WireGuard VPN
A private tunnel from your devices back to Canada.
What it is
WireGuard is a modern VPN. Once a device is connected, its traffic travels through your server — useful on hotel and café networks, and for reaching things you have deliberately not exposed to the internet.
This template includes a web interface for adding devices, which produces a QR code you scan with the WireGuard phone app.
Good for
- Safe browsing on untrusted networks
- Reaching private services from away
- Appearing to be in Canada while travelling
Getting in
- Open the link on your console page and sign in.
- Add a client for each device you want to connect.
- Scan the QR code with the WireGuard app, or download the config file for a desktop.
Your own address, port and any credentials are on your server's console page, reached from your dashboard. They are specific to your server, so they are not repeated here.
Things that catch people out
A VPN hides your traffic from the network you are on, not from the internet
Your traffic emerges from your server, which is a real, identifiable address. This is privacy from the café's wifi, not anonymity.
One device per client config
Sharing a single config between two phones causes both to disconnect intermittently. Make one per device.
Where your data lives
Client configurations live in a Docker volume under /opt/wireguard.
Take a snapshot before anything risky — see Snapshots and backups.
Updating
Ubuntu patches itself, but the app does not. SSH in and run:
Take a snapshot first.