To remove a user/client it’s easy. Type the following command.
pivpn remove
You’ll be presented with a list of the clients you have created. Enter the name of client you wish to remove and press “Enter”.
In my example below, I’m removing the user named “P-W-W-F”.
You’re all done! You have a completed setting up a VPN. You have completed setting up your endpoints. You can manage your VPN users. Congratulations. We’re all done here!
If you’re still itching to do more on your RPi… consider taking a look at my articles on installing ZRAM or installing Fail2Ban.
Okay. So we’ve gone over creating users. In doing so we’ve gone over creating a user that would have a “full” vpn by using the default configuration that happens when you create a user with PiVPN…. But how do we set up a user with a “split-tunnel” vpn, in which only traffic destined for your home network goes thru your RPi?
What exactly is this “split-tunnel”? In a split-tunnel VPN, the endpoint device will be able to make a determination as to where to route it’s traffic, due to changes in the configuration rules. It will route traffic to your home network over the VPN, while routing all other traffic directly out to the Internet.
This split-tunneling actually my ideal setup. It is also ideal if you just wish to use just your Pi-Hole for DNS queries when you are not at home.
Because PiVPN makes things so easy, I currently just create two profiles for my devices. One full and one split-tunnel. However, I seem to be primarily using only the split-tunnel. So who knows… I’ll probably change this practice of mine in the future and just create the one profile, but for now I’m keeping both.
Okay. I’ve talked long enough about split-tunnels. How do we make this magic happen? Lets dive in…
We will add a user just as we did previously, then edit it’s configuration file to allow for the split tunnel. To add your split-tunnel user, type the following command below.
pivpn add
Then add the name of your split-tunnel user. In my example, my user is named “P-W-W-F-split”
The next step is to open and edit the configuration file with the followign command.
That is the line we want to change. The split tunnel config would be modified to show the subnet of your home network. This is the magic line that makes this a split-tunnel.
AllowedIPs = 192.168.1.0/24
*Note: It’s been mentioned in the comments that for this split tunnel to work correctly, folks have had to also add the VPN network’s range to the allowed networks for things and work as expected. That updated line is:
Allowed IP addresses: 10.6.0.0/24, 192.168.1.0/24
I’m not going to re-edit the images as I am no longer using this as my VPN solution. I only wanted to leave this note here for those that are following thru my tutorial so that they don’t become stuck.
The updated configs can be copied to the home config directory if you choose. This will make it easier if you are going to manually transferring a config file to a device, but I usually don’t, and just use the QR code mention in the next article.
To copy or backup your configuration files use the following command:
VPN actually stands for virtual private network. What that means is that when you connect to a VPN, you are essentially creating a secure encrypted tunnel from your device to the network on the other side. A VPN prevents “snooping eyes” from seeing the actual network traffic that crosses the wire, meaning that you only you and the other end know what you are doing. That traffic will be visible from the other end as it comes out there, but that is a network you “trust”, and that traffice is protected as it traverses across the Internet.
You’ve probably heard of VPN services before or you might already use one. They are common for work places to use, to connect back to your office. As well commercial VPN services for individuals looking to bypass geo-location filters when they are overseas to make it appear that you are in the U.S., or users as an attempt to anonymize their internet traffic. Those are all great examples of VPNs. But those are not what I am going to cover….
So what about if you want to access resources you have at home while you are away? (i.e. – printers, file storage or file backups, remote support of a non-tech-savvy family member)
Or what if you want to use the Pi-Hole adblocker you set up at home while your at school/work/traveling?
This is the type of “home VPN” that I am talking about. This “home VPN” will keep your browsing secure while you are hopping onto free WiFi hotspots all across town, but it will not anonymize your traffic at all. All of your traffic is [securely] going to go thru your VPN and it will be as if you are surfing the Internet from home. So don’t think that just because you setup a VPN on your Raspberry Pi at home that you can blindly surf the Internet and download illegal torrents without consequence, because you’d be wrong. You will however, be able to connect back home and retrieve those files you forgot to put on your thumb drive before walking out the door.
The magic that will make it happen is called PiVPN. It’s a small piece of software that can be installed on a Raspberry Pi with a single line of code, and can be configured, ready-to-go, in less time than it take to watch a sitcom episode on Netflix.
So I already have PiHole installed at home and it works great to block ads at home. But if you’re not at home, how do you to block ads? What about if you want to access resources you have at home (i.e. – printers, file storage, remote support of non-tech-savvy family) while you are away? Well the answer is PiVPN.
