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Setup Private Internet Access

private internet access

The PrivateInternetAccess (PIA) installation script is working partially. TV channels do not work with this. I prefer to install PIA manually to control the protocol (TCP instead of UDP), encryption cipher, authentication, certificate, port, etc. You need to install first the openvpn and NetworkManager software (see also NetworkManager-wifi, bluetooth, ssh, and more).

dnf install openvpn
dnf install NetworkManager-openvpn NetworkManager-openvpn-gnome
dnf install network-manager-applet

Run from the console nm-applet to activate the NetworkManager applet in XFCE bar. This should be remembered after a restart. Now, reboot and make sure the applet shows up. Right-click to edit the connection.

network manager applet

Let's download the prerequisites files.

cd /opt
mkdir pia-openvpn-ip-tcp && cd pia-openvpn-ip-tcp
wget http://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/ca.crt
wget http://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/ca.rsa.2048.crt
wget http://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/ca.rsa.4096.crt
wget https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/openvpn/openvpn-ip-tcp.zip
unzip openvpn-ip-tcp.zip

Now let's add one VPN connection.

add a vpn connection

For the VPN details see table(1) port 501 with protocol TCP, encryption AES-256-CBC, auth SHA256 with ca.rsa.4096.crt To get the PIA server ip for Romania look inside /opt/pia-openvpn-ip-tcp/Romania.ovpn

PIA Romania

On the Proxy tab check "For browser only". We use directly the IP address so IPv4 DNS entries are not needed. Other dialog settings remain on the default. Click Advanced -> General and set data according to table (1), port 501

openvpn advanced options - general

Here is the Advanced Security page.

openvpn advanced options - security

The "TLS Authentication" and "Proxies" tabs remains unchanged. Save the VPN connection. To see the its details, as root:

cd /etc/NetworkManager/system-connections
cat PIA-Romania 
[connection]
id=PIA-Romania
uuid=a29bbbb3-495b-49d1-b617-cd6d28605315
type=vpn
autoconnect=false
permissions=
[vpn]
auth=SHA256
ca=/opt/pia-openvpn-ip-tcp/ca.rsa.4096.crt
cipher=AES-256-CBC
comp-lzo=yes
connection-type=password
dev-type=tun
password-flags=0
port=501
proto-tcp=yes
remote=185.210.218.102
username=p4684088
service-type=org.freedesktop.NetworkManager.openvpn
[ipv4]
dns-search=
method=auto
[ipv6]
addr-gen-mode=stable-privacy
dns-search=
ip6-privacy=0
method=auto
[proxy]
browser-only=true

To connect to "PIA-Romania" left click NM applet -> VPN Connections-> PIA Romania and check it.



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