Using a private VPN has never been easier, it’s foolish not to do it. It takes ~60s and you’re protected on untrusted WiFi networks.

This article is more public service announcement than tutorial, since it’s really so easy you have no reason not to do it.

I’ll be showing you how to set up OpenVPN on DigitalOcean using tugboat, but any server provider will do.

1: Spin up an instance

$ tugboat create vpn

2: Install OpenVPN Access Server

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$ tugboat ssh vpn
$ wget http://swupdate.openvpn.org/as/openvpn-as-2.0.6-Ubuntu13.amd64.deb
$ dpkg -i openvpn-as-2.0.6-Ubuntu13.amd64.deb
$ sudo passwd openvpn

The steps are 1) ssh, 2) download 3) install 4) set password. It’s that easy.

You can find the latest OpenVPN AS package for your system here.

3: Download your client

In the STDOUT from the dpkg -i, you’ll see a Client UI URL to connect to from your computer/smartphone to download the client. It’ll look like this:

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$ Access Server web UIs are available here:
$ Admin  UI: https://123.456.789.123:943/admin
$ Client UI: https://123.456.789.123:943/

Accessing this URL will likely give you a certificate warning in your browser. This is because OpenVPN created a self-signed SSL certificate that your browser won’t recognize. You can either proceed anyway, or download the auto-generated cert from your machine directly, and then proceed. I wasn’t able to do this, so if you know how, please comment and I’ll update this article.

4: Connect

Install the client, connect and voilà. You’re now tunneling all your traffic through your vpn!

5 (optional): Save the DigitalOcean image

To save on cost, I only create this VPN server (from a saved image) when I need it and destroy it when I’m done. This saves on hosting costs AND DigitalOcean doesn’t actually charge for snapshots!!!

Final Thoughts

I’m writing this article from San Francisco’s public city WiFi, through my newly minted OpenVPN server, without fear of a malicious San Franciscan sniffing my sensitive data :).