What Is A Raspberry Pi? VPN?

 

To find out “What Is A Raspberry Pi“? we first have to look at the Who? The Raspberry Pi device was developed in the United Kingdom by The Raspberry Pi Foundation, the idea was to promote the teaching of basic science in school classrooms and to developing countries around the world.

The Foundation is a United Kingdom-based charity, which provides high performing computers at a low cost. They also develop Free resources to assist people to learn about computing, and how to make things work with these computers. Educators are also trained to teach others how to use these computers.
Now we have an understanding about the Who? lets’ look at “What is A Raspberry Pi”?

What Is A Raspberry Pi?

Raspberry Pi is as mentioned earlier a low cost, high performing computer, at writing there have been 14 different models released since 2012, they are

• Raspberry Pi 1- Models B/A/B+ and A+

• Raspberry Pi 2 – Model B

• Raspberry Pi Zero – Models Zero/W and WH

• Raspberry Pi 3 – Models B/A+ and B+

• Raspberry Pi 4 – Models B (1 GB)/B (2GB) and B (4GB)

All Models feature Broadcom System on-chip or (SoC), including an integrated Advanced RISC machine or (ARM), and a central processing unit or (CPU) and on-chip graphics processing unit or (GPU). The processor speeds vary from 700 MHz to 1.5 MHz, and the on-board memory varies from 256 MB to 1 GB of random access memory or (RAM) and with up to 4(GB) of (RAM) on the Raspberry Pi 4.

Some models allow a various number of USB Ports, HDMI Ports composite Video Ports, Ethernet, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth capabilities, which allow a Raspberry Pi to connect to monitor, keyboard and mouse.

These small but powerful computers also are able to run a variety of different operating systems (OS) like, Raspbian which is the default OS Raspberry Pi Foundation provides, and some 3rd party OS like Ubuntu MATE, Windows 10 IoT Core, RISC OS, Kodi, Android Things, just to name a few.

Raspberry Pi also allows 3rd party Software Applications such as Astro Print – Astro Prints wireless 3D printing software, Minecraft and SteamLink and many more. You can also run a variety of Software Development Tools, Algoid, Scratch and V-Play Game Engine along with more.

 

 

Raspberry Pi Projects

Raspberry has many uses and applications, there are a variety of things that can be done with this little computer since there are many to choose from, I picked some popular options

• AirPlay – Build an AirPlay receiver to wirelessly play music

• Camera Module

• Media Center (Smart TV)

• Build Games – Using Scratch

• Learn To Code – In Python

• Build A Retro Game Console

• Build A Robot

• Home Security System

There are many more ideas and projects you can do with a Raspberry Pi, and we are going to look at using a Raspberry Pi to build our own VPN!!!

Raspberry Pi VPN

One of the many projects you can build is a VPN server, so we are going to look at making a VPN Server with a Raspberry Pi.
You can make a cheap but effective VPN server that will allow you to enable end-to-end encryption of all your data/information to pass through an anonymous and secure tunnel. With Pi VPN you will be able to have access to your

 

• Music, movies and, files from anywhere

• Print on your home printer

• Access and connect to your home smart devices and security cameras

• Bypass Geo-Blocked locations while out of the country

• Most importantly you will be able to encrypt your mobile connection

 

 

Lets’ Make A Pi VPN !!!

First, this project will require some set up on your part, this is not a plug and play system if you are looking at something a bit easier you can download the VPN software and in a few clicks of the mouse, you will ready to go.

This project is more for the “Techie” who may have a Raspberry Pi and is looking for a project, or the person interested in Raspberry Pi and a VPN, or the person who just wants to give it a go !!!

In order to start our Pi VPN project, we will obviously need at least a Raspberry Pi 2 or 3 with Raspbian OS installed, and 8 GB or larger memory card. We will also need to choose our VPN provider, we must look at security provided, bandwidth, speed, server locations, number of servers available on the network, etc.

My recommendation is PURE VPN, PURE provides all the options required for this project and works really well in-home, mobile devices, on most OS platforms, PURE VPN provides a secure, fast, private VPN server. With PURE VPN you have the option of using two different Protocols, first is PPTP or (Point-To-Point-Tunneling Protocol) see a more detailed description here. The other option is OPEN VPN, which of the two the most stable and secure option, see a more detailed description here. I am also including a link to How-To set up VPN On Raspberry Pi Tutorial, and a How-To set up VPN On Raspberry Pi Trouble Shooting Tutorial.

 

Yes, Raspberry Pi VPN !!

I have never heard of Raspberry Pi before and all that you could do with one. The amount that can be done with this inexpensive little computer that is the size of a credit card is short of amazing. In this day and age of Cyber-Criminals and Hackers spying on us and trying to steal our personal information and invade our privacy, Raspberry Pi provides another tool we can use to protect ourselves from these threats.

The unfortunate reality is that with all the tools available to protect ourselves many people are still being victimized by these criminals. We must take our online presence and security seriously and use whatever technology available to protect ourselves. These criminals are not letting up so neither should we !!!

I hope you enjoyed this post and if you have any questions or just want to leave a comment please do so below

Take care

Stay secure and always practice

Safe Text !!!

Butch