VPNs for Ubuntu

[Karl Auer]

On Wed, 2022-05-11 at 09:10 +0100, Chris Green wrote:
> For this sort of simple requirement I use an ssh proxy setup with,
> for example, Firefox.  You just need access (in your case) to an ssh
> account in the UK where you have a login and then:-

By the way, you can do this extremely easily with a free AWS account:

https://portal.aws.amazon.com/billing/signup

You only need a working email address and a legit credit card. The card
will not be billed unless you actually use resources. The account
itself is free.

You sign in to your new account here:

https://xxxxxxxxxxxx.signin.aws.amazon.com/console

... where "xxxxxxxxxxxx" is your account number.

Then choose a region and launch a new Linux instance - the tiniest will
do - in the desired world location:

https://aws.amazon.com/about-aws/global-infrastructure/regions_az/

... making sure that your new instance has a public IP address.

That is literally all you have to do. All AWS Linux instances have ssh
server enabled by default. Just do as Chris says:

> On the machine where you're running firefox (i.e. in my case my
> laptop) do:-
> 
>     ssh -C2qTnN -D 8080 chris@<system with ssh login>
> 
> ...  and in Firefox Preferences->Advanced->Network->Settings set
> manual proxy, port 8080 and socks5.0, that's it!

You will use the default username for the instance instead of "chris"
and the public IP address as "the system name".

A t3.nano anywhere in the eurozone (e.g. London) will cost you
USD$0.0059 per hour at the moment - around USD$4.25 per month:

https://aws.amazon.com/ec2/pricing/on-demand/

That's *if* you run it full time, but you don't have to. If you stop
the instance when you don't need it, you will be charged only for the
runtime you actually use, and some microscopic amount for storage and
traffic. It will change IP address each time you stop/start it, but
this is generally a good thing :-)

This is pretty much the cheapest possible VPN short of free, and it is
completely under your control.

Do set up MFA on your AWS account immediately after opening it, though.

Regards, K.

-- 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Karl Auer (kauer at biplane.com.au)
http://www.biplane.com.au/kauer

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