VPN through Pi

[tfcoulson]

Hi,
I was wondering if any of you knowledgeable people could help.
I'm out the country for a couple of weeks, and I was entertaining the idea of creating a raspberry pi vpn tunnel. So when I'm in this foreign country, I could tunnel through to the raspberry pi still set up in the UK and effectively it would still seem like my laptop abroad is connecting through the UK.
It seems possible from what I've read so far, however problem comes with my isp. It is I believe a sort of paid hotspot? Its wifi only, I dont have access to routers or ethernet or anything like that, but the way I'm thinking: Pi connects to UK internet through hotspot, I connect to Pi, so should work, right? Issue might be static IP, but its only for a couple of weeks so might work. Any one see any issues with this?
Thanks

 

[LFFPicard]

Why would you need this? I am assuming things like BBC iPlayer regional restrictions or something.
The only thing holding you back would be a reliable IP. I use no-ip.com and my BT Hub has a built in Dynamic DNS option, I put my no-ip.com details in there and I can connect to my home PC via a domain.
If your not on BT you can download a small program from no-ip that keeps your Pi/PC/Laptop synced with the no-ip service to keep the domain linked to the right IP.

So when your out the country you can just set up a VPN to connect to your home via domain name. All you need to do is set up the port forwarding for the Pi.

 

[tfcoulson]

Yep, regional settings for a couple of programs.
Port forwarding was the main bit I wasn't sure about. Normally I would port forward through a router (back when I had one). Since my wifi/hotspot doesn't have a router, is it still possible to port forward? Is it done through Pi's operating system?
That no-ip looks interesting, Ill have a look into it, thanks. Although a quick look seems to be a windows program so wont work with pi :/ Not with BT.

 

[mishra]

I use DuckDNS (duckdns.org) to point my dynamic IP address of my Virgin ISP to a domain name. This way I can access my Plex server when I'm on the go regardless of my home IP address changes. It's free and it works on Windows/Linux.

I don't think how you can port forward traffic from external IP address to your Pi without having access to router whereever you are? How come you haven't got access to it? Is it shared accommodation of some sort? Rented office? It may be that VPN traffic will be blocked anyway. Hard to say without knowing more details.

 

[LFFPicard]

I meant port forward your home network, not the external connection.

Side note, mishra, you don't need a Dynamic DNS for Plex, the Plex Pass handles the routing as far as I am aware, your Plex server broadcasts it's IP and when you login via app or another device remotely it automatically routes. All I have to do is port forward the plex port to the relevant PC on my network.

 

[mishra]

Yeah, you're right. Plex does sort out itself - thought I also use it for occasional SSH access and I also run my own cloud storage (ownCloud). This way duckDNS is sorting it all for me. I just got used to use it for Plex too rather than login to plex.tv each time.

 

[tfcoulson]

Yep shared accom so no access to the router

 

[mishra]

If you need VPN access to UK network it may be easier to get it from many VPN online services. Traffic doesn't have to go through your shared accommodation, especially since you have no access to router.