VPN (Virtual Private Network) feature allows our edge nodes to establish communications privately and securely.
A virtual private network (VPN) extends a private network across a public network and enables users to send and receive data across shared or public networks as if their computing devices were directly connected to the private network. The benefits of a VPN include increases in functionality, security, and management of the private network and access to resources that are inaccessible on the public network.
Wikipedia
Activation
Check the NETWORKING card your edge node. You will find the VPN area to manage this functionality at the bottom, right after all your network interfaces details.
VPN is a premium feature that needs activation. You can activate it and use it for free for a month. After that time expires, a license must be purchased.
To activate your VPN access, you must press the “activate” button.
You will see then the following confirmation modal:
And then, your VPN feature will be activated and ready to be used.
Using VPN in your edge node
Once activated you will see that the VPN area shows:
- The IP of your edge node in the VPN.
- A toggle to turn it OFF/ON.
When the icon is blue, your edge node will have the VPN ON. Any device connected to the same VPN can access him using the IP shown.
Connecting to your edge node from your laptop
In case you want to connect to your edge node using a VPN you need to activate it on your equipment, so you will need VPN software such as Wireguard.
Wireguard installation
Download Barbara VPN user config
Once WireGuard is installed, go to the lateral menu in Barbara Panel and select the option VPN.
In that view, select download to get the user configuration file, necessary to adjust settings in WireGuard. Save the file and continue.
Open WireGuard VPN Tunnel from Barbara VPN user config file
Open the WireGuard application and select “Import tunnel(s) from file”. Use the “user config” file downloaded in the previous step.
Once the file is loaded a new tunnel will appear in your application. Then, activate it.
Check the status of your VPN is “Active”.
Connect from your laptop to your edge node
Once both VPNs (edge node and laptop) are active, we can communicate with each other using the IPs provided in Panel and WireGuard.
In the following video, we have an edge node running a NodeRed application. We will connect that NodeRed from a different network using a VPN on our laptop.
Next Steps
In the next section, we will explain basically some different basic commands to change the edge node state.