Vpn Server For Mac Mini



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VPNs have become a necessity in today’s digital landscape where cybercrimes are getting more frequent and sophisticated. VPNs provide users a secure and encrypted internet connection, protecting their data and personal information from malicious attackers.

There are different types of VPNs and each of them offers different levels of protection. If you want to connect securely to a public Wi-Fi without worrying about your privacy or you want to hide your browsing history, a free VPN would do the job. But if you are looking for a comprehensive online security solution, investing in a paid VPN is the best option.

Reliable VPN service providers can mask your IP address and hide your location, unblock geographically-restricted content, hide your online activities from government agencies and ISP providers, and boost your internet speed. Plus, you don’t need to worry about your VPN logging your internet activities.

However, not everyone can afford a paid VPN service. So if you have a Mac Mini or any macOS device you can spare, you can set up your own VPN service at home. This article will show you the step-by-step process of setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server so you’ll have your own personal virtual private network or VPN. You can use your personal VPN to browse the web safely, connect to your home network, and access files from anywhere in the world.

Setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server is a very easy process. All you need is an old Mac, preferably a Mac Mini, and $20 for the software.

What You Need

Here is a list of the things you will need in setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server:

  • A macOS Server which you can download from the Mac App Store
  • A Mac Mini or any old Mac you can spare (just make sure that it meets the minimum requirement for running the software)
  • An Ethernet cable
  • A regular router
  • An internet connection
  • A static IP address or a dynamic DNS address

Before you get started, you also need to make sure that the Mac you are using is performing at its best. You can use an app such as Tweakbit MacRepair to scan for issues and delete junk files that could affect your Mac’s performance.

Step 1: Download macOS Server from the Mac App Store.

You need a stable internet connection for your VPN service so you have to connect your Mac to your router via Ethernet cable. Once everything is plugged in, the next step is to download macOS Server from the Mac App Store.

The app is previously known as Mac OS X Server but was changed to macOS Server along with the launch of macOS Sierra. The macOS Server app costs $19.99, and it will be downloaded and installed in the Applications folder once the purchase is complete. The macOS Server is just an app around 106.5 MB in size, so the installation process should be done with a single click.

Once installed, double-click the app icon to launch macOS Server. Type in your administrator password to allow the app to make changes to your device. Once the app is launched, two windows will open: the macOS Server Tutorials page and the Server administration console window.

Mac vpn setup

You can go through the tutorials if you want to understand more about how the macOS Server works and how to set it up. But if you want the simplified process of setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server, then proceed with the next step below.

Step 2: List down your static IP address or sign up for a dynamic DNS address.

The next step is to get your IP address. You can get your IP address by typing this on Google: “What is my IP Address”. However, if you’re a home user, what you’re probably going to get is a dynamic IP address. This means that your router’s IP address may change from time to time.

Dynamic IP address is not ideal for setting up your own VPN service because once the IP address changes, your remote connection will fail.

If you have a business or enterprise internet account, you can ask your ISP provider what your static IP address is. Some ISP providers, however, require a fee for letting you use a static IP address.

If you don’t have access to a static IP address, you can sign up for a dynamic domain name services or DDNS instead.

Using a domain name is better because it is easy to remember and the address doesn’t change. If you have your own website, check with your domain provider how you can get a dynamic DNS for free; otherwise, you will need to sign up for one. Just choose from the many DNS providers that offer this service for free and create your subdomain and domain name. Something like johnsVPN.redhop.com is much easier to remember than a bunch of numbers such as 32.948.310.9, right?

It is important that you remember your IP address or DNS address because you’ll be using it to dial from any computer or network around the world.

Step 3: Enable port forwarding on your router.

Before starting your VPN setup for a Mac Mini server, first you need to configure your router to allow incoming connections on the right ports. Enabling port forwarding is complicated because it depends on what router you are using.

Follow these steps to enable port forwarding on your router:

  • Access your router’s admin page via web browser.
  • Look for the DHCP or Static Leases section. You need to set up a DHCP reservation so that the local IP address remains the same.
  • Go to the port forwarding section, which is usually found under its own tab, NAT, Firewall, or Virtual Servers.
  • Once you’re on the port forwarding page, look for the section where you have to enter the details such as Port From, Protocol, IP Address, and Port to. The macOS Server needs four ports open for it to work. These ports are UDP 500, UDP 1701, TCP 1723, and UDP 4500.
  • Save your settings when done.

