
Basic introduction to the course. Explanation of what we will achieve within our home or business network. Introduction to the software or basic skills required for the course.
VPN: brief explanation of the main advantages of a local configuration vs a common commercial VPN service.
Configuration of our virtual machine using Oracle VirtualBox or VMware Workstation Player. The user will learn to install and configure a first local virtual machine, in our case with Ubuntu Linux 22.04.
Completion of installation, the user will learn how to configure the service for the local network.
Possible issues on Windows 11. The user will be alerted to possible compatibility issues on some platforms and the proposed solutions in such cases.
Installation of the Pritunl service under Ubuntu 22.04. The user learns how to install and configure the service, also managing and installing the local firewall.
First startup through the web interface. The user will learn to configure the service, setting various ports and settings.
Port Forwarding. The user will learn how to configure their local modem/router to allow external access to the newly configured service.
First practical configuration approach. The user will try the configuration also on external devices such as laptops on different connections.
Configuration tips. The user will learn some tricks for automatic startup of the Virtual Machine and auto-login of our .openvpn file.
Dynamic IP client. After a brief explanation of what we will create, the user will learn how to write and configure a Python script for updating our reference subdomain.
First setup on the Cloudflare dashboard and with our python script, with resource attached in this lesson
Cronjob. We will proceed with the installation of a cronjob within our Ubuntu 22.04 VM for the execution of our Python script. The user will lear some basic linux commands and configuration
We will test our configuration. The user will lear how to test the final configuration and check for errors
Final considerations and conclusive tests on different systems, including a laptop and an Android smartphone. Final adjustments in the configuration with conclusion of the course.
In this practical course you will learn to install and configure your personal VPN server. You will need some basic networking knowledge, and in this case, some Linux knowledge although it's all very straightforward. We'll set up a virtual machine directly on our PC without needing to buy additional hardware, but of course, if you have the financial means, you can do so. We'll install our OpenVPN server on the virtual machine, manage users and logins from the web interface, and be able to use our devices like smartphones and laptops to connect to our VPN.
Additionally, we'll use a free domain service to update our home's public IP address for easy network access. In this case, we'll use Cloudflare and we'll need our own domain. We'll use and configure a Python script I've written to update our public IP every ten minutes or what we want and run it on our server.
Why does it make sense to create our own server?
There are several advantages, including not having to pay a monthly or yearly subscription, being able to access our home local network securely, and accessing our banking apps securely without restrictions or blocks for suspicious activities, such as banking transactions, which have restrictions based on our location when we are away from home, for example, when we are abroad.