VPN and Umbrel on a Raspberry

Hello, I am new here and an absolute beginner when in comes to Bitcoin nodes. I believe that it is fun and exciting to run your own node. However I have a question. Is it possible to connect to a VPN server when Umbrel is installed on a Raspberry? I like to keep my personal IP-address hidden as much as possible and my data encrypted.

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Let’s play a bit of trivia.
Did you know that Umbrel nodes are running through Tor network?
What do you know about Tor network?
Do you know that can access in two different ways your Umbrel node? From LAN and WAN (Tor) ?

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Yes, I have read somewhere that the nodes are running via the Tor network. The Tor network is like an onion. So it’s harder to find the origin of the data. The accessibility over the WAN network might be a point of concern to my opinion. I don’t want my node accessible from the outside. I also wonder are there any vulnerabilities? I don’t want my node to be hacked and lose my coins.

Here, start reading the getting started guide with Umbrel

That is a good idea. Thanks!

How about if you don’t want your ISP to see that your on the Tor network? Everything I run Umbrel alongside a VPN it will timeout. I am trying to find a solution, anyone with some ideas would be greatly appreciated

So if I understand correctly, you’re saying that it’s safe to download torrents using Transmission on Umbrel without additional VPN, even though IP address matches the ISP’s (when testing with ipleak.net) ?
I understand that Tor is like having many vpn’s linked together, but I can’t help but being worried about this IP adress matter…

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It’s not safe. Umbrel needs a VPN. It currently does not have one.

Hi @rayvenj, just curious, what is your concern? I believe syncing over Tor/I2P is much better than using a VPN when it comes to privately syncing a bitcoin node.

How can I verify that Umbrel is running through Tor network?
When I ssh into Umbrel and execute “systemctl status tor” it says there’s no tor.service running. Shouldn’t it run through systemd?

Tor Browser webpage says:
“Please do not torrent over Tor.” (Tor Project | Download)
So I’d assume it’s not a good idea to use Tor for torrenting. I think it’s harmful for the network.

sudo docker ps | grep tor

which will show you the main tor container, app proxies and which port it’s running through

I am so surprised that there still isn’t a VPN routing option on Umbrel. I would love to see a settings interface or app added to Umbrel where you can select what apps you have installed get routed to the internet. For example everything is clear by default, but I want some apps to go over tor and have others go over a VPN service of my choice.

Perfect example is to a Transmission have it’s traffic routed to a external VPN to not send traffic in the clear.

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totally get it, hopefully soon- from what i understand it is a pretty painful implementation when tied together with docker, and then adding it to Umbrel’s UI.

for the moment, you can use SSH to install Wireguard or OpenVPN.

I am not using this particular machine for syncing a bitcoin node. It is for media only.