Step 4: Time to set up your server.

Remember your static IP address or DNS address? The next step is to enable your IP or DNS address on your Mac so you can connect to it even when you’re not at home.

Follow these instructions to set up your server:

  • Launch macOS Server on your Mac Mini.
  • Click the name of your computer from the left-side panel.
  • Click Edit Host Name, then hit Next.
  • Click Internet, then click Next.
  • Type in the domain name you created or your static IP address under Host Name, then click Finish.
  • Click Set Up DNS when prompted. It will automatically start and configure DNS.
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Your macOS Server is now set up and ready to roll.

Step 5: Set up your VPN.

Now, the next thing to do is to set up your VPN on your Mac Mini by following these steps:

  • Click VPN on the left-side menu of the macOS Server.
  • The default settings should have filled out most of the information that you need. Just make sure that the VPN Host Name you see on the page is the same as the host name you entered in the previous step.
  • Create a unique but easy to remember Shared Secret password. You’ll need to type in this password every time you need to connect to your server.
  • Look for Client Addresses, then click Edit Addresses. Your network’s IP address should have already populated the field by default. Change the last digits of your IP address into something higher, like 100 or 200, to prevent your VPN connection from interfering with other connections on your network.
  • Toggle the VPN switch to On.

Wait for 10 to 20 seconds and you’ll see your status becomes Available, which means your VPN is all set and ready to go.

How to Access Your Personal VPN From Other Devices

Once you’ve finished setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server, you can now route all traffic from your other devices through it. You can connect other computers and mobile devices to protect your data. Take note that using a VPN may slow down your internet connection, so connect your device only when you need to.

To set up your devices, you’ll need your Mac’s username and password, as well as your Shared Secret password. The process varies per device but the basics are the same.

Here’s how to connect your device to your VPN service:

Windows

  • Click Start > Settings > Network & Internet.
  • Click VPN > Add a VPN Connection.
  • Fill out the form with the necessary information such as your IP address, Mac’s user mane and password, and Shared Secret.
  • Hit Save.
  • Choose the VPN you created, then click Connect.

macOS

  • Go to System Preferences > Network, then click the + sign.
  • Choose VPN, then select L2TP.
  • Type in your server address and account name.
  • Click Authentication Settings.
  • Type in your password and Shared Secret, then hit OK.
  • Click Connect.

iOS

  • Go to Settings > General > VPN > Add VPN Configuration.
  • Type in your account details, L2TP, server, account, Shared Secret, and password.
  • Tap Save and set the status to On.

Android

  • Go to Settings > Wireless and network settings > VPN Settings.
  • Choose Basic VPN > Add VPN.
  • Choose Add L2TP/IPSec PSK VPN.
  • Type in your server address, account details, Shared Secret, and password.

Conclusion

Setting up VPN on a Mac Mini server looks complicated, but the benefits make it all worth it in the end. Aside from being able to access your files from outside your home, your VPN also encrypts all your traffic so that your internet activities remain private. Your VPN protects your personal and sensitive information from hackers and deters ISPs from collecting your browsing data. We hope that this guide has made the process of setting up VPNs easier and simpler for you.

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We have a lot of customers who use their Mac mini as a VPN server. This works great when you need an IP address in the US, or a secure internet connection on the road, or a number of other reasons. When Apple released Lion, they changed the setup a bit so we wrote a tutorial. This continued in Mountain Lion and Mavericks, Yosemite, El Capitan, and remains the case in Sierra. By default, Sierra Server VPN will distribute IP addresses in the same range the Mac itself uses. This doesn’t work well in a facility like MacStadium where each Mac mini has a static WAN IP address.

We asked Rusty Ross to help us put together a tutorial that will help MacStadium customers setup their Mac minis to serve as VPNs. He’s broken it down in a few parts so be sure to take the steps that are best for your situation:

Vpn Server Mac Mini

PART I: VLAN and DNS

PART II: Internet Routing (OPTIONAL)

PART III: VPN

PART IV: Client Setup

If you are simply looking to enable VPN service on your macOS Server for secure connection(s) between your server and client(s), you can skip PART II. That’s right: you can jump straight from PART I to PART III. The procedures discussed in PART II are intended for those who are looking to route internet traffic from their VPN clients over the VPN and out to the internet via their server’s public internet connection at Macminicolo.

