SOHO Remote Access VPN. Easy as Pie, Raspberry Pi...

Free, unencrypted wireless access points have proliferated and are now found in various locations such as restaurants, libraries, schools, hotels, airports, etc. In conjunction with the spread of mobile devices, getting on the Internet has quickly migrated from the relative confines of offices and homes to locations where a high number of users are sharing the same open access point. While convenient, this situation also increases the likelihood that someone will have the skills and intent to pry into our privacy and collect our Internet traffic for nefarious purposes. Security professional are always preaching restraint when it comes to using free/public wireless access points. But, when asked for an alternative other than wait to go back home, there is little to offer for small office/home office (SOHO) users that is practical while also remaining free or at least, almost free. This gold paper presents such an alternative in the form of a VPN solution and associated configuration instructions for both server and clients. It leverages the rather inexpensive Raspberry Pi (RPi) hardware in conjunction with the freely distributed OpenVPN Server and client software. The solution requires minimal changes to an existing SOHO network and is simple to configure on a broad variety of mobile platforms including Windows, Linux, OS X, iOS, and Android.