DietPi PiVPN Server Installation on Raspberry Pi

In this segment, we are going to show you how to “Install PiVPN on Raspberry Pi inside DietPi”

What is DietPi?

DietPi is an extremely lightweight operating system, start at 400MB in size (3x lighter than ‘Raspbian Lite’). With features of low process/memory footprint and DietPi-RAMlog installed by default, DietPi allows you to get the maximum performance from your device.

Source// DietPi

Software Required :

Equipment Required		Optional
	Raspberry Pi 4		Case
	SD Card		Raspberry Pi Keyboard
	Ethernet Cable		Mouse
	Power Adapter
	External HDD
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DietPi Installation Guide

DietPi Installation & Move User Data to External Drive

What is PiVPN Server?

PiVPN (Virtual Private Network) is one of a few different ways you can access a raspberry pi remote computer. By using PiVPN we can easily create our VPN server and that will help us in the absolute easiest way to install and run your VPN.

Package Required to Install

PiVPN – OpenVPN installer & management tool

Installation

First of all, we need to open Wireless Network Watcher to access the IP Address of our Raspberry Pi.
Then we need to open SSH console Putty and type the IP Address to connect the DietPi CLI.
After we logged in to DietPi, then you need to type a command to access the dietpi-software.
Now, navigate to Software Optimized and select PiVPN by using the Spacebar and press OK.

Steps

Setup Static IP and note down the IP Address.
Select User Name
Enable the Unattended Upgrades
Select UDP protocol, Bevideo it is Faster than TCP
Now, Select the Port Number. 1194 is the Default Port you can type any other port that you want.
Select the Default Level of Encryption if you select a higher level of Encryption, the key will be strong but take more time to create.
Now, Select your Public IP Address If you have a static IP Address then Choose the first option. Otherwise, we need to set up a Dynamic DNS.
Now, we need to select the DNS Provider. You can select the Default Option.

Then navigate to Install and press OK. After that installation will take around 5-10 min to complete the setup.
Once the setup completes the system will reboot to finalize the settings.

Setting up Port Forwarding on Router

To forward the port on the router, we need to know the IP Address of our router.
To check the router IP Address use Wireless Network Watcher and it will display the router IP Address.

Type this IP Address in your browser and it will open the login page for your router.
Now, you need to enter the username & password and login to your router.
If you don’t know the username & password of your router you can always ask your ISP.
For personal routers, you can always check online for default username & password for the router.

Setting up Dynamic DNS

First of all, we need to visit the DUCKDNS website to create a Free Dynamic DNS for our Public IP.

duckdns

You can use any of the above methods to login to the DUCKDNS website and create a subdomain for your website.
Once you logged in then you can create a subdomain for your Public IP Address.
That you can use to visit OMV from the Internet.

duckdns

For example, in my case I have created omvpcmac as my subdomain, So, I can access it as omvpcmac.duckdns.org
You can create 5 subdomains on the Duck DNS account for free.

Add Clients to VPN Server

Command: pivpn add
Type the User Name and then Password 2 Times.

Download Client File

Location : home/dietpi/opvns
Tools use to Download Client File

FTP
WINScp

Otherwise just share the folder over the network.
cd home/dietpi/opvns
Type ls to check the file is created or not.
Once, you see your file then type python -m SimpleHTTPServer 8080
This command will share the current folder over the Network.
You can download the file by typing the IP Address:8080 in your web browser.

Configure OpenVPN Client

You can directly download OpenVPN software from the download link.
After the download finish, you can install the software as shown in the video.
Once, the installation finish you need to open the software by right click on it and choose “Run as Administrator“

Default Path to save the .ovpn file or we can say configuration files : C:\Program Files\OpenVPN\config
Now, you can save your downloaded configuration files to the config folder, and then it will appear in VPN Client.

Then we can select the configuration file by clicking on it and enter the password to connect to it.

If the password is correct you can easily connect to the server and the OpenVPN icon changed its color to green.

Download & Setup VPN Software for Android

Open play store in your Android Device and look for OpenVPN for Android.
If the app is already installed in your device it will ask you to open the app.
Otherwise, it will give you an option to install the app.

Once the “OpenVPN for Android“ app is installed then use the downloaded config file to connect to the VPN server.

Note: The default file extension of the configuration file is .ovpn. In conclusion, now you are all set to use a PiVPN server with DietPi on your Raspberry Pi. If you face any issue regarding this article please share your thoughts. Enjoy using PiVPN on Raspberry Pi. Smile (“_”)