Also, it should be mentioned that server administration (particularly at the command line level) can be tricky. If you do proceed beyond this point, which shall be exclusively at your own risk, then please proceed carefully, and as always, don’t ever proceed without a backup of your server and other irreplaceable data.

Still here? Okay, let’s get started.

PART I: VLAN and DNS

First, let’s set up a VLAN.

In System Preferences, go to Network, and choose “Manage Virtual Interfaces…”

Then choose “New VLAN…”

Let’s just name our VLAN something like “LAN”, and all other defaults here should be fine:

After pressing “Create”, you’ll see this:

After pressing “Done”, you’ll be able to enter network info for your new VLAN. Make sure to choose “Manually” for “Configure IPv4”, and set the IP Address, Subnet Mask, and Router as shown below.

(Advanced: We’ll be using a 10.0.0.1 private IP for the server and 10.0.0.0/24 private network in this walkthrough, but note that the technique documented here will work with any private IP addressing scheme. To accomplish that, you’d substitute that alternate network info here, as well as a few other places further along in this walkthrough.)

After pressing “Apply”, you should see an something like this, indicating that your newly-created VLAN is active:

Nice work. Now, let’s get basic DNS up and running. Launch Server.app, and click on the “DNS” section of the sidebar, under “Advanced”:

All DNS defaults in Server.app should be fine, so let’s switch DNS service on:

Great. Now, once again, if you are NOT interested in routing public internet traffic from your VPN client(s) over the VPN and out to the internet via your server’s public internet connection at Macminicolo, you should SKIP from here to PART III.

PART II: Internet Routing (OPTIONAL)

So far, so good. Now things get a little trickier, as we need to dive into the command line a bit to get NAT and routing set up. First, we’ll need to edit two privileged text files, so we are going use a command line text editor called nano. Breathe easy, we've got each other's backs here, and we will take this step by step.

As we proceed, it is important to remember that in the command line, typos aren't the least bit welcome, and also, uppercase/lowercase needs to match exactly, so it is extremely important to enter text into Terminal.app exactly as it is described here.

One additional (but important!) point: The quotation marks used here in terminal commands are 'straight' quotes. Some web browsers and text editors may automatically convert these marks to smart (curly) quotes, particularly when copying and pasting. It's important to use straight quotes when entering the commands from this tutorial in Terminal.app.

Okay? Let's forge ahead.

Launch Terminal.app:

Inside the terminal window that appears, enter the following command (as a single line), and press return:

sudo nano /etc/pf.anchors/com.apple

You’ll be prompted for your password, and if you’ve not used sudo on this Mac in the past, you may see a warning about using sudo, which is fine. Enter your password (you wont see the cursor move while you type your password) and press return:

Upon doing this, you should expect to see the following text file open inside of nano, our friendly command line text editor:

Okay, we are now going to add three custom lines to this document. Red arrows in the picture below indicate where these lines should go. To move the cursor into the correct place to add these lines, simply use the arrow keys on your keyboard.

The three lines you’ll be adding are:

nat-anchor '100.customNATRules/*'
rdr-anchor '100.customNATRules/*'
load anchor '100.customNATRules' from
'/etc/pf.anchors/customNATRules'

Great. Now we need to tell nano to save the changes you made to this text file. This will be a three step process, and we'll take it one step at a time.

First you'll press the “control” key and the “X” key simultaneously (that's right, “control-X”) to tell nano you are done editing. Upon doing so, you will see this:

Now press the “Y” key to let nano know that, yes indeed, you do want to save changes:

And finally, nano is already suggesting the proper location to save the file you edited, so simply press return to accept its suggestion:

Well done! You are back where you started, having edited a text file in nano.

Since you are now a nano expert, let's use it once more, this time to create an entirely new text file. Start nano up again as follows:

sudo nano /etc/pf.anchors/customNATRules

Upon entering the command above and pressing return, you will be reunited with your friend nano, now editing a new text file which, thus far, contains no text:

We are simply going to add two lines of text here:

Server
nat on en0 from 10.0.0.0/24 to any -> (en0)
pass from {lo0, 10.0.0.0/24} to any keep state

(Advanced: If you are using private IP addressing other than 10.0.0.0/24, you should customize these two lines to match your chosen network.)

And now that these two lines have been added, well, you know the drill, the old three-step save: “control-X”, then “Y”, and then press return.

Again, that's “control-X”:

Then “Y”:

And then press return:

Excellent. Though nano has served us well, we won't need to use it again during this tutorial.

