WP8.1 -Home network VPN - L2TP vis IPSEC & Raspberry PI

[cw1988]

Hi All,

For the last few weeks I was trying to find a way to get a VPN setup on my phone that connects to my home network for secure browsing on the move - either via mobile data or public wifi and I wasn't getting much luck considering the basic VPN protocols in built to WP8.1.

At first I tried an Ikev2 solution which didn't work too well as the certificate for my phone didn't want to take so I started looking into L2TP via IPsec using an username + password + pre shared key solution.

I am pleased to say that I now have it setup on my phone, and I can access my home network on the go, turn my computer on and off etc etc. Best thing about it is the Raspberry PI vpn is managed from my windows PC so it just sits there on all the time without me going near it.

I used the following guide to get it setup and it took me about 30 minutes.

What you will need:
Raspberry PI - either model B or 2 - doesn't matter which one as they both have networking.
Knowledge? Not much as the guide covers everything.

Tom's Blog: Setting up a L2TP/IPsec VPN with SoftEther VPN on a Raspberry Pi

Note: I don't take credit for this guide at all - it wasn't me who created it, I just followed it.

Any questions or issues setting it up and I will help where I can.

Thanks

 

[sixseven]

Thanks. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Glad to heat it works. I'll check out the guide.

We're you using strongswan when you were trying ikev2?

 

[cw1988]

Thanks. I've been wanting to do this for a while now. Glad to heat it works. I'll check out the guide.

We're you using strongswan when you were trying ikev2?

It works perfectly very impressed.

And yeah I tried ikev2 via strongswan. I got the vpnserver part to work as my friend was able to connect to it using his laptop but the certificate wouldn't install on my phone.

Tbh I'm glad it didn't as the guide above is amazing. Especially the server manager that can be run from a pc.

 

[El Ox]

Hi, which Pi did you use, and are there any performance considerations (other than Internet speed)?

 

[El Ox]

To answer my own question....

I used a Pi B. Works excellent and the install is really easy. Much faster than I was expecting, my broadband connection is 32/7 mb and I could rdp over the vpn no problem, even web browsing over it was pretty good.

Streaming content or YouTube videos over Tue VPN there were, as I expected, a bit slow.