- There are four different ways to set up a VPN
for Chromebook.
I'm gonna walk you step-by-step through the process
using my Chromebook and explain the pros and cons
of each method.
Let's go.
(electronic beeping)
Welcome to All Things Secured, my name's Josh,
and I've got my Asus Chromebook here
that we're gonna get set up with the VPN today.
I've organized this video where I'll be showing you
the easiest method first
and then working my way down the list.
We'll start with the Android app, which is the best option
if you have a newer Chromebook.
Next is the Chrome browser extension,
which works for those with older Chromebooks.
But has limited functionality and only protects what you do
through the browser.
I'll show you the built-in L2TP IP set client for Chrome OS.
Which again is useful if your Chromebook is older,
doesn't support Android apps
and you want the entire internet connection protected.
And finally we'll cover the much less common Linux VPN setup
for those who have enabled Linux on their Chromebooks
and wanna protect that specific connection.
If you've got your Chromebook with you,
go ahead and open it up with me
and let's jump into method number one, the Android app.
If you're using a newer Chromebook,
more than likely you'll have access to Android apps
through the Google Play Store.
This is by far the easiest, fastest
and best way to set up a VPN on Chromebook.
So go ahead and open up that Google play store,
which you'll find on the bottom menu button.
And you can search for VPN.
There's gonna be hundreds of apps that come up
with that search.
Some of them will be good, some of them won't be so good.
If you want my recommendation,
go ahead and open up your Chrome browser
and type in vpnsetupguide.com.
That's an affiliate link that will lead you to Express VPN,
which is probably one of the most popular VPN services
on the market today.
And it does work really well with Chromebooks.
Once you've set up a subscription to this VPN,
whether it's Express VPN or whichever one you choose,
you're gonna find that app on the Google Play Store.
You can either search for it
or usually there's setup guides, we'll have a link to it.
And you're gonna install that
directly onto your Chromebook.
Right, now that we've installed the VPN app,
let's go ahead and open it up and sign in.
(keyboard clicking)
The VPN will usually request that you set up
a VPN configuration.
All you have to do is press okay
and now you're set up and ready to go.
There are a couple of very good reasons
to use a VPN Android app on your Chromebook.
The first is that it encrypts your entire connection,
not just what's on your browser.
The second is that you've got a lot more options
in the settings.
So for example here in Express VPN,
I can change the protocol between lightway,
which is kind of like wire guard and OpenVPN.
You can do split tunneling,
which allows you to send some traffic.
Like let's say your Netflix app through the VPN,
so you can watch a different library of movies and shows.
And then everything else just goes straight to the internet
without being encrypted on the VPN, that's split tunneling.
These types of settings,
won't be available to you in any of the other options
that I'm about to show you when it comes to setting up a VPN
on your Chromebook.
You can see that I'm now connected to the VPN server,
which means that everything I do on my Chromebook now,
whether that's through the app or through the Chrome browser
is encrypted and sent through that VPN server.
And I can even take and close this out
and it will remain connected.
You can see here on the bottom that the VPN is on
and I can even go in here and click on disconnect
and it will disconnect to that Express VPN connection.
At this point after disconnecting,
if you wanna reconnect to your VPN,
you can just click on VPN,
find the name of the VPN that you downloaded.
Click that plus arrow and it will bring you back to the app
that will allow you to then connect.
Choose whatever server you want
and get back on that VPN connection.
If your Chromebook doesn't allow for Android apps,
or if you'd rather just do everything
through the Chrome browser,
your next best option here is extensions.
So I would go here into more tools and find extensions.
And you're gonna see which extensions
are currently installed on the Chrome browser.
I'm gonna click here on the left
and look for open Chrome Web Store.
You can also just search on Google for Chrome Web Store.
What you wanna find here are extensions.
And in this case, I'm gonna show you the Nord VPN extension.
Since I prefer that one,
when it comes to Chrome extensions on the Chromebook.
So you search for Nord VPN
and you're going to install that Chrome extension.
(keyboard clicking)
Now that the Chrome extension is installed,
you can click here on the upper right.
And it's going to allow you to log in with your account.
So I'm gonna log in now.
Now that I'm logged in,
it's really just as simple as clicking quick connect.
You can search for a specific country
if you'd rather connect somewhere else in the world.
