Troubleshooting • Raspberry as Wifi Hotspot with NordVPN

Hi!
Linux raspberrypi 6.6.74+rpt-rpi-v8 #1 SMP PREEMPT Debian 1:6.6.74-1+rpt1 (2025-01-27) aarch64

Good to be back Why would I do this? Well to be able to use VPN on an appliance where you cannot install a VPN.

I am trying to set up a Pi 3B as a WiFi Hotspot behind NordVPN. It is working, but for one glitch: I need to establish the wireless connection before connecting to the VPN, if not then the Wireless will fail. Presumably because it does not get an IP address.

The biggest hurdle was to select a different address for the Wifi as NordVPN wants to use 10.x.x.x. I found no way to do this via the GUI.

This is what I did:
Install Raspbian
Install NordVPN following: https://nordvpn.com/sv/download/raspberry-pi/
Log in
Connect

Created the hotspot from the commandline, using the same SSID for connection name:
sudo nmcli con add con-name <SSID> ifname wlan0 type wifi ssid <SSID> ip4 192.168.100.101/24 gw4 192.168.100.101
sudo nmcli con modify <SSID> 802-11-wireless.mode ap 802-11-wireless.band bg ipv4.method shared
sudo nmcli con modify <SSID> wifi-sec.key-mgmt wpa-psk
sudo nmcli con modify <SSID> wifi-sec.psk <password>
sudo nmcli con up <SSID>

nordvpn set routing on
nordvpn set lan-dicovery on

The last one is important. If not you lose connectivity when you connect.

So, the last hurdle is the wireless connection when VPN is active. This is to increase the "wife acceptance factor". Any ideas what I need to change or pointers where to start troubleshooting? I tested both on TV and a laptop and neither gets an IP address if connecting when VPN is up.

Statistics: Posted by AndersG — Sun Mar 09, 2025 9:06 am — Replies 0 — Views 42

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