Secure Your Surfing with a VPN

Notice a lot more targeted ads lately? Have you been getting more spam emails that seem to be related to your surfing habits? Your internet providers are allowed to log and sell your data to make even more money off of you. You should protect yourself and it doesn’t have to be difficult.

Everywhere we go there seems to be free wifi, but how safe is it? Why take the chance, encrypt your traffic using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). This is just a fancy way of saying that the traffic between your device and the website or service you are visiting is encrypted. Also, have you ever noticed that free hotel wifi seems to be very slow especially when trying to do things like streaming Netflix? That is because they prioritize your traffic, slowing down the sites they want to and allowing others.

On a recent Florida vacation, I found the hotel wifi to be unbearable, until I switched on my vpn. Once that was up and running, everything ran smooth because they could no longer see the type of traffic which was passing and everything had the same preference. Then I turned on my wifi hotspot and allowed the family to surf through my phone, through my vpn, through the hotel wifi and it ran smoothly for them as well.

Now there are a lot of free vpn services out there, but be careful, they are free for a reason. When you think you are protected, they are simply selling your data themselves or using your device to send other vpn user’s traffic through. Ouch, that is not what you are looking for. Don’t be afraid to pay for a vpn service and make sure you read their privacy statement about how they do or do not protect or resell your data.

I use Symantec security on my devices and they recently added a vpn service into their package which they call Norton Wifi Privacy. It is simple to install, configure and use and works relatively well, though I have seen some mixed results at times. Of all of the services out there this is probably one which I trust more than others due to the Symantec name. There are many other options out there thougt. I would suggest checking out https://www.top10vpn.com/top10/ for a good selection along with details.

Now, being in the tech industry for 30 years and tinkering with tech my whole life, I wouldn’t be true to myself if I didn’t show you a DIY way to setup your own vpn server. This is definitely not the simplest and best route, but if you like to tinker you may want to try it. I decided to go to one of the simper to use cloud providers called Digital Ocean as you can run a virtual server there for as little as $5/month.

I have tried to simplify the instructions a bit for the average user to follow, but it is still not quite a walk in the park. If DIY is not for you, then you probably want to avoid trying this next section.

Try to follow along and let me know how it works out for you.

1. Sign up for an account at Digital Ocean.
2. Login and and choose the option to “Create Droplets”, this is their name for a virtual machines.

1. Choose the CentOS Version 6.9 build and the smallest server they offer, keeping the other default options.

1. Once the machine is up and running you will receive an email with your ip address and login information. You will also see the ip address in the control panel.

At this point things get a little more complicated but do not be intimidated, you are just a few copy and paste steps away from your vpn running.

1. Open google chrome and install the secure shell extension located at https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/secure-shell-extension/iodihamcpbpeioajjeobimgagajmlibd?hl=en or choose an ssh client you are more comfortable with.
2. Once the extension is installed, click the ssh icon in the upper right corner and enter root@youripaddress into the connection details.
3. Now, copy the password from your email and right click in the shell screen and hit enter. This will paste in your password and log you in.
4. At this point you will be prompted to change your password. Right click again to paste the current password and then create a good password for your machine.
5. Once the password has been changed, paste the following into the SSH screen:

sed -i ‘s/IPADDR2/#IPADDR2/g’ /etc/sysconfig/network-scripts/ifcfg-eth0

service network restart

wget http://swupdate.openvpn.org/as/openvpn-as-2.5.2-CentOS6.x86_64.rpm

rpm –Uvh openvpn-as-2.5.2-CentOS6.x86_64.rpm

6.  set the openvpn password by typing:

passwd openvpn

Enter a good password you will remember, as you will need this on your device

7. At this point your vpn is up and running, but we are going to add a little extra security.
8. Now go back to your Digital Ocean control panel, select your droplet and select the “network” option
9. Choose Manage Firewalls and create a new firewall

10. Set your firewall rules to look like the following:

11. Next to rules, select the “Droplets” option and add your vpn droplet to have this firewall apply to it.

12. Now go to your mobile device and download the openvpn connect application.
13. Once installed enter the information for your server which is the ip address, the username “openvpn” and the password you configured for it.
14. Connect the vpn.

From your mobile device, if you browse to the website “whatsmyip.com” you should see your internet address listed as the same ip address as your droplet. Now your traffic from your device to your droplet is encrypted, protecting you from your local service provider or wifi hotspot provider.

Now, what is not protected? Well, the traffic from your droplet to the internet is not encrypted unless the service you are connecting to provides that encryption. Digital Ocean does log some information, all of which can be found in https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/privacy/ .

A vpn doesn’t prevent your browser or device from storing cookies and using advertising id’s. Remember the goal for a vpn is to protect you from the local internet provider, not the site you are connecting to. Personally, I also don’t condone anything illegal or untoward and that is not what this is intended for. For any questions regarding what Digital Ocean does and doesn’t allow, please see their acceptable use policy at https://www.digitalocean.com/legal/terms/ .

I also want to point out the openvpn access server software used in this case is not free. You are allowed to use it for up to two concurrent users in what they call “Demo” mode, after which time you should purchase the software. Please see their EULA at https://openvpn.net/index.php/license.html .