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I set up my own VPN by installing OpenVPN on a Ubuntu server, then I download client.ovpn file from Ubuntu server to my Windows laptop. And then, I import that client.ovpn to OpenVPN GUI app on Windows and finally, I connect to my Ubuntu VPN server and everything work fine.

I installed OpenVPN on Ubuntu server using this instruction: https://github.com/angristan/openvpn-install

So I think traffic flow will be like this:

My computer (browser,...) --> Ubuntu OpenVPN server --> Internet.

Does OpenVPN GUI encrypt traffic between my computer to Ubuntu OpenVPN server?

schroeder
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Thuat Nguyen
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  • Is your browser traffic configured to use the VPN? What about DNS? – schroeder Jan 14 '20 at 11:12
  • @schroeder i am not sure but when i check my IP address at whatismyipaddress.com or other sites using my browser, it shows IP address of my Ubuntu VPN server. About DNS, i am not sure again, but i use VPS at Linode.com. And sorry for my foolishness, i am just a newbie. – Thuat Nguyen Jan 14 '20 at 11:33
  • If you configured the VPN server and client configuration to use encryption (not `alg=none`) then yes, it will. You could verify with a packet capture. – multithr3at3d Jan 14 '20 at 22:56
  • @multithr3at3d i got it. thank you so much. – Thuat Nguyen Jan 15 '20 at 15:31
  • I can't help but wonder about your use case? Where is your Ubuntu server, in particular is it local or remote? Are you the only user of the VPN server and are you the known owner? In short, what are you accomplishing with this setup? – user10216038 Jan 15 '20 at 20:28
  • @user10216038 i use Linode VPS which mean a remote server. and yes, I am the only user of my VPN server. With this set up, I have my own VPN server, so that the speed of the VPN is quiet fast. And with this VPN, my network traffic will be encrypted, and no one can know what I send and received from the internet except me. It will be very helpfull and safe when I use public network. – Thuat Nguyen Jan 15 '20 at 20:40
  • Given that your intent is anonymity, you'd be much better off using a public VPN that mixes many users to a single IP address. Your approach is a 1-to-1 correlation. – user10216038 Jan 15 '20 at 20:51
  • @user10216038 but if i use public VPN, the VPN's owner may decrypt the data. and the speed maybe will be slower. – Thuat Nguyen Jan 16 '20 at 04:33

1 Answers1

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It depends.

The bulk of the traffic (HTML pages, videos, images and almost everything else) will be encrypted on your Linode VPN, sent to you and decrypted locally. The requests you make will be encrypted locally, sent to your server, decrypted there, and sent to the internet.

But DNS is one exception. As it main operation is over UDP, and not TCP, most TCP-based VPN will not carry DNS queries, and they will be sent to your default DNS server.

ThoriumBR
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  • Thank you so much for your answer. In `readme.md` of the Github I mentioned on my post, I found these features: [https://i.imgur.com/zWVQadU.png](https://i.imgur.com/zWVQadU.png). I chossed UDP when i set up OpenVPN on my server, so does that mean my DNS is protected and all my network traffic is encrypyted and pretty safe when i using my VPN? – Thuat Nguyen Jan 14 '20 at 15:15
  • And btw, i think i will change to Ubuntu after a few more days, and in [the feature](https://i.imgur.com/zWVQadU.png), it say `Block DNS leaks on Windows 10`. That because Ubuntu can prevent itself from leaking DNS or maybe this VPN only can prevent leaking DNS on Windows 10? – Thuat Nguyen Jan 14 '20 at 15:20