Protonvpn Openvpn

Manage ProtonVPN OpenVPN connections — connect, disconnect, rotate, check status

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

Config File	Country	Code
us.protonvpn.udp.ovpn	United States	us
se.protonvpn.udp.ovpn	Sweden	se
nl.protonvpn.udp.ovpn	Netherlands	nl
cz.protonvpn.udp.ovpn	Czech Republic	cz
in.protonvpn.udp.ovpn	India (routes via Singapore)	in

Commands

Connect

bash

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

Wait 5 seconds for connection, then verify:

bash

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

Disconnect

bash

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

Status

bash

# 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:

bash

# 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/<next>.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

Field	Source	Example
Country	ipinfo.io .country	US, SE, NL
City	ipinfo.io .city	Los Angeles, Stockholm
IP	ipinfo.io .ip	193.37.254.69
Provider	ipinfo.io .org	M247 Ltd
Interface	ip addr show tun0	tun0: <POINTOPOINT...>

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

bash

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

IP Rotation (Scraping)

bash

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

Privacy Mode

bash

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