You’ve probably heard of VPN services before or you might already use one. They are common for work places to use, to connect back to your office. As well as for individuals looking to bypass geo-location filters when you are overseas, to make it appear that you are in the U.S.
VPN actually stands for virtual private network. What that means is that when you connect to a VPN, you are essentially creating a secure encrypted tunnel from your device to the network on the other side. A VPN prevents “snooping eyes” from seeing the actual network traffic that crosses the wire, meaning that you only you and the other end know what you are doing. The caveat to that, depending on how your VPN is set up, is that the internet traffic on your device will appear to be coming from the network you are VPNed into and that will be visible to the ISP. So don’t think that just because you setup a VPN on your Raspberry Pi at home that you can blindly surf the Internet and download illegal torrents without consequence, because you’d be wrong. The best use case, in my opinion, for setting up a VPN, or in our case PiVPN, is to access your files and storage when you’re not at home.
Lets get started with setting up PiVPN. As a prerequisites, make sure that you have already installed and setup PiHole.
Open a terminal window or SSH into your Raspberry Pi (RPi)
Enter the following command:
curl -L https://install.pivpn.io | bash
By running the above command essentially piping the curl command to bash, the RPi will automatically download and run PiVPN.
A cautionary note about piping curl to bash – Basically, be sure you trust the source, because you’re essentially letting them run whatever they want on your device!
The PiVPN Automated Installer should appear. Click ‘Ok’.
The installer will need to apply a static IP address to your Raspberry Pi. This is a PiVPN requirement. If you’re running PiHole, you should already have a static IP assigned to your device. If you don’t… go fix that now, and come back. If you do already have a static IP address assigned at this screen, click ‘No’.
Comment on the above step… Even if you set a static IP on the device, if that IP is within the DHCP reservation pool, the DHCP server (the router, for most people) could theoretically still assign that IP to another device. That should never happen for an always on device, but if you take it offline for a while or switch routers it could happen. So when setting static IP addresses, take a look into your network’s settings and assign addresses outside of the DHCP pool’s range. This will help prevent the possible scenario i just mentioned above.
The next screen shows your current network settings and confirms that you want to use it as your static address. Click ‘Yes’.
The next screen is just a warning of what could happen with an IP conflict if the RPi does not have a static IP address and is using DHCP. We’re all set though using a static IP, so click ‘Ok’.
Next we will choose the user which we’ll install PiVPN under… Click ‘Ok’.
Then choose the desired user, and click ‘Ok’ again.
We want to install WireGuard. So on this screen, select it and click ‘Ok’.
*If you need, or wish, to install OpenVPN to meet you needs then that option is available. My recommendation – If this is your first time setting up a VPN, stick with the default – WireGuard.
Wait and watch the status bar complete….
Select your default port. I am going to leave mine set to the default value “51820”. Click ‘Ok’.
Confirm the port, click ‘Yes’.
Because PiHole is already install, PiVPN detects it and offers to set that as our desired DNS. This is what we want, so click ‘Yes’.
This next screen asks how we will be connecting remotely to our PiVPN.
Most of us do not have a static “external” IP given to us by our ISP. So with that in mind, we do not want to use the public IP address that is shown.
We want to use a Dynamic DNS (DDNS) service. The best example of this type of DDNS service is No-IP (noip.com). This type of service allows you to run a client within your network that will go out and check what your external IP is, and then update No-IP with that address any time it changes. Dynamically updating the DNS record that you have setup with the DDNS service provider.
Note: This DDNS value can be changed later if your DDNS public name ever changes, though you would need to update your user/client endpoints to use the updated name.
Since we already have DDNS set up, we will be chooseing “DNS Entry – Use a public DNS”. Click ‘Ok’.
Enter your DDNS public DNS name. Click ‘OK’.
Confirm your entry. Click ‘Yes’.
The generation of the encryption keys are the next step. Click ‘Ok’.
We will want to acknowledge the ‘Unattended Upgrades’ page. It’s just letting us know that we should enable this feature and have the RPi automatically check for and install security updated for us daily. Note, that it will not automatically reboot the RPi, so we’ll need to do that manually from time to time. Click ‘Ok’.
Click ‘Yes’
Wait and watch the status bar complete….
Click ‘Ok’. PiVPN has now been installed! Woohoo!!! We will still need to add our users/profiles before we can log in.
