Connecting via VPN (Mac)

Follow this guide to privately access your server from your Mac device using a VPN.

Prerequisites

• Connecting Remotely - VPN

Contents

• WireGuard
• OpenVPN

WireGuard

1. Obtain a WireGuard config file for your device.

   • StartTunnel: Follow instructions here
   • Router: Follow your router’s instructions.

2. Install WireGuard from the App Store.

3. Open the WireGuard app, click “Import tunnel(s) from file”, and select the file you downloaded above.

4. MacOS will inform you that WireGuard wants to set up a VPN connection. Click ‘Allow’.

5. Your VPN tunnel will have been created and visible in both you Mac’s system settings and conveniently in the WireGuard app where you can click to activate it.

   Tip

   You may need to edit your newly created tunnel and enable ‘On-demand’ for either ethernet, wifi or both.

OpenVPN

1. Download and install the OpenVPN Connect client from the official website.

   

2. If asked to do so, allow the OpenVPN client to run in the background.

   

3. Download the configuration file from your router’s OpenVPN server.

   

4. Import the configuration file and enter the necessary authentication settings you chose or were default on your OpenVPN Server on your router

   

5. Depending on how you’ve configured your OpenVPN server, you may need to add a username and password before you hit Connect.

   

6. Once set up, click on the name of the profile allows you to connect and disconnect. You can edit the profile from the icon to its right.

   

   Note

   You can avoid using the OpenVPN Connect client and create the OpenVPN connection directly in MacOS in the VPN section of System Settings. You would select IKEv2 and add your configuration manually.