How to choose, use and configure a VPN in Endian Firewall (Guide)

Choosing the Right VPN for Endian Firewall

Endian Firewall is not your everyday desktop distro: it’s a hardened network appliance built atop a CentOS/RHEL base, managed primarily through its web UI or SSH. It employs yum/dnf as its package manager, and there’s typically no Xfce or GNOME running locally. Administrators—often sysadmins at SMBs or branch offices—rely on CLI tools and the HTML5 interface to configure services, so the ideal VPN must:

Offer OpenVPN or IPsec profiles you can deploy via CLI or import through the web UI module.
Provide robust Linux support, with ready-made configuration bundles.
Work reliably without requiring a desktop environment or proprietary GUI.

Based on those criteria, the clear frontrunners are:

NordVPN – Extensive server network, custom Linux scripts, and official OpenVPN config files.
ProtonVPN – Open-source client, strong security, and straightforward OpenVPN bundles.
Mullvad – Privacy-focused, offers both OpenVPN and WireGuard config archives are easy to drop into /etc/openvpn.

Comparison of Top VPN Services for Endian Firewall

Provider	Protocol Support	Linux/CLI Tools	Configuration Delivery	Key Notes
NordVPN	OpenVPN, IKEv2, WireGuard	nordvpn CLI, manual OpenVPN	ZIP of .ovpn files per region	Huge server count, auto-connect scripts
ProtonVPN	OpenVPN, WireGuard	protonvpn-cli, manual	OpenVPN archive systemd unit examples	High privacy, open-source client
Mullvad	OpenVPN, WireGuard	mullvad CLI, config archives	Tarball of .conf / .ovpn files	No-account model, port forwarding

How to Install and Configure on Endian Firewall

1. NordVPN via OpenVPN

NordVPN doesn’t have a native Endian plugin, but you can deploy its OpenVPN configs easily.

Upload the ZIP of .ovpn profiles to your Endian box via SCP.
Extract into /etc/openvpn/client/. Then enable the client in the web UI under “Services gt OpenVPN gt Client”.

Example CLI steps:

# Install OpenVPN if not present
yum install -y openvpn unzip

# Upload nord.zip to /root/, then:
cd /etc/openvpn/client/
unzip /root/nord.zip

# Adjust permissions
chown -R root:root /etc/openvpn/client

# Start the chosen config
openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client/us123.nordvpn.com.udp.ovpn

2. ProtonVPN with protonvpn-cli

ProtonVPN offers a CLI tool that simplifies connection management. You’ll need Python and pip installed.

Install the ProtonVPN client on Endian via pip (in a Python 3.6 environment).
Authenticate and connect, then route traffic through the tunnel device.

# Ensure Python 3 and pip are installed
yum install -y python3 python3-pip

# Install ProtonVPN CLI
pip3 install protonvpn-cli

# Initialize (follow prompts to log in)
protonvpn-cli init

# Connect to the fastest server
protonvpn-cli c -f

# Verify interface
ip addr show tun0

3. Mullvad via OpenVPN

Mullvad’s tarball makes deployment straightforward on a headless appliance.

Download the OpenVPN config tarball from the Mullvad website.
Extract into the OpenVPN client directory and set your account number in the .ovpn files.

# Install dependencies
yum install -y openvpn tar

# Move archive and extract
mv mullvad_configs.tar.gz /etc/openvpn/client/
cd /etc/openvpn/client/
tar xzf mullvad_configs.tar.gz

# Insert your Mullvad account ID into each .ovpn (example for us)
sed -i sYOUR_MULLVAD_ID us.conf

# Start desired connection
openvpn --config /etc/openvpn/client/us.conf

Once the VPN tunnel is established, return to the Endian web UI and ensure your LAN-to-WAN rules reference the new tun interface. That’s all it takes to secure traffic for even the most stringent enterprise scenarios.

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