im a fucking idiot savant
okay so picture this. im a twenty something neet looking for a free vpn to use on your computer that doesn't fuck me over data wise. im browsing firefox extensions getting increasingly bogged down with existential despair until i find a small little extension called "openvpn server finder." i open it up. apparently it's maintained by a university guy and finds servers to connect to. neat! this openvpn sounds like a good service! probably some open source software community maintained vpn project! exactly what i was looking for.
so i look up openvpn to see if you can download it. for some reason there's no download page on their website, even though you CAN download an access server. so if you want you can BE that server in switzerland people connect to. you get two free and apparently the rest are paid? what a weird business practice for a vpn service!
some of you might already know where this is headed.
i do some further digging. apparently this vpn service comes pre installed on my computer and can be run from the command prompt! cool! isn't it great how linux people always get into community projects like this one? man if more people knew about this super secret free vpn service it could really change things :) now if only i could figure out how to download it onto other computers... there doesn't seem to be a download page anywhere! how did this computer get it in the first place?
so anyway remember that server finder extension? apparently you download a configuration file from that, plug it into this vpn service, and it'll use the config file to connect to a specified server. so that way you have complete control over where in the world you connect to! WOW THESE OPENVPN GUYS ARE REALLY COOKING HUH
(through gritted teeth) WHAT A GREAT VPN SERVICE. YEP THAT'S RIGHT A VPNNNNNNNN SERVICE. JUST LIKE NORDVPN BUT BETTER IN EVERY WAY.
so doing it from the command prompt is... tricky. like any linux endeavor there is a lot of jank. it takes a lot of looking things up, writing things down, and fiddling around with the openvpn command. days of work. but hey, that's the price of free and secure, right? even when i'm completely stumped as to how these nerds are making it all work i keep at it, because im an incorrigible cheapskate and i'd rather die by firing squad than pay for something if i can help it.
finally. FINALLY. i figure it out. the magic words.
sudo openvpn --config INSERT/FILEPATH/HERE --data-ciphers AES-128-CBC
idk why a vpn service would have you specify the encryption key. but i guess i shouldnt expect anything less from a non profit vpn service that's no doubt run by a bunch of linux nerds, right? :) and i heard of linux applications needing firefox extensions to work. surely that doesn't mean anything.
only. today i found some posts on reddit talking about how services like nord USE openvpn. this is WEIRD to me. why would a service use another service?
yall. it's because openvpn isn't a service. it's a protocol. it comes installed on most computers by DEFAULT so you can USE vpn services. it's a coding library you and those applications call upon, essentially. that's why you specify connection ports. that's why you specify encryption keys. THAT'S WHY I COULDNT UNINSTALL IT LIKE ANY OTHER PROGRAM WITHOUT THE SYSTEM WARNING ME IT WOULD BREAK. THAT'S WHY THE FUCKING WEBSITE DIDN'T HAVE YOU PAY FOR IT BEING INSTALLED BECAUSE IT'S ON LITERALLY EVERY FUCKING COMPUTER BY DEFAULT.
this entire time i was configuring my pc to connect to vpns MYSELF. MULTIPLE TIMES. WHICH IS END STAGE NERD BULLSHIT THAT BARELY ANYONE DOES. WHILE BEING DUMB ENOUGH TO BELIEVE THIS WAS SOME SUPER SECRET FREE VPN SERVICE THE ENTIRE TIME I WAS DOING SO.
AND I JUST THOUGHT "man i wonder why more people arent doing this, this is a great vpn service :)" AS THOUGH KNOWLEDGE OF ENCRYPTION KEYS AND TUN/TAP PORTS ARE JUST. NORMAL THINGS TO KNOW? IN ORDER TO USE A VPN SERVICE?
LIKE ON ONE HAND WOW COOL I'VE BEEN DOING VPN OFF MY OWN PC WITHOUT A SERVICE OR TRAINING WHEELS THIS ENTIRE TIME. AWESOME.
BUT ON THE OTHER HOW THE FUCK DID I DO THIS WHILE BARELY EVEN UNDERSTANDING WHAT I WAS DOING IN THE FIRST PLACE? LIKE DAMN I FIGURED OUT THE CORE ASPECTS OF HOW VPNS WORK AND LEARNED TO APPLY THEM ON MY COMPUTER AND YET STILL COULDNT PUT TWO AND TWO TOGETHER AS TO WHAT OPENVPN EVEN WAS???
MY AUTISM IS FUCKING TERMINAL
prguitarman
janainaart
origamiaround
annaxmalina
snowghoul
areudirty
turnnoffyourmind
gummygunk
