"Free" encrypted end to end communications over the internet

[streaker69]

This is a concept that I've been toying around with for a while, but I just got it implemented and tested this evening. It's free, as in, it won't cost you any minutes of voice, or data while you're using it. It will cost about $60 in hardware, and as a added bonus, you won't see ads on any of your device in your home when it's all done.

The concept is simple (for me, maybe not for some of you over the age 60). You have a Raspberry Pi, which is a small SBC (Single Board Computer) running the Raspbian OS. You install Pi-Hole which is a DNS server that allows you to block almost all the nastiness on the internet. Pi-Hole combined with Ublock Origin and you'll effectively see no ads on the internet anymore. Just as the way God intended.

Next you'll install PIVPN, which is an open source VPN server, using Wireguard clients. The client can be installed on IOS, Android and Winders. With it configured and your clients created you setup each of your client devices with their tunnel back to your home.

Next you'll install Mumble Server, an open source conference bridge and it's client for your device. It's a rather lightweight low latency conference bridge that also does Text to Speech as well as transferring files and text chatting.

Here's how it works. You have your Raspberry Pi setup behind your firewall, with a port forward through your firewall to it. When you're out and about, you could use your mobile data, but most stores these days have free Wifi. You connect to the store's wifi, then start your Wireguard tunnel back to home. Then you start your Mumble Client which connects to your mumble server. From there you can talk to anyone that's using it. If you have kids at home you could talk to them, whether they're on phones, tablets or PC's.

Having the VPN also means that you would have the ability to access any of your files from your phone at any times. Which is an added bonus. Using the VPN you'll also would be able to see your surveillance cameras.

A possible expansion of this would be the linking of Raspberry Pi's across the state via static VPN connections. Communications could be maintained as long as the internet is functional. The nice part of this is, the entire stream is encrypted in the VPN tunnel, there is no interception of what's being sent.

My friends and I had this kind of setup back around 1998. We had 6 houses linked in a mesh VPN network. It worked well, but broadband internet was still relatively new to the home market so the speeds weren't really there to make it useful.

I like this concept because instead of poking holes in your firewall for things like your surveillance DVR, you only need one port open for the VPN. Those chinese DVR's aren't exactly known for their strength against hackers, so putting one directly on the internet by forwarding a port to it, isn't a good idea.

What do you guys think?

[stainless]

I don't know enough to think. I was playing with this stuff back in the olden days. Key cards and Fortran.
No such thing as a desktop or laptop. Have fun with those who are able.

[solrac7]

I don't know enough to think. I was playing with this stuff back in the olden days. Key cards and Fortran.
No such thing as a desktop or laptop. Have fun with those who are able.

I started with punch cards and COBOL and then "upgraded" to a VIC-20 ... this is way beyond ME (I switched to BioChem -much easier) but I will pass it on to my daughter who is a Cloud Engineer at a major firm - she might be able to do all this stuff. Thanks for posting it Streaker.

[gghbi]

I don't know enough to think. I was playing with this stuff back in the olden days. Key cards and Fortran.
No such thing as a desktop or laptop. Have fun with those who are able.

I started with punch cards and COBOL and then "upgraded" to a VIC-20 ... this is way beyond ME (I switched to BioChem -much easier) but I will pass it on to my daughter who is a Cloud Engineer at a major firm - she might be able to do all this stuff. Thanks for posting it Streaker.

I remember the days when you could tell who was a computer science major by their strong arms, gained as a result of carrying around all the boxes of punch cards used for programming projects. Cobol for the business guys and Fortran for the engineers. I think we were allowed a maximum of 0.6 second of core time and then your program would abort, but I could be off on that. Heaven help you if you had an wild do loop in your program... bombed.

[streaker69]

A friend of mine is working on a non-cloud based open source device similar to Alexa/Google. It will be able to do most anything those devices do, without the spying. That device would be able to be accessed through the same system.

[Gman106]

I like cheese doodles.

[MAK762]

Very interesting, for me I know a little about R.Pi but to go and do all of that I would love to see a tutorial or some sort of instruction.

[streaker69]

Very interesting, for me I know a little about R.Pi but to go and do all of that I would love to see a tutorial or some sort of instruction.

I don't have time to make an entire tutorial, plus it would probably be redundant with all the other guides out there, but here's some links

Raspbien: https://www.raspberrypi.org/document...alling-images/

Pi-hole:https://www.smarthomebeginner.com/pi-hole-setup-guide/

PIVPN: https://www.pivpn.io/

Mumble Server: https://pimylifeup.com/raspberry-pi-mumble-server/

Mumble Client: https://www.mumble.com/mumble-download.php

Mumble for Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....free&hl=en_US

I can't really give you instructions for opening a hole in your firewall because every firewall is a little different on how it's done. But generally, they'll be a page in the configuration called Filtering, or maybe Port Forwarding. On that page you'll enter the PORT that you selected when you installed PIVPN (I don't recommend using the default) and enter the IP address of the Raspberry Pi that you installed PIVPN onto. I've installed this on a RPi 3+B, but it should work on a 4 as well without any problems.

[MAK762]

thank you

[Booner]

My head hurts...