Protonvpn Openvpn

ProtonVPN OpenVPN Skill

Manage ProtonVPN OpenVPN connections for privacy, geo-testing, and IP rotation workflows.

When to Use

Use this skill when:

• Connecting to a specific ProtonVPN country server
• Disconnecting from VPN
• Checking current VPN status and IP location
• Rotating through available VPN configs for IP diversity
• Testing geo-dependent features or bypassing regional blocks

Prerequisites

• OpenVPN installed (openvpn binary in PATH)
• ProtonVPN config files in /etc/openvpn/client/
• Auth credentials file at /etc/openvpn/client/auth.txt (chmod 600)
• Passwordless sudo for openvpn and kill commands (recommended)

Available Configs

Commands

Connect

sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client/.protonvpn.udp.ovpn --daemon --log-append /tmp/openvpn.log --writepid /tmp/openvpn.pid

Wait 5 seconds for connection, then verify:

sleep 5 && curl -s --max-time 10 https://ipinfo.io/json | jq -r '"\(.country) | \(.city), \(.region) | \(.ip) | \(.org)"'

Disconnect

sudo kill $(cat /tmp/openvpn.pid 2>/dev/null) 2>/dev/null || sudo killall openvpn

Status

# Check if tun0 exists
ip addr show tun0 2>/dev/null && echo "VPN interface: UP" || echo "VPN interface: DOWN"

# Check current IP/location
curl -s --max-time 10 https://ipinfo.io/json | jq -r '"\(.country) | \(.city), \(.region) | \(.ip) | \(.org)"' 2>/dev/null || echo "No VPN connection"

Rotate

Disconnect current, then connect to next config in rotation:

# 1. Disconnect
sudo kill $(cat /tmp/openvpn.pid 2>/dev/null) 2>/dev/null; sleep 2

# 2. Pick next config (cycle through: us → se → nl → cz → in → us)
# Use a state file to track current position: /tmp/vpn-rotation-state

# 3. Connect to next
sudo openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client/.protonvpn.udp.ovpn --daemon --log-append /tmp/openvpn.log --writepid /tmp/openvpn.pid
sleep 5

# 4. Verify
curl -s --max-time 10 https://ipinfo.io/json | jq -r '"\(.country) | \(.city), \(.region) | \(.ip) | \(.org)"'

Output Parsing

Error Handling

• If connection fails: check /tmp/openvpn.log for auth errors or TLS handshake failures
• If ipinfo.io returns wrong country: DNS leak — check resolv.conf
• If tun0 doesn't appear: OpenVPN daemon crashed — check logs

Security Notes

• Credentials file must be chmod 600
• Config files must reference auth-user-pass /etc/openvpn/client/auth.txt
• Never commit credentials to Git
• Use --daemon for background operation; use --writepid for clean shutdown

Workflows

Geo-Testing

# Connect to target country
vpn-connect us
# Run tests
# ...
# Disconnect
vpn-disconnect

IP Rotation (Scraping)

# Rotate every N requests
vpn-rotate
# Make requests
# ...

Privacy Mode

# Connect and stay connected
vpn-connect nl
# All traffic now routed through Netherlands