VPN
Virtual Private Networks are a big deal, and this shouldn't be considered anything even close to a guide on using them. Here are just my notes and some setup for how I use wireguard at home.
Wireguard
Wireguard is an awesome peer-to-peer VPN tunnel that makes it really easy for me to get into my home network when I'm out and about. My main reasons for this are 1. I don't trust public wi-fi and 2. I want to use pi-hole for ad blocking when I'm not at home
Wireguard can be configured as a "peer-to-site" VPN tunnel as well. My vpn setup let's me jump to various machines on my network from anywhere!
I use pivpn in a VM that's already running pi-hole
to host my wireguard server.
It's super easy to setup just by following the instructions on the pivpn site.
The reason I like it is that I have a nice cli
for managing wireguard configs.
dumbledore@pihole-vpn:~$ pivpn
::: Control all PiVPN specific functions!
:::
::: Usage: pivpn <command> [option]
:::
::: Commands:
::: -a, add Create a client conf profile
::: -c, clients List any connected clients to the server
::: -d, debug Start a debugging session if having trouble
::: -l, list List all clients
::: -qr, qrcode Show the qrcode of a client for use with the mobile app
::: -r, remove Remove a client
::: -off, off Disable a user
::: -on, on Enable a user
::: -h, help Show this help dialog
::: -u, uninstall Uninstall pivpn from your system!
::: -up, update Updates PiVPN Scripts
::: -bk, backup Backup VPN configs and user profiles
When I'm ready to add a new client to my wg
network, it's as easy as pivpn add
and follow the instructions.
The easiest part here is that you'll be given a QR code in the terminal that you can just scan with the client (like a smart phone) and you'll have your wireguard config handled by the app (oh right, download the wireguard app) in no time!