Or you can go up here,
and every VPN is gonna add settings.
And different settings here in Nord VPN,
you can see the ones that they offer
are things like CyberSec, which blocks ads and malware.
And then a Bypass List,
which is essentially the split tunneling
I was telling you about earlier.
No matter which VPN you use,
they're all gonna be located up here on the right
and you can pin it if you'd like to.
So that any time you connect to your Chrome browser,
you can make sure that you're connected to a VPN
of your choosing and so that everything from that point on
in Chrome will be encrypted.
Again, If your Chromebook doesn't allow for Android apps
and you don't wanna use a Chrome extension.
Because you'd still like to encrypt the entire connection
for your Chromebook,
the next best option is a manual native setup
of the OpenVPN L2TP protocol.
You can find that on the bottom right settings here
and click on VPN.
You're gonna see OpenVPN L2TP, click on that plus arrow.
And they're gonna have three options for you.
Two different L2TP connections and one OpenVPN.
But I wanna let you know right now ahead of time,
that as much as I'd like to help you set up
an OpenVPN connection, most services,
most VPN services that you're using, won't allow for that.
And the reason is they're gonna give you a .OVPN file
to download and upload.
But Chromebook doesn't accept those.
They want you to set up a certificate.
They wanna give all of these information.
So unless you have an IT person helping you set up
your OpenVPN protocol,
it's probably not going to work between your Chromebook
and most commercial VPNs.
In that case, you're gonna wanna choose the L2TP
with a pre-shared key.
And this isn't the most secure way
to connect to a VPN, I'll admit.
A pre-shared key is generally thought to be unsecure.
However, if this is your only option, it's your only option.
So I'm gonna show you how to set up this L2TP
with my Express VPN account.
If I go in, I'm gonna be looking for
the manual configuration.
And under that manual configuration, I'm looking for L2TP.
Some VPNs,
don't offer L2TP
just because it isn't the most secure way to connect.
Thankfully Express VPN does.
So I'm going to use this username,
I'm gonna go back in and set up that L2TP connection.
I can choose whatever server I want.
So let's say I copy this,
New York server.
So I'm gonna paste that in the host name.
I'm just gonna call this Express VPN New York.
It's not gonna be an OpenVPN connection.
It's going to be the pre-shared key.
And then I'm gonna copy this username,
paste it here.
Copy the password, paste it here.
And then the group name if I remember right. (whistles)
Excuse me, the pre shared key
one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
Yup. That's super secure.
And then click connect.
Now, the way that you're gonna know that,
that VPN is connected is if you go back
into that VPN setting and you'll see it says connected.
So you can disconnect from that easily.
And then you can reconnect just by clicking on that.
So it's easy to set up multiple server locations
all around the world, if you want.
And then choose and connect to the ones
that you wanna connect to just here on your settings,
native within the Chromebook.
Now mind you, you have no control over any settings
when you use this way of setting up a VPN on Chromebook.
You can't change, you can't do split tunneling,
you can't change your protocol, It is set as it is.
So the only thing you'll be able to change
are the server locations here on the VPN settings.
All right, this final option is for those of you
that have set up the Linux app on your Chromebook.
I wanna make sure you understand everything that we've done
prior to this, the Android app, the extension,
the manual setup.
Those VPN connections do not cover anything that you do
on your Linux app.
And likewise, any VPN setup you do on your Linux app
will not cover anything else on your Chromebook.
These are two very separate VPN connections.
So if you're using Linux and you wanna set up a VPN,
you're gonna have to do this.
It's honestly beyond the scope of this video,
just because there are a number of different ways
that you can do it.
There are VPN apps for Linux.
Most is done via command line though.
And so if you know Linux, you should be able to set it up.
You can see that I've done that here with Nord VPN.
However, if you don't use Linux
or if you're not sure exactly what I'm talking about.
You completely disregard this,
use one of the other three options
that I've already shared with you
to set up a VPN for your Chromebook.
Well congratulations on connecting your Chromebook to a VPN.
If you have any questions whatsoever,
leave them in the comments below this video.
I'll do my best to respond.
Now that you're up and running with the VPN.
Be sure to watch some of my other privacy related videos
that will help you secure your Facebook account,
your passwords and other important aspects
of your online life.
Stay safe.