Working from home, safely
Priya works in the college finance office. Today she is at home. She needs the finance files, which sit on the college's private systems.
The IT team must let Priya in. They must also keep everyone else out. That means setting up a VPN server with care.
Key words
| Word | What it means |
|---|---|
| Network | computers and devices joined together so they can share data |
| IP address | the number that identifies a device on a network |
| VPN | virtual private network, a private, encrypted link across the internet |
| VPN server | the machine at the college end that accepts VPN connections |
| Interface | the connection a device uses to join a network, real or virtual |
| Public key | the half of a key pair that you can share, used to check who you are |
| Private key | the half of a key pair that you keep secret |
| Peer | one end of a VPN link, in WireGuard |
| Authentication | proving who you are, for example with a key |
| Permission | a rule that says what an account may do |
| FQDN | fully qualified domain name, a full hostname such as vpn.college.example |
| DNS | a service that turns a name into an IP address |
The cells students fill in are left blank in this preview.
By the end of this lesson
Note
I can set up a simple VPN server and control who may connect and what they may reach.
Starter
Have a go
Starter
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.
What a VPN server needs
Three things must be set on the server.
- Enable the VPN service, and let the server pass data between its networks.
- Give the VPN interface an address and a name. Users reach the server by a hostname that DNS turns into its public address.
- Manage user access. Decide who may connect, and what each may reach.
Authentication and permissions
This lab uses WireGuard, a simple VPN. There is no username and password. Each user has a key pair. The server stores the user's public key. That is authentication.
Next to each key, the server lists the addresses that user may use and reach. That is the permission. Remove the line, and the user is out.
Quick check
Have a go
Quick check
3 questionsYour answers are marked here and are not kept. A college account keeps every student’s marks.