How to configure a vpn connection on my laptop?
Someone please reply to this.
Hey, where do you think you are? We’re just volunteers trying to help people. But you just dump one question after another, never providing info.
Trouble is I don’t know what kind of info one would need. One thing would be my location I guess, I am located in Kolkata, India. Other than that isn’t the fact that I am using leap15.2 enough info? PLease let me know what other info is needed?
In my case I use a VPN provider called ExpressVPN and on openSUSE I use the application “openVPN”. ExpressVPN is one of the more expensive services - you may wish to use a less expensive one.
I use openSUSE-15.1 and not 15.2 beta, but I assume they should be similar in this area.
On my openSUSE LEAP-15.1, in YaST > System > Network settings > Global Options, I switched from using ‘Wicked’ for my network access to using ‘Network Manager Service’.
From my VPN provider, I downloaded a series of “country-name.ovpn” files, one for each country that I want to use the VPN with. I put those files all in one common directory (so I can find/navigate to them easily).
I then left click (in bottom right of my KDE desktop) on Network Manager , left click on the configuration icon/symbol, and that brings up a “Edit Your Network Connections” box. On the left I see an area entitled "VPN(openvpn). I go to the bottom of that area, and click on the " + " symbol. That brings up a box “Choose a Connection Type - System Settings Module”. I scroll right to the bottom to the “Other” area, and click on “Import VPN Connections”. That brings up a box (sort of a file manager type box) where I navigate to where the “country-name.ovpn” files are located. I select the country I want to add. Enter root password when prompted.
That takes me back to the “Choose a Connection Type - System Settings Module” entry box, where under “VPN(openVPN)” the country I just added is present. I select that, and under the VPN(openVPN) tab for that country I add my username and password for ExpressVPN.
I then close that box, and go to Network Manager in the bottom right of my KDE desktop, and under “Available Connections” I see the country I have chosen. I simply click on that and it connects the VPN.
Note that not all VPN services will route IPV6 traffic, so you may wish to block IPV6 on your openSUSE and also disable IPV6 in Firefox.
There are other ways to configure a VPN connection. That is just one way. Other ways use the router and not openSUSE, etc … etc …
In the openSUSE documentation, in the Security Guide, there’s a section which deals with setting up a VPN Server and Client:
Ok, thanks a lot, I was looking precisely for something like this.
Ok thanks very much. Something I can actually troubleshoot with, in case I run into problems.
My experience is so different, I wonder if I’m doing it wrong.
I’m on Tumbleweed. I came across a freeware/donationware email service out of Switzerland called Protonmail. After using it as a secondary email account for some time, I got ads for a vpn they run on the same freeware/donationware principle. It’s called Protonvpn. I never see articles on either of these services.
In the free vpn service, they have servers in 3 countries with 3 servers in each. They have dozens of pay servers. Once you install the program, pick the (free) server, it just “shows up” as an openvpn option in Network Manager. The .conf file is not in the openvpn folder however.
As I said, I never see anything written about Proton, so I don’t know its value when compared to other vpn services. I just know it could not be easier to set up and I see no speed difference when I turn it on or shut it off. They strongly suggest using a cli tool when on linux. I didn’t do that.
OK so this is even more interesting. However right now I am at a different location than my actual house due to Covid and thought it better to wait until I get back there. Otherwise if all this somehow messes up the connection here (I guess for starters I would need permission from the internet service providers and they might not agree), then everything will be doomed. Till then, firewalls are good enough, I guess.
Almost set up a protonvpn connection, now getting this message when I open YAST network:
Network is currently handled by Network Manager or completely disabled. YaST is unable to configure some options, to the effect that I don’t see any option anywhere to add a connection. What to do? I reinstalled YasT network and a host of other network utilities, but to no effect, I am still getting the same message. Please help.
Set up a protonvpn connection on my phone BTW. It’s now completely dark to the outside world. However I had problems logging in here from my phone. I don’t know what’s going wrong, when I try to post this reply, it logged me out and then didn’t let me log in, though the username and password are the same as here. I don’t know what’s going on.
Also the network manager icon on the upper right hand corner doesn’t have an add connection option in its drop down menu.
BTW, managed to log in from my phone alright, but I believe the posting options are disabled on it, is it so for everyone?
It’s good practice to be very wary working on a remote machine and doing anything that might affect the network connection.
Only if you have a “lights out” solution can you do almost anything with confidence.
No matter whether you use an automated or semi-automated setup, on Linux you generally
- Should install the VPN components separately for that particular VPN protocol.
- Can be helpful to read through the installation and configuration instructions for the basic protocol to at least become familiar with what is installed and essential parts you need (login credentials? encryption keys? authentication keys? packages which can help setup?)
- Network Manager is a common way to manage VPNs, after all a VPN is another kind of network connection
- A VPN is a “secondary network connection” in other words, a regular, normal network connection must be working before a vPN can be started.
- Be familiar with how your system is set up before configuring a VPN… Does your netowrk start on system boot or only after someone logs on to the machine?
HTH,
TSU
As far as I can see, the protonvpn connection is completely independent of any kind of personal internet service provider, they have their own servers to which I could connect to on my phone which is working perfectly and superfast.
The problem I am having is with my network manager which is not functioning properly, in the sense that it’s not showing the add connections option anywhere. Neither is YaST able to add connections, as it doesn’t have that option as well and giving the error message that I talked about.
Which desktop environment are you using? That might help us provide a more specific answer here.
If using KDE, you can get to the NM connection editor via a terminal using…
kcmshell5 kcm_networkmanagement
but as oldcpu already mentioned, you should be able to get to this by right-clicking on the network icon in the system tray, and select ‘Configure Network Connections…’
It can handle various VPN connectivity (a number of common protocols), but some enterprise services may provide their own CLI or GUI utilities to control the VPN connectivity. So you need to be specific when asking for help with a particular provider and/or protocol.
YaST is only relevant if using wicked to manage your network connectivity.
One small add…
I mentioned that you have to install the components of the VPN protocol you intend to set up.
This is not a “maybe” “sometimes” or “only with this provider.”
I don’t know of a single exception, unlike MSWindows you have to install the components for your system using the system’s own packages separately and before you can do anything else from the VPN provider.
And, if you don’t install at least one VPN component, you won’t see a VPN connection option to set up in Netowrk Manager.
The following ProtonVPN Linux install instructions recommends you install OpenVPN packages.
TSU
I get the sense that a different method than what I proposed is being adapted.
but to be 100% certain, if using Network Manager, and wanting to add a country.ovpn file, go to Network Manager configuration in lower right corner of a KDE desktop, and click on the “+” :
https://thumbs2.imagebam.com/50/b9/dd/4ab9601347433530.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/4ab9601347433530)
Pretty simple, but if complete window is not showing, you need to scroll down to see the + symbol. There may be more than one scroll bar (ie each box may have a scroll bar).
Then that will bring up this window:
https://thumbs2.imagebam.com/bc/a8/62/fdcb761347433534.jpg](http://www.imagebam.com/image/fdcb761347433534)
Again, go to the bottom of the window to find what to click on in order to import the VPN file.
The above is just an example I set up for this post.
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Sorry for not replying earlier, I was not having a connection. Now I have and have configured protonvpn successfully. Thanks for everyone who pitched in with valuable advice. Now I am completely dark to the outside world.
Glad to read you have a VPN working.
However, I’m not sure what you mean by completely dark. Note there are ways a VPN can be worked around by those with the resources and will power to do so - in order to discover who is using a VPN. This is especially true if the VPN user has a high traffic rate.
Note also what I said about ipv6 leaks.
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