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Jes Andresen

My NORD VPN on Linux Mint

Well, if you have watched Person of Interest (too bad is was discontinued) you know that everyone spies on you (your ISP, government, google, yahoo, FACEBOOK etc.). ALL collect your activities, even perfectly legal activities can be held against you. My sister likes German TV series and often they are geo blocked and can not be downloaded to our North American IP address even though they are free and legal to download in Germany.

BTW: Similar for BBC and other UK TV…

The solution for us? I got a a good deal on NordVPN and now it was time to set it up on Linux. As usual, there is a GUI application for Windows which is very much point and click (free download from NordVPN). However, in Linux you will have to hop and put a few hoops around you … you get the drift.

You will need to sign up for your own NordVPN account to use this service. (DISCLOSURE: The link is an affiliate link and I receive a small commission to keep my site and server running – THANKS!)

UPDATE 2019: Still happy with NordVPN - I renewed my subscription to their 3 year offer.

Note: The balance of the post is detailed instruction for Linux (Debian/Ubuntu) users!

1) You need openVPN so just open a terminal and paste the following command:

sudo apt-get install openvpn

you will need to type or paste your sudo password (the user password you use normally). IF openVPN is already installed and up-to-date it will tell you. Either way you should be good to continue …

2) Navigate to the openVPN configuration directory with command:

cd /etc/openvpn

3) Download openVPN configuration files for NordVPN with command:

sudo wget https://downloads.nordcdn.com/configs/archives/servers/ovpn.zip

In case you get an `ERROR: The certificate of `nordvpn.com’ is not trusted.`, please install `ca-certificates` package with command:

sudo apt-get install ca-certificates

4) If you do not have `unzip` package installed, download it by typing in:

sudo apt-get install unzip

5) Extract `ovpn.zip` with command:

sudo unzip ovpn.zip

6) Remove the zip file which is not needed any more:

sudo rm ovpn.zip

7) Install network-manager-openvpn  – just paste the  code in your Terminal:

sudo apt-get install network-manager-openvpn-gnome

IF the program is already installed and up-to-date it will tell you. Either way you should be good to continue …

8) Restart the network-mananger (may not be needed if you already had it – but the command will not do any harm …)

sudo systemctl restart network-manager

9) Click on the network icon at the top (or bottom) right of the screen and then select Edit Connections… from the drop-down.

10) Then press Add.

11) You will be prompted to choose a connection type.
Select Import a saved VPN configuration… and click on Create…

12) You will be asked to select a file that you would like to import. Please navigate to the folder where you have extracted the configuration files ( /etc/openvpn/ovpn_udp OR /etc/openvpn/ovpn_tcp – in case you want/need tcp)  and select one of the files from the list and click Open. You can check what file corresponds which server at  the NordVPN server list.

13) In the window put in your NordVPN Username and NordVPN Password.
Then press Save. And close all of the open windows. (Easy Password Management and automatic typing with KeePassXC on Linux or KeePass on Windows.)

14) Now, on your desktop, click on the network-icon button at the top right of the screen again and then select VPN connections from the drop-down. Select the server which you have set up and click on it.

15) Congrats! You are connected to VPN. Now you can go to https://network-tools.com to check your new (anonymous) IP address. If you like to check the network speed go to https://speedtest.net  –  of course the maximum speed is still limited by your internet connection and your hardware. So most likely there will be no speed increase. Some ISPs will throttle (i.e. slow down) certain connections – for these you may see an improvement. Of course you should try a speedtest BEFORE you connect to your VPN in order to compare.

NordVPN will allow you to connect 6 devices concurrently! If you have a suitable router, your entire home connection will count as only one and you can still use your NordVPN while on the road with your laptop, tablet and phone.