setup a FREE VPN server in the cloud (AWS)

Setup a free VPN server in the AWS cloud using OpenVPN.

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#freevpn #aws #amazonwebservices

[joaocampos]

Just perfect : clear, easy to follow explanation, with a bit of humor and the right amount of detail.
Thank you very much, Chuck.
Just subscribed because of this.

[SteveMaddon-so]

THANK YOU CHUCK! Your a life saver. This is actually the first vpn server tutorial that has actually worked for me. I have tried a ton with many frustrating long nights. I appreciate buddy.

[xnlineghxst]

so happy your doing aws content now this is literally what im currently trying to get into

[mikehensley]

Thanks, Chuck! I used this tutorial but changed the prerequisites. Instead of coffee i used a can of Coke. :) I had no idea you could get an AWS account for free! I see the ppl saying it sucks cause Amazon will have all your network traffic BUT i plan on using this VPN for "sharing home videos with my internet buddies" only. Great video.

[ITHowToAsap]

1) You did not give the server a FREE public static IP, therefore once the server restarts you will lose the current temporary IP
2) Make sure the security group assigned to the server only allow the ports needed in order to authenticate, I would recommend setting the VPN and Admin ports to only allow you to connect from your home network, and then close all the other ports until you need to get update to the server.

[mauisam]

So there are several things you can do reduce costs in AWS
1. If you need the server on 24/7.
A. Then do a reserve instance for either 1 or 3 year. this can reduce your cost by as much as 75%.
B. The use a spot instance. This can reduce your cost by up to 90%
C. Use ECS or Fargate.
2. If you only need it from time to time.
A. Turn it off and on through the console.
B. Use a Lambda to send a turn on your EC2. Cloud Watch and then be use to turn it off.
C. Use a Lambda to spin up ECS or Fargate.

[Vinalys]

This is a nice video, however just few notes you could add:
- you may have some charge for outbound traffic (already mentioned in another comment)
- recommend creating another user than this admin one, OpenVPN free allows up to 2 users, good to use!
- recommend also to indicate patching is required on the OpenVPN server regularly
- finally (here it may be more difficult for some) but securing the security groups of it would help, especially these to administrate or login through its web UI as they will be scanned, found and the OpenVPN solution identified

AWS also launched Client VPN endpoints now but that’s not free... Great instructional video however! Thanks for sharing this to all!

[TobyWallwork]

Just followed this tutorial. Except that AWS took 24 hours to confirm my account it was JUST as described and now I'm very pleased with myself.

[cyrilasfrenchyaz]

It worked with no coffee as well. Thank you!

[spiritv]

Loved this tutorial helped me to set up an alternate service much like AWS... For anyone wanting to try it OpenVPN has its own cloud service, openvpn cloud, and from what I can see it is actually free (no credit card ever asked for) as well as allows up to 3 clients. Finally, because my router has openwrt built in, I was able to import everything directly from openvpn cloud, much like in this fantastic tutorial.

Just a heads up but again I appreciate this video it put me on the right track, many thanks.

[TheStigma]

Good guide, but I think you are omitting something very important - traffic limitations/cost.
Inbound traffic is free, but outgoing traffic isn't. You either have a very limited monthly budget if you are talking about the always-free tier (I don't recall the exact amount off-hand), or you have to pay for it. The 12-month free limits are probably a bit higher - I think it's something along the lines of 15GB/month?

For just web-browsing it may not matter much as outgoing data is going to be very little, but anything that involves sending out files or streams or anything like that will hit that limit so fast that it's not going to be practical (for free anyway).

I just wanted to clarify this (and I think the video should have mentioned it), so that people don't think this is some magic way to get a free unlimited VPN.
For limited use it can be a nice thing to have, but don't expect this to actually provide the sort of "just leave it on" VPN service that you see advertised a lot. Those are often unlimited and will also provide a completely different level of bandwidth performance. And that's of course why they cost money...

EDIT: But getting into cloud, and understanding what you can do with it is something I wholeheartedly recommend. There are a wealth of super-useful things you can do even on a tiny free VM. I just don't think a VPN is necessarily on the top of that list due to the outgoing traffic limitations mainly.

[patgravesable]

You have me addicted now. I made a aws vpn. I ordered a router the supports vpn. I bought a raspberry pie as a project computer. Not sure what I'm going to turn it into yet. Maybe a security camera with a motion sensor recording. Ive been watching every video, I'm not in IT but I think I want to be now. I love getting waked out from coffee and following along in your videos step by step. A lot of the stuff you teach is not that hard for a beginner to learn.

[joedoe]

and now just Amazon, the NSA and each and every LEA can 100% observe your traffic.

[adayforgotten]

This is a great tutorial for beginners, but I have to point out a few problems.

First, glossing over agreeing to things and defaults without any explanation is bad. It makes it easy, but some explanation is warranted since it's a dangerous habit to teach beginners to just accept without looking into what the different settings actually do.

Second, free tier has a pretty tight limit for data transfer out to the Internet. When running a VPN, all your traffic is running through the VM so you really can't use this for a VPN if you are going to do anything other than some light browsing.

That said, concise and easy to follow. Keep it up.

[dhrandy]

I use it as a backup VPN when my home VPN is down and I'm traveling. It's been great for over a year!

[bashirhassan]

NetworkChuck is are awesome. I followed every step and now I am rocking a FREE PVC for 12 months. Thanks!

[nnaaaaaa]

it's free until you run out of free aws credits, then it's the most expensive VPN provider you'll ever use.

[frankmorales]

Hi, great vid... Just a tip: if for whatever reason you restart your EC2 instance your IP will change, so you can use ElasticIP (an AWS "feature") in order to reserve a real IP and attach it to the recently created instance, so if your instance is restarted you will keep the same IP and will not need to change the configuration in your OpenVPN clients.

[MahmoudZiada]

It's not just an awesome tutorial, your way of explaining things is grand. I'm a new fan

[TheAyamcd]

Thank you for the crystal clear explanation! For my uses, there were a couple extra steps and the process has shifted a bit, but overall this was such an easy to follow tutorial.