Click ‘Yes’ to reboot your RPi. Then ‘Ok’ again to initiate the reboot.
Now we need to log into our router. We will need to setup a port forwarding. We need to forward port 51820 to our Raspberry Pi. This will allow traffic both ways between the Internet and your PiVPN.
Note: If you skip this port forwarding step, you will not be able to connect remotely to your PiVPN.
Typing “pivpn” will show you all of the available options of PiVPN.
Now that PiVPN is running, it’s time to add device profiles to the VPN and grant them the permissions they need to be able to connect.
Ideally you will want to create a new client account for each device that will be connecting remotely to your VPN. This is a best practice, and my recommendation. It gives you the granular control, per device, in case you need to revoke or regenerate a device’s credentials. It’s easier to redo one device then it is to redo every device.
To add your user, type the following command below.
pivpn add
Then add the name of your user. In my example, my user is named “P-W-W-F”
Just like that you’ve added a user to your VPN!
Repeat the above steps as many times as necessary to add profiles for every device that will be connecting to your VPN.
This default setup will create a user with a “full” VPN, meaning that all of their traffic is going to get routed thru the Internet over to your RPi. Your RPi will then determine what traffic is meant for your home network, and anything else will get re-routed back out of your home network to the Internet.
The config can be copied to the home config directory if you choose. This will make it easier if you are going to manually transferring a config file to a device
To copy or backup your configuration files use the following command:
So PiVPN is setup. We’ve added the user/client into PiVPN. Now we need to setup the endpoint so they can connect back to PiVPN.
When we set up PiVPN we had to make a choice. We had to choose whether we wanted to use WireGuard or OpenVPN for the “magic” behind our VPN. In my article, we set up PiVPN using WireGuard, which was the PiVPN default.
So… we are going to want to download and install the WireGuard client on our endpoint device(s). Go ahead and get the latest/greatest version of the WireGuard client for your Operating System directly from WireGuard.
I’ll go over how to add it via QR code on your mobile iOS device. As well as how to add it from a config file onto a Desktop PC.
Note: If you created both a full and split-tunnel VPN client/user, then you will need to repeat the steps below to add the second profile.
Mobile Devices
Using a mobile OS like Apple’s iOS or Google’s Android, or other system that can read a QR code is probably going to be the easiest way to setup the endpoint device with it’s PiVPN configuration and encryption keys.
On the RPi, it’s possible to use PiVPN to generate a QR code for each client/device that you setup. That QR code will hold all the info that WireGuard needs on the endpoint to properly configure it. Just remember to guard that QR code and keep it safe… as it is literally the keys to your Castle/Home Network.
On the RPi, enter the following command below:
pivpn -qr
PiVPN will then list the users you have created, and you can choose which user you want a QR code to be generated for.
In my example, I get the QR code for the user “P-W-W-F”
On your mobile iOS device, open the WireGuard app. Tap “+” to add a new tunnel. Then tap “Create from QR code”.
Your phone’s camera will open and allow you to scan the QR code.
Give the VPN connection a name when prompted. I used the name “PiVPN”.
Click “Allow” when prompted to allow WireGuard to “Add VPN Confiurations” to your device.
It will then proceed to auto-magically set everything up for you. You’ll have a simple toggle available in the WireGuard app that you can use to enable/disable your VPN.
Desktop Devices
Setting up the WireGuard app on a desktop is not hard, but it’s not as easy as simply scanning a QR code. PiVPN will automatically generate a file that will contain the configuration and encryption keys for each user/client, as you create each of your users/clients. We just have to copy that file from the RPi on to our desktop.
When we create the user/client in PiVPN, it generated a file named “User/Client.conf” and placed in the RPi’s users’ home folder.
In my example below, when I created the user “P-W-W-F” it generated the file “P-W-W-F.conf” and placed in the folder “/home/pi/configs”.
From your Desktop, open WinSCP, and connect to your RPi. On the RPi side, navigate to the folder that was listed when you created your user/client in PiVPN. Copy that “User/Client.conf” file over to your desktop.
On your Desktop, open the WireGuard app. Click on button to “Import tunnels(s) from file”.
Browse to the file you copied off of your RPi, and click ‘Open’. It will load all of your settings. Click the ‘Activate’ button to turn on your VPN.
Your PiVPN VPN using Wiregaurd is now active. You are now connected to it and can access all of your resources safely and securely. To disconnect, just click the “Deactivate” button.
