VPN (Virtual Private Network)

Setting Up VPN using VPNBook
This is how I got it running on PCLinuxOS! by Texstar

1. Install openvpn from the Synaptic Package Manager.

2. Open your webbrowser and go to http://www.vpnbook.com/freevpn.

3. Download one of their certificate bundles. I just wanted something to browse the web with, so I selected the US OpenVPN Certificate Bundle.

4. I open my file manager and extracted the zip file (VPNBook.com-OpenVPN-US1.zip) in my Downloads folder.

5. I copied the vpnbook-us1-tcp80.ovpn to my /home/texstar folder.

6. I made note of the username and password on the download page. The current name and password as of this writing is Username: vpnbook Password: t5ACrutu

7. I opened a terminal session and su to root. (You may not have to do this if you have your network connection setup from the PCLinuxOS Control Center to allow users to control the connection).

8. I typed openvpn --config vpnbook-us1-tcp80.ovpn, which started the service. I entered the username from step 6 and pressed enter. It then asked for password, which I typed from step 6. (Please note you will need to go to the vpnbook website often to get updated name and password as it changes from time to time).

9. I closed Firefox and started it again. I was now browsing the internet in private.

10. Press Ctrl+C to close the service and return to normal mode. Please note that you will need to close and start your web browser again after stopping vpnbook.

An additional tip comes from Just17. For those who wish to start the VPN without any manual input of the username and password, create a file with two entries, one per line. The first line gets the user name and the second line gets the password. Put nothing else in the file. Call the file login.

Then use the following command to launch the VPNBook service (as root of course), and providing the correct that points to the appropriate files.

openvpn --config/ /vpnbook-euro2-tcp80.ovpn --auth-user-pass/ /login

That should make it easy to incorporate in a permanent start up, if required. However, you will need to go to the VPNBook website periodically to obtain the updated username and password, and then update the login file when they change.

See also this article in the May 2017 edition of the PCLinuxOS Magazine