Bottom Line — using a VPN is great for online privacy. Hosting it on a VPS ensures your IP won’t be blacklisted. It’s easy to setup with an automated script.
I previously wrote about how VPNs can protect you from from packet sniffing on public WIFIs and from ISPs knowing which sites you visit (some sell this information).
You can quickly set up a VPN server on a VPS using an automated script.
Buy a VPS
Vultr’s cheapest VPS droplet is $3.50. Digital Ocean’s is $5. You can get a cheap one from VirMach at $1.25 / month.
Wireguard Script
There’s an open source script (angristan/wireguard-install) on GitHub that will automatically install Wireguard on your server.
At the time of this writing — the script supports Debian 10 and that’s what I prefer to use.
Once you make a purchase, it’s time SSH into your VPS.
ssh root@xx.xx.xx.xx
Paste in your root password. You’ll find this in your VPS control panel.
Make sure you install curl.
apt-get install curl
Run the script from the github page:
curl -O https://raw.githubusercontent.com/angristan/wireguard-install/master/wireguard-install.sh
chmod +x wireguard-install.sh
./wireguard-install.sh
Unless you know what you’re doing, you can leave the requested fields as blanks. They will use default values.
Creating Clients
The script will ask you to provide a client name. You can call it whatever you want.
Each client will have their own configuration file. For example client01.conf.
Let’s say you have two laptops and a phone that you’d like to configure this VPN for. You’ll need a total of 3 configuration files.
To generate additional configuration files, run the script again and fill out the details.
./wireguard-install.sh
Transferring configuration files from the VPS
Check the root directory on your vps:
ls
You’ll see your configuration files with the extension .conf.
There are two ways to grab those configuration settings.
Method 1: Copy and Paste Method
The conf files are small and I prefer this method. Type in nano {config-file-name}. Copy the contents and paste
them into a text editor on your computer. Keep the same file name and save it.
Method 2: Transferring files with scp (secure copy)
We’ll use scp (secure copy files) to transfer them from the vps server to your local machine for setup.
Let’s say you generated a client configuration file called client1.conf.
Open up another LOCAL terminal window and type in the following:
scp root@4xx.xx.xx.xxx:client1.conf /Users/admin/desktop
It will connect to your VPS and ask it to transfer client1.conf to your local /Users/admin/desktop folder.
It will ask your for the root password. Simply paste it in. The transfer should be successful!
Transfer all the other configuration files you created to your local machine one by one.
Download WireGuard
Download WireGuard and import the configuration file. A handy tip is to send yourself an email with all the other configuration files. You can easily access your email on your other devices and load up those configuration files.
Test VPN
Ensure that your VPN IP address is NOT blacklisted.
Run ipleak.net to make sure your DNS isn’t leaking information. You’ll know because your location won’t be present anywhere on that page.
Finally, do a speed test to check your VPN speed. It will be slower than your actual internet speed but it should be fast enough. If not, you can choose to look for another VPS provider.
Fixing Connectivity Issues
For a whole year I’ve had connectivity problems with wireguard on iPad (2018) and MacBook Pro (2020). It would connect but then the Wireguard handshake wouldn’t happen and it would appear as if the internet connection was lost.
I had to constantly disconnect and re-connect Wireguard. The problem did not occur on my Dell laptop.
The problem was that my router was beaming 2.4ghz and 5ghz WiFi signals. I noticed they had the same SSID (name). I decided to make their SSIDs different.
That fixed all my connectivity issues. I think the iPad and the Macbook were switching between the SSIDs and that caused wireguard connectivity issues.
I also added a Persistent Keepalive setting to the conf file. This setting pings the VPN server every 20 seconds to keep the connection alive. 20 seconds is not set in stone but it worked for me.
Open the conf file in a text editor and add the line PersistentKeepalive = 20. Save the file and use it in Wireguard.