Now, just a couple more commands in Terminal.app, and we’ll be done with the command line altogether.

Enter this command (as a single line) into your Terminal.app window and press return:

sudo pfctl -f /etc/pf.conf

You'll get some feedback on this one from the Terminal, all of which you can safely ignore.

Next, enter this command (as a single line) into your Terminal.app window and press return:

echo 'net.inet.ip.forwarding=1' | sudo tee -a
/etc/sysctl.conf

The Terminal should respond with “net.inet.ip.forwarding=1”, which is what we want.

And finally, enter these five commands (each one as a single line, pressing return after each one) into your Terminal.app window:

sudo cp
/System/Library/LaunchDaemons/com.apple.pfctl.plist
/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.macminicolo.pfctl.plist
sudo sed -i ' 's/com.apple.pfctl/net.macminicolo.pfctl/'
/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.macminicolo.pfctl.plist
sudo sed -i ' 's/>-f</>-e</'
/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.macminicolo.pfctl.plist
sudo sed -i ' '/pf.conf/d'
/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.macminicolo.pfctl.plist
sudo launchctl load -w
/Library/LaunchDaemons/net.macminicolo.pfctl.plist

Well done. You can now close your Terminal.app window entirely.

Okay, you have now set up NAT and routing for your private network. The last piece of the puzzle on the server will be to configure and enable VPN service.

Before you proceed, though: RESTART your server now. (We’ll wait…)

Vpn for mac os

Now that you have restarted your server, let’s continue.

PART III: VPN

Whether or not you have just completed Part II or skipped to this point straight from Part I, rest assured that everyone is welcome here in Part III.

First, open Server.app and click on the “VPN” section of the sidebar:

Several default settings here are already in place as we’d want them, so we’ll just edit a few.Enter your Shared Secret as desired:

Now press “Edit…” next to DNS Settings. You will likely see the Macminicolo DNS IP addresses here, which is NOT what we want in this particular place:

Instead, change this to 10.0.0.1 as follows:

(Advanced: If you are using an alternate private network, customize the above appropriately.)

Press “OK” and we’re back here:

Vpn

Now press “Edit…” next to Client Addresses, and enter settings as pictured below:

(Advanced: If you are using an alternate private network, or have different needs in terms of address pool size, customize appropriately.)Press “OK” and once again, we are back here:

..and should be all set to go. Switch the VPN service on:

Brilliant. Wait about 30 seconds for the VPN service to become fully active, and your Mac mini server should now be ready to serve VPN clients and (optionally, if you completed Part II) route their public internet traffic over its connection.

PART IV: Client Setup

Now that your server’s VPN is configured, enabled, and (optionally) ready to route public internet traffic for its clients, you may want a little guidance on how best to configure a client.

Let’s set up a Sierra client as an example.

In System Preferences, go to Network, and press the “+” in the lower-lefthand corner:

Choose “VPN”, make sure you are using “L2TP over IPSec”, and give your service a name:

Press “Create”, and then make sure your new VPN is selected in the sidebar on the left, so you can edit its details on the right:

As shown above, enter the IP address or DNS name for your server in the “Server Address” field. In the “Account Name” field, enter the username for the account on the server that you want to use to log in from the client.

Press “Authentication Settings…” and you’ll see this:

Enter the Password for the account you just specified, and the Shared Secret exactly as you set it up on the server.

Press “OK”, and you are back to:

Vpn Client For Mac

Now press “Advanced…” and you should see this panel:

If you chose to complete optional “Part II: Internet Routing” section earlier:

Then you should check the option to “Send all traffic over VPN connection” so that your client will, um, send all its traffic (including public internet-bound traffic) over the VPN when the VPN connection is active.

Otherwise, if you skipped the optional “Part II: Internet Routing” section, make sure to un-check “Send all traffic over VPN connection” (unlike the picture above).

Press “OK”, and you are back to:

Press “Apply” to save changes. Camera raw 6 for mac.

And now your client should be ready to connect to your server’s VPN.

Just press “Connect” when you want make this happen.

Vpn Server Free

Well done.

Vpn For Mac

As I mentioned, this tutorial came from Rusty Ross (@ConsultantRR), a great hands-on consultant that works with a bunch of happy MacStadium customers on a wide range of topics, including setup, migration, troubleshooting, maintenance, networking, strategic planning, and creative thinking. He’s available for a quick-fix, a specific project, or a longer-term relationship.

Until next year..