PiVPN(OpenVPN)

[Enys]

Hi Guys,

I wonder if you can help as I am a bit confused.

I have seen a lot of tuts on setting up PiVPN lately and I have actually done it myself. My PiVPN is working just fine.

My question is, what does everyone use it for? What are the advantages of using it at all? Apart from encrypting your browsing while using public WiFi is there an absolutely must have reason for using it? I just feel like I am not getting the best out of it and I would love to know how and why others are using it to see if I can make more use of my installation.

TIA
Enys

[epoch1970]

In a work environment using a VPN is commonplace.
For private usage, it is to you to decide if encrypting your traffic to another location is important or not.
Condensed version of PiVPN's rationale by the author:

Why This Is Important
In this post Snowden era where our privacy and security is infringed upon (...) the next logical step (...) is also ensuring the pipe you are using is as secure as possible. This not only could include unknown networks at airports, Starbucks, generic public hot-spots; but also your ISP. To that end I'd like to make sure these scripts also work on a Debian Jessie image from an Amazon free tier server.
It is important that more and more people have access to protecting their traffic online.

(I don't use it)

[DarrenHill]

Even aside from the (very valid) security aspects, there are times when having a direct connection and access to your home network and the other devices connected to it can be useful.

For example when you're abroad, having your device appear to connect from your home country (via your home router) can give access to geo-locked sources which may otherwise be blocked. Or you can connect to networked devices like TVHeadEnd servers, Plex servers, home automation devices and suchlike and interact with them as if you were at home. Plus you can transfer files from networked devices and print stuff out (for others at home to pick up) without having to expose them to the internet.

Basically it lets you do (almost) everything you can do from your networked device when at home whilst you're elsewhere.

[tigernero]

a good vpn configuration, on pivpn a few but useful additions and modifications should be applied such as auth512 and not 256, compress lz4 for data compression, in other words it is useful for everything you read above (for tvheadend you can open ports 9981/9982) if you want to watch TV remotely also.

but the use of the vpn beyond the security described above allows you to use the tor network where it is blocked or prohibited (see china above all), establishing a vpn connection and then opening the tor browser your isp will know that you have set up a vpn but you are not connected to the tor network so you can then surf in complete anonymity, assuming that the onion sites you visit also have a certificate signed by you https so that the exit nodes even if controlled by government agencies are encrypted. create yourself a self-signed certificate it takes little even for onion sites

[default_user8]

At the risk of sounding overly paranoid, I use mine all the time to surf the web while away from home. If i have a bad cellular connection, but have access to public wifi I will absolutely use my pivpn in that instance. In the past I used it primarily to access files remotely, however since finding nextcloudpi it's almost exclusively for remote web surfing.

[itsmedoofer]

I use it to connect to my home services on the move.

The main ones are my home media via Kodi, Tvheadend standalone or Kodi, my garden webcam and my FlightRadar24 server.

Rather than having lots of ports and applications open to the internet I just have the one.

[pister]

I use it to connect to my samba server