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VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 8:29 am
by shaka
So i've done a little poking around but unable to find any info, is it possible to setup a vpn on MiSTer?

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:25 am
by AngelicLiver
Via Linux on the MiSTer? Not out of the box and it would be very impractical with significant performance implications.

Do you have any context? Site-to-site VPN? General purpose VPN service (NordVPN, ExpressVPN etc.)? Why do you need a VPN? It might be easier and more practical to configure your router to use the VPN.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 10:44 am
by Bas
You could tunnel SSH, but out of the box there are no other VPN solutions present on the MiSTer. Like AngelicLiver already said: what's your use case for this?

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Tue Feb 22, 2022 11:06 am
by JamesH
Building a Wireguard module is the best way to have a decently performing VPN on the host system itself. And yes, it is unclear, when and why it may be useful, so getting a dedicated device, something like GL-AR300M, is a much better option.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Wed Mar 02, 2022 7:17 pm
by softtest9
I would suggest getting a VPN router or some other hardware solution. Then it will just work on any OS and any device, including consoles.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 1:26 am
by amstan
This is a long shot and you might not want to go all in on this, but if VPN is a must for you it might be doable with MisterArch.

I see lots of possible vpn modules in a variety of network managers. I've never used any one of them so i can't exactly confirm.

In terms of wireguard you would definitelly need an extra kernel module, but i can arrange that pretty quickly. Done!

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:07 am
by dshadoff
Surprised that nobody has asked why a VPN is even being considered... if you're using the MiSTer as a MiSTer, I'm not clear on why you would want to (I mean... I don't normally hear people talking about installing a VPN on their TVs or other appliances...).

If you're trying to use it as some kind of general-purpose device somewhat unrelated to playing games, then that's a different thing. But a Raspberry Pi is likely to be more flexible for general-purpose use.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:52 am
by djhardrich
Running a vpn with something like ipxtunnel (https://tldp.org/HOWTO/IPX-HOWTO-15.html), would enable multiplayer network games in ao486 as well, and serves as a great example for “why” someone would want to run a vpn client on-device….

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:43 am
by hipsofjw
dshadoff wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:07 am Surprised that nobody has asked why a VPN is even being considered... if you're using the MiSTer as a MiSTer, I'm not clear on why you would want to (I mean... I don't normally hear people talking about installing a VPN on their TVs or other appliances...).
Archive.org is blocked and github suffers from DNS poisoning where I live. Scripts that rely on these websites don't work on the MiSTer for me. I have to use the Windows version of update_all in order to use my VPN and update my MiSTer currently. A VPN on the MiSTer directly would be helpful for this purpose.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 5:58 am
by pacoarcade
If you want to run the VPN in the MiSTer instead of the router I'd look for Wireguard since, as far as I know, it performs better on machines without AES-NI - like the DE10-Nano.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 6:53 am
by pakopakopako
I live in China, so I also need VPN to run the update. Just run the VPN in your personal computer and access MiSTer using ssh. Once there, just set:

set HTTPS_PROXY=http://COMPUTER_IP:PORT
set HTTP_PROXY=socks5://COMPUTER_IP:PORT

Then, go to the scripts folder and run the update_all script (from the same ssh session), it will work.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:18 am
by aberu
hipsofjw wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:43 am
dshadoff wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:07 am Surprised that nobody has asked why a VPN is even being considered... if you're using the MiSTer as a MiSTer, I'm not clear on why you would want to (I mean... I don't normally hear people talking about installing a VPN on their TVs or other appliances...).
Archive.org is blocked and github suffers from DNS poisoning where I live. Scripts that rely on these websites don't work on the MiSTer for me. I have to use the Windows version of update_all in order to use my VPN and update my MiSTer currently. A VPN on the MiSTer directly would be helpful for this purpose.
You can do IP routing through a VPN if your router supports it. Then just set a static IP on the mister. It's also an option to find a way to do it on the MiSTer itself, but personally it would be easier to just make a special rule for that one device.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:48 am
by hipsofjw
aberu wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:18 am
hipsofjw wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 4:43 am
dshadoff wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 3:07 am Surprised that nobody has asked why a VPN is even being considered... if you're using the MiSTer as a MiSTer, I'm not clear on why you would want to (I mean... I don't normally hear people talking about installing a VPN on their TVs or other appliances...).
Archive.org is blocked and github suffers from DNS poisoning where I live. Scripts that rely on these websites don't work on the MiSTer for me. I have to use the Windows version of update_all in order to use my VPN and update my MiSTer currently. A VPN on the MiSTer directly would be helpful for this purpose.
You can do IP routing through a VPN if your router supports it. Then just set a static IP on the mister. It's also an option to find a way to do it on the MiSTer itself, but personally it would be easier to just make a special rule for that one device.
Yes, I've considered this. I even bought a separate openwrt router for this purpose last year because domestic websites are basically impossible to connect to when connected to a VPN. Sadly, out of the two VPN services that actually work in this country, the one that functions well in my home and at work does not play well when used on a router. Servers constantly get blocked and changing the VPN settings on the router every time I wanted to use it was just too much of a pain.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 6:56 pm
by aberu
Darn, that is a pain. Sorry to hear that.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Thu Mar 03, 2022 7:09 pm
by amstan
I updated my kernel to include wireguard if anyone wants to use it.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2022 4:56 am
by hipsofjw
aberu wrote: Thu Mar 03, 2022 6:56 pm Darn, that is a pain. Sorry to hear that.
Not the end of the world. Just a minor annoyance really. I'm lucky that I have easy access to the global internet on my Windows and Android devices. Not everyone who lives here does.

Anyway, I probably won't go through the effort of setting this all up (although it would be a good excuse to learn how to use Linux properly). I just was chiming in to give a good reason on why someone would want a VPN on their MiSTer.

Re: VPN on MiSTer

Posted: Fri Mar 04, 2022 7:08 am
by Bas
You can use the SSH client on the MiSTer to act like a local Socks5 proxy over an SSH connection to elsewhere. Elsewhere could be a VPS somewhere or a cloud instance you only spin up for the occasion (cheap as you can pick a tiny one that'll only be running for minutes while you update).