Linux - VPN set-up

ProtonVPN set-up on ArchLinux

ProtonVPN offers normal configuration files for OpenVPN and Wireguard. It will just work, these protocols are well supported by the stock VPN clients shipped with most distributions or desktop environments. Do not install the third party VPN application, there is no reason to, your system already ships with superiour implementations of everything.

Check if openvpn is installed.

openvpn --version
  1. Login to ProtonVPN account, using the menu on the left side, go to OpenVPN/IDEv2.
  2. Download a Server configuration file (the .ovpn file) to connect to a specific server in the country of your choice.
  3. e.g. us-ny-166.protonvpn.udp.ovpn

At the location of this file, run the command or put this in a .sh file and run it.

sudo /usr/bin/openvpn us-ny-166.protonvpn.udp.ovpn

Provide OpenVPN / IKEv2 Username from the ProtonVPN Account page. Press Ctrl+c to close the VPN connection.

Testing

Websites that displays the information that the browser can collect from the computer: This shows what info the browser can send to other parties with/without our consent.

  1. https://www.deviceinfo.me/
  2. https://mylocation.org/

Read

  1. https://www.reddit.com/r/ProtonVPN/comments/1ayuna6/why_do_you_use_a_vpn_and_why_do_you_use_protonvpn/
  2. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ProtonVPN#Using_OpenVPN
  3. https://wiki.archlinux.org/title/ProtonVPN

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