VPN on MiSTer

[shaka]

So i've done a little poking around but unable to find any info, is it possible to setup a vpn on MiSTer?

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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.

[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!

[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.

[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….

[hipsofjw]

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.

[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.

[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.

[aberu]

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.

[hipsofjw]

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.

[aberu]

Darn, that is a pain. Sorry to hear that.

[amstan]

I updated my kernel to include wireguard if anyone wants to use it.

[hipsofjw]

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.

[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).