client
remote
resolv-retry infinite
route-delay 2
pull
dev tun
nobind
ca
cert
key
After stating the application, the OpenVPN GUI icon is located in the system tray. Right click on it and click Connect to start using the service.
Connect from other operating systems
If you own a Mac, there are several VPN clients available, we recommend a free software called Tunnelblick. Install it from the App Store, then copy the same four files from your server and create a identical to the Windows one.
Make sure that all these files are in the same folder, then open the application, navigate to the folder and click on the file. The VPN is now installed and you only have to click on Connect in order to use it.
If Linux is your OS of choice, install the openvpn client using your distribution’s native package manager. The package is not available in the default repositories of some distributions, so you might have to enable additional ones (for example EPEL in the RedHat OS family).
Just like in Windows and Mac, you need the four files from the server, as well as a file with the same content.
Run the application from the command line with the root user or sudo privileges, make sure that you include the full path to the file:
openvpn –config
After you connect, use a website that displays your public IP (Google “What is my IP” for a few options) in order to check that Internet traffic is now properly routed through the VPN.
Final considerations
We have only described the basic server setup in this article, but OpenVPN is a very powerful application that can be customized further. Read the official documentation for various tutorials and use case scenarios.
You now have a fully functional virtual private network server that allows you to browse the Internet anonymously and prevents all types of tracking.
By running a VPN server on your own VPS, you can configure the service based on your specific needs and allow connections from multiple clients, for a price that is cheaper than a single commercial VPN subscription.
Still need a server to run your VPN on?
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Frequently Asked Questions about vps proxy
What is VPS VPN?
VPS and VPN are two commonly confused terms. … Essentially, a Virtual Private Server (VPS) is a form of web hosting, while a Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a service and technology that allows you to remain completely private and anonymous when using the web.Apr 2, 2019
Can I use my VPS as a VPN?
If you need a VPN, there are three main options: using a free service, a paid one or setting up your own VPN server. … Today, you can provision a VPS (Virtual Private Server) for a really low price and configure it as a VPN in order to hide and secure your Internet traffic.Feb 11, 2019
What is a VPS IP?
VPS means your IP address belongs only to you. When you choose a Virtual Private Server (VPS) for your hosting solution, you have a single IP address assigned to your server which isn’t shared with other servers.
