Introduction: Setup a VPN for Your IPhone/iPad or Computer

By hackbrewery.com
About: I am

 The great thing about a netbook or an iPhone is that you can connect to the internet from anywhere, the bad thing is that most of this traffic is unencrypted. This unencrypted traffic is open to all the hackers, and all the web admins in the world. Luckily, there is a tool to counter this, every one of these devices can connect to a VPN, allowing encrypted traffic between your mobile device and your home network.

Step 1: Installing and Setting Up PPTPD on Ubuntu Server

ssh into your server, and install the package pptpd on your ubuntu server or desktop

sudo apt-get install pptpd

Next it's time to configure your settings on your pptpd server with the file '''/etc/pptpd.conf'''

sudo nano /etc/pptpd.conf

Find the bottom lines that say

#localip 192.168.0.100
#remoteip 192.168.0.290

or something like that. We need to uncomment these lines, and change the ip addresses so they look something like this

localip local_ip_address_of_my_server
remoteip ip_range_to_assign_to_clients

The localip should be the address your router assigns to your server (make sure that your server receives a static ip), while the remoteip should be a range within your routers assignment range, but out of the normal assignment range

i.e. my local ip is 192.168.0.100 whereas my router assigns ip addresses between the ranges of 192.168.0.1-101, so i would set up my configuration like 

localip 192.168.0.100
remoteip 192.168.0.102-202

the remote ip is outside of my routers normal range, but still within the total range. 




Step 2: Find Your DNS

 Now we need to find your DNS in order to enable internet traffic for your connected device. In order to find your DNS in ubuntu server, open the name server file.

sudo nano /etc/resolv.conf

You should see an ip address there, write it down. Now we need to let pptpd use that DNS. Edit the file pptpd-options

sudo nano /etc/ppp/pptpd-options

and find the lines

#ms-dns 10.0.0.1
#ms-dns 10.0.0.1

uncomment these lines, and replace the ip 10.0.0.1 with the ip address you wrote down earlier so it should look something like

ms-dns 192.168.0.1
ms-dns 192.168.0.1


Step 3: Adding Users to Your Server

 Now we need to add users to your VPN server. To add them, we need to edit the file /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

sudo nano /etc/ppp/chap-secrets

Scroll to the bottom and add the lines

user pptpd passwd *

You can add any user this way, replacing the user with you desired username, and passwd with your desired password, the * allows you to access your user from any ip. Now we need to restart the server

sudo /etc/init.d/pptpd restart

Step 4: Enable the Routing Services

Now we need to allow the device to access the VPN through a forwarded service by editing the /etc/sysctl.conf file

sudo nano /etc/sysctl.conf

Find the line which contains #net.ipv4.ip_forward=1 and change it to look like 

net.ipv4.ip_forward=1

save it and exit. Verify it's configured correctly by typing

sudo sysctl -p



Step 5: Forwarding the Port

To allow the server to forward the port, type the command 

sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o eth1 -j MASQUERADE

This allows your server to connect to the VPN clients using the iptables program. This command does not run on startup, so I suggest using the file supplied to create a startup script. First you must create your own script 
i.e. 

#/bin/bash
sudo iptables -t nat -A POSTROUTING -o ethX -j MASQUERADE

save it in your / folder under the name vpn.sh, make it executable with the command

sudo chmod +x vpn.sh

then place my startup script in your /etc/rc.local/ folder



Attachments

Step 6: Connecting the IPhone/Device

Go onto your iphone, and  go to 

Settings -> Gerneral -> Network -> VPN

and insert all your desired settings, then connect. For other devices, just google to find a way to connect to the VPN. Now all your network information is encrypted. Happy browsing!