How to quickly create your own self-hosted VPN

How to quickly build your own VPN service

In this age of smartphones, a virtual private network (VPN) is essential to help you stay safe online. All network connections to and from your device are encrypted by VPN while passing through an external server. Additionally, it protects your personal home IP address from prying eyes so you can remain anonymous. Even your Internet Service Provider (ISP) can't track your online activities if you're connected to a VPN. A VPN can occasionally bypass blocked websites, allowing you to easily access content from different countries.

Unfortunately, not all VPN services are supported as some may record your internet usage history. They can then use this information to sell to various external companies, which can lead to intrusive targeted advertising or even spam. First, some VPN companies may have unethical motives. However, some countries need to monitor what their users are doing. This is important because the main benefit of a VPN is that it hides your real IP address from the public and encrypts your network data.

Today's market is flooded with reliable VPN service providers . However, hosting your own VPN server can further improve your online security. You don't have to worry about third parties tracking your browsing habits as it allows you to directly encrypt your web traffic. If you don't trust most third-party VPN providers, you can try this option, although it may not be the best solution for everyone.

This article covers the main pros and cons of using your own VPN, as well as how you can do it.

Should I run my own VPN server?

As you might expect, setting up your own VPN server has many pros and cons. These are the things you should keep in mind when deciding whether or not to choose server hosting.

Strength

• Your data is in your control.
• It's usually cheaper or cheaper than buying a VPN subscription.
• A VPN server can be used for additional purposes such as hosting a website or installing NextCloud.
• Because your server is not on the list of blocked IP addresses, the VPN cannot access websites and services. Android apps are not subject to this rule as they detect when a VPN or proxy is used.

Error

• Since the VPS host already knows your identity and credit card information, anonymity is impossible.
• Available bandwidth will be limited. Because the data goes from the source to the VPN before it's sent to you, even though Linux promises you 1TB per month, you're only getting 500GB.
• If you don't have the technical knowledge to block malware and some VPN services offer features like trackers, you won't be able to use them.
• It is difficult to travel between different countries/nations.

Creating a Linode VPS

To begin the first steps of setting up your VPN server, you'll create a VPS, the result of which will be a Linux virtual machine running your VPN server. Although there are many VPS providers, Linux is an excellent option that is not too complicated. So, to be clear, we used it for our lesson. Another popular solution that we recommend as a good replacement is DigitalOcean.

See the following steps to get started with Linode VPS:

• If you don't have an account yet, visit the Linode website and create one (this is our referral link; we receive a small fee when you sign up).You must enter your payment information before proceeding.
• Go to the toolbar, select "Create", then select "Linode". Otherwise click this link. Here you can choose the hardware your server will use and where it will be hosted.
• For the latest Ubuntu LTS version, which is 21.04 LTS at the time of this writing, select the distribution box.
• Choose where you want to host the VPN. If you decide to change your location in the future, please contact Linode Support.

• From the list of shared CPU options, select 1 GB for the plan Nano. Since running a VPN doesn't require a lot of processing power, this low-spec option should be more than enough to get the job done.

• Select the Nano 1GB plan from the shared CPU options list
• Since computer power is not a basic requirement to run a VPN,
• This should be more than enough for the low performance option to work.

Enter WPS.

There is no direct graphical interaction with your server as it does not have a graphical user interface (GUI) like Windows or Macros. There is only one command line. Don't panic; They are easy to follow. If you've never used the Terminal program on Macross, Linux, or Android, you'll feel good about going through this process.

You can follow these instructions to access your new VPS:

• With your VPS open, click the Launch LISH Console button in the upper right corner of the screen. Clicking here will open a web terminal and prompt you for login.
• After rooting, enter the root password. Usually, loading does not cause a visible reaction. It is very common here.
• Press Enter again to confirm your selection.

After logging in, you will receive a "Welcome to Ubuntu" message. If you've never used Terminal on Linux or macOS before, this list of common commands might be helpful. Let's start with the next step i.e. VPN server setup.

Create a VPN

It's time to start configuring the VPN by logging into the command line interface. Fortunately, this is the easiest step since we used the OpenVPN Road Warrior installation script to get everything right. The script will ask for your IP address, preferred protocol, and other data.

To get started, run the following command in a console window (note that VPN is followed by an O, not a 0)

wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh && bash openvpn-install.sh

Then do the following.

• Press Enter when you go to DNS Servers and Protocols.
• When prompted for a port number, enter 443. Changing the OpenVPN port used for HTTPS connections to 443 can bypass various network restrictions, as many networks block OpenVPN ports by default.
• Enter your name when prompted. The script configures everything and installs the necessary software.

When the script completes, the a.ovpn file will be exported and placed in the /root/ folder. From this file you will get server connection information and VPN login information. Moreover, this
We recommend that you keep these credentials safe and do not disclose them to anyone.

Once you know how to do this, hosting your VPN won't be that difficult.

If you don't want to trust or rely on third-party VPN services , hosting your own server might be the best option for you. By giving you control over your data and keeping it safe, you can make your life safer. In general, you should pay more attention to how much bandwidth you use at one time. As mentioned above, getting your own VPN server is not for everyone. However, it is a fun learning experience. In the future, you can always return to the idea.