Disclaimer: Installation and use of any software made by third party developers is at your own discretion and liability. We share our best practices with third party software but do not provide customer support for them.
- Click the Unity menu icon
- Search for "terminal"
- Launch the Terminal application
- On some distributions, you may need to run the following command before running the install script:
sudo apt-get install curl network-manager-openvpn-gnome - Enter the following command in the terminal window:
wget https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/installer/pia-nm.sh
tip: Press Ctrl+Shift+V to paste into the terminal. - Enter the second and last command:
sudo bash pia-nm.sh
- If you are prompted for your password, simply enter the password you use when you log into your computer. No stars or any character will appear: this is normal and just a security feature of the Terminal.
- The installer will ask you for your username as well as your connection method.
Simply enter your username as indicated. The next two questions are optional and you can simply press the Enter key to skip them and use the defaults.
- That's it! You can now connect to PIA using the VPN Connections menu of the networking (arrows or WiFi icon) menu.
EASY Setup Guides for Alternate Configurations (Advanced):
PPTP/L2TP/SOCKS Security
The PPTP/L2TP/SOCKS5 protocols are provided for devices lacking compatibility with the Private Internet Access application or OpenVPN protocol. PPTP/L2TP/SOCKS5 should be used for masking one's IP address, censorship circumvention, and geolocation.
If you need encryption, please use the Private Internet Application or OpenVPN protocol with our service.
- Windows OpenVPN Setup
- macOS OpenVPN Setup
- macOS Viscosity Setup
- Ubuntu OpenVPN Setup
- Fedora OpenVPN Setup
- Robolinux 7.5.3 OpenVPN Setup
- iOS (iPad/iPhone/iTouch) OpenVPN Setup
- Android 4.0+ OpenVPN Setup
- DD-WRT OpenVPN Setup
- DD-WRT OpenVPN (Older Builds)
- Tomato OpenVPN Setup
- PfSense OpenVPN Setup
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OpenVPN Configuration Files (Recommended Default)
OpenVPN Configuration Files (Strong)
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Although quite different from a VPN, we provide a SOCKS5 Proxy with all accounts in the event users require this feature.
SOCKS5 Proxy Usage Guides
proxy-nl.privateinternetaccess.com port 1080
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Enable port forwarding in the application by entering the Advanced area, enabling port forwarding and selecting one of the following gateways:
CA Toronto
CA Montreal
CA Vancouver
Netherlands
Sweden
Switzerland
France
Germany
Romania
Israel
After enabling port forwarding and re-connecting to one of the above gateways, please hover your mouse over the System Tray or Menu Bar icon to reveal the tooltip which will display the port number. You can then enter this port into your software.
Port Forwarding reduces privacy. For maximum privacy, please keep port forwarding disabled.
IPv6 leak protection disables IPv6 traffic while on the VPN. This ensures that no IPv6 traffic leaks out over your normal internet connection when you are connected to the VPN. This includes 6to4 and Teredo tunneled IPv6 traffic.
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The dns leak protection feature activates VPN dns leak protection. This ensures that DNS requests are routed through the VPN. This enables the greatest level of privacy and security but may cause connectivity issues in non-standard network configurations.
This can be enabled and disabled in the Windows application, while it is enabled by default on our macOS application.
We use our own private DNS servers for your DNS queries while on the VPN. After connecting we set your operating system's DNS servers to 209.222.18.222 and 209.222.18.218. When using a DNS Leak testing site you should expect to see your DNS requests originate from the IP of the VPN gateway you are connected to.
If you change your DNS servers manually or if for some other reason they are changed this does not necessarily mean your DNS is leaking. Even if you use different DNS servers the queries will still be routed through the VPN connection and will be anonymous.
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The internet kill switch activates VPN disconnect protection. If you disconnect from the VPN, your internet access will stop working. It will reactivate normal internet access when you deactivate the kill switch mode or exit the application.
Users who may be connected to two connections simultaneously (ex.: wired and wireless) should not use this feature, as it will only stop 1 active connection type.
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United States (US VPN)
us-california.privateinternetaccess.com
us-east.privateinternetaccess.com
us-midwest.privateinternetaccess.com
us-chicago.privateinternetaccess.com
us-texas.privateinternetaccess.com
us-florida.privateinternetaccess.com
us-seattle.privateinternetaccess.com
us-west.privateinternetaccess.com
us-siliconvalley.privateinternetaccess.com
us-newyorkcity.privateinternetaccess.com
us-atlanta.privateinternetaccess.com
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United Kingdom (GB VPN)
uk-london.privateinternetaccess.com
uk-southampton.privateinternetaccess.com
uk-manchester.privateinternetaccess.com
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Canada (CA VPN)
ca-toronto.privateinternetaccess.com
ca.privateinternetaccess.com
ca-vancouver.privateinternetaccess.com
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Australia (AU VPN)
aus.privateinternetaccess.com
aus-melbourne.privateinternetaccess.com
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New Zealand (NZ VPN)
nz.privateinternetaccess.com
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Netherlands (NL VPN)
nl.privateinternetaccess.com
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Sweden (SE VPN)
sweden.privateinternetaccess.com
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Norway (NO VPN)
no.privateinternetaccess.com
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Denmark (DK VPN)
denmark.privateinternetaccess.com
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Finland (FI VPN)
fi.privateinternetaccess.com
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Switzerland (CH VPN)
swiss.privateinternetaccess.com
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France (FR VPN)
france.privateinternetaccess.com
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Germany (DE VPN)
germany.privateinternetaccess.com
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Belgium (BE VPN)
belgium.privateinternetaccess.com
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Austria (AT VPN)
austria.privateinternetaccess.com
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Ireland (IE VPN)
ireland.privateinternetaccess.com
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Italy (IT VPN)
italy.privateinternetaccess.com
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Spain (ES VPN)
spain.privateinternetaccess.com
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Romania (RO VPN)
ro.privateinternetaccess.com
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Turkey (TR VPN)
turkey.privateinternetaccess.com
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South Korea (KR VPN)
kr.privateinternetaccess.com
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Hong Kong (HK VPN)
hk.privateinternetaccess.com
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Singapore (SG VPN)
sg.privateinternetaccess.com
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Japan (JP VPN)
japan.privateinternetaccess.com
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Israel (IL VPN)
israel.privateinternetaccess.com
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Mexico (MX VPN)
mexico.privateinternetaccess.com
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Brazil (BR VPN)
brazil.privateinternetaccess.com
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India (IN VPN)
in.privateinternetaccess.com