Raspberry Pi 4 with Pi-Hole, OpenVPN and DNSCrypt

A simple how-to guide on installing and configuring a Raspberry Pi 4 to make your internet connection more safe and private by installing Pi-Hole network-wide adblocker, OpenVPN to encrypt your internet data and DNSCrypt to secure your DNS queries.

Be sure to follow it step by step to avoid possible errors or mistakes.

Raspbian

Using Raspbian, the official operating system for the Raspberry Pi, you can be sure that it is well optimized and supported for the Raspberry Pi.

Download Raspberry Pi Imager for an easy way to install Raspbian to a MicroSD card.

It is always good practice to keep the system updated so once you have installed Raspbian, update it.

• sudo apt update
• sudo apt -y upgrade
• sudo apt install -y unattended-upgrades

Optional: Tweak Raspbian

• sudo raspi-config
• Select 1 Change User Password
• Select 3 Boot Options -> B1 Desktop / CLI -> B2 Console Autologin
• Select 4 Localisation Options -> I2 Change Timezone
• Select 4 Localisation Options -> I4 Change Wi-Fi Country
• Select 7 Advanced Options -> A1 Expand filesystem
• Select 7 Advanced Options -> A3 Memory Split -> Enter 16
• Reboot

Prep Work

Find your IP addresses which will be required for OpenVPN.

• External IP
  curl ifconfig.me
• Local IP
  hostname -I

OpenVPN

VPN stands for Virtual Private Network. A VPN creates an encrypted tunnel between you and a VPN server. All your internet data is routed through this tunnel, so your data is secure from any MITM, middle in the man, attacks.

Another benefit of a VPN is, is that it allows you to access your local network securely.

Install

wget https://git.io/vpn -O openvpn-install.sh
chmod 755 openvpn-install.sh
sudo ./openvpn-install.sh

Example settings at setup:

• Public IPv4 address / hostname []:
  123.456.789.000
• Protocol [1]:
  UDP
• Port [1194]:
  11948
• DNS [1]:
  Current system resolvers
• Client name [client]:
  yinchie-phone

Press enter once the correct settings have been chosen. The script will then install OpenVPN with your configured settings.

The generated opvn file you can use with an OpenVPN client on e.g. your mobile phone. It can be found inside the /root directory, in my case /root/yinchie-phone.ovpn. I copy this over to my home directory ~/ for easy transferring it off the Raspberry Pi using SFTP.

Configure OpenVPN

First, find out the tun0 interface IP address which is what OpenVPN uses using the command ifconfig tun0 | grep 'inet'. In my case, it is 10.8.0.1.

[email protected]:~ $ ifconfig tun0 | grep 'inet'
        inet 10.8.0.1  netmask 255.255.255.0  destination 10.8.0.1
        inet6 fe80::32f5:3e61:b36e:b29b  prefixlen 64  scopeid 0x20<link>

• Edit OpenVPN server config.
  sudo nano /etc/openvpn/server/server.conf
• Add the tun0 interface IP address, PiHole will be using it.
  push "dhcp-option DNS 10.8.0.1"
• Comment out other dhcp-option references by adding a # in front of it.
  #push "dhcp-option DNS 192.168.1.1"
• Restart OpenVPN server.
  sudo systemctl restart openvpn

DNSCrypt

It is a protocol that authenticates communications between a DNS client and a DNS resolver. It prevents DNS spoofing. It uses cryptographic signatures to verify that responses originate from the chosen DNS resolver and haven't been tampered with.

Install

We shall be installing DNSCrypt Proxy into the /opt directory which is for installation of add-on application software packages.

cd /opt
sudo wget https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/releases/download/2.0.42/dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
sudo tar xf dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
sudo rm dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
sudo mv linux-arm dnscrypt-proxy
cd dnscrypt-proxy
sudo cp example-dnscrypt-proxy.toml dnscrypt-proxy.toml

Detailed installation:

• Go to the installation directory.
  cd /opt
• Download DNSCrypt-Proxy.
  The latest releases can be found at the official release website.
  Use the command sudo wget https://github.com/DNSCrypt/dnscrypt-proxy/releases/download/2.0.42/dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
• Unpack the archive.
  sudo tar xf dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
• Remove the archive.
  sudo rm dnscrypt-proxy-linux_arm-2.0.42.tar.gz
• Rename the unpacked archive.
  sudo mv linux-arm dnscrypt-proxy
• Go to the renamed directory.
  cd dnscrypt-proxy
• Create a copy of the configuration file.
  sudo cp example-dnscrypt-proxy.toml dnscrypt-proxy.toml

Configure DNSCrypt

For DNSCrypt to work correctly alongside Pi-Hole we have to make some changes to the configuration file dnscrypt-proxy.toml.

Open  dnscrypt-proxy.toml by running the command
sudo nano dnscrypt-proxy.toml while still in /opt/dnscrypt-proxy.

• Change port, since 53 is already being used by Pi-Hole.
  This is the listen_addresses line.
  Change it to listen_addresses = ['127.0.0.1:54','[::1]:54']
• Change require_dnssec = false to require_dnssec = true
• Install the dnscrypt-proxy service.
  sudo ./dnscrypt-proxy -service install
• Start the dnscrypt-proxy service.
  sudo ./dnscrypt-proxy -service start
• Check the service status.
  sudo systemctl status dnscrypt-proxy

Feel free to change additional options inside the configuration file to suit your needs as I have done.

Pi-Hole

It is a network-wide ad blocker that protects your devices from unwanted content, without installing any client-side software.

Install

At the installation pick whatever upstream DNS server. We will modify it later on.

wget -O basic-install.sh https://install.pi-hole.net
sudo bash basic-install.sh

Take note of the login password once the installation is complete.

Configure Pi-Hole

Add the DNSCrypt Proxy server to Pi-Hole on the Pi-Hole admin page.

Configure your clients

Configure your clients to use your Pi-Hole IP address as the DNS server or enter it into your router so every client on your local network will be using Pi-Hole filtering while being DNSCrypt secured.