Using (and sharing) a VPN connection on your Mac
First of all, sorry for the lack of posts, I’ve been kinda busy lately. I finally updated my development machine to Snow Leopard (I was on Leopard 10.5.7) and I took the opportunity to sort and organize all my backups, documents and stuff. I’m still not really done with my backup procedures, but at least I’m covered in case of a crash (after the capacitors incident, I decided to take my backups more seriously).
Anyway, one of the things I always wanted (and finally had time) to do was to setup my own OpenVPN server. In case you don’t know, VPN stands for “Virtual Private Network”, and it’s a way to have your own secure network no matter where you are. Whenever you’re at a cafe or an hotel and want to make sure no one can take a peek on what you’re doing (yes, it’s pretty easy to do that) you need a VPN. Having a VPN server can also help you circumvent geoblocking, if that’s what you’re up to.
I decided to write this article to share the experience I had configuring my own VPN, specially when I wanted to share the connection with other devices in my network. If that’s what you want to do, read on and I’ll try to explain what I did and how I did it.