Looking for a easy VPN solution for Debian 11

Trying to get VPN service for my VM’s has been nothing but a pain in the behind. Using CyberGhost here. Tried the cli option. Even via open vpn with CG provided keys/certs. No go!

Is there anything easy and seamless setup that you all might be familiar with? Idk why it’s so hard for these providers to just create a GUI app too.

I’d like to stick to Debian bc it’s so light and I can install exactly what I need and nothing more. But im open to other options as well. Please advise.

Tailscale. It uses Wireguard underneath with a proprietary coordination system. It has a free service tier and works really well through NAT.

I setup Pritunl the other day using Ubuntu Server as the host. Most of the config is done via a web interface once it’s up and running. It uses OpenVPN and has WireGuard support.

This is the video I followed. note that it’s for Proxmox and he uses a container, though I had better experience creating a virtual machine. If you’re not using Proxmox then you can skip all the Proxmox stuff in the video. It wasn’t too much of a headache.

What firewall are you using ? Are you connecting to the firewalls VPN or a VPN server behind the firewall?

+1 for Tailscale, I’m not sure a simpler setup is possible and the free tier offers plenty.
Additionally the subnet router and magic DNS seem super powerful

I guess I don’t know much about wire guard. Is this something similar to Open VPN?

VPN server behind firewall.

Yep, I use the subnet router for access to my home lan via aTailscale docker instance on unRaid.

Having used both (Strongswan), It’s a much simpler configuration than OpenVPN. Linus Torvalds has praised the code for its simplicity. It’s something like 4,000 lines of code for Wireguard vs 2 million lines of code for OpenVPN. It’s also been in-kernel for several years now, so any relatively modern kernel will support it.

Tailscale makes it easy because it solves the “communicating through NAT” problem while also having a very simple configuration.