How To Set Up A Helium Miner

In this article, we'll detail how to connect a Helium miner on an LTE network with a VPN.

Helium miners have been all the rage lately, and one of the benefits is that they can exist placed almost anywhere as long every bit it has admission to cyberspace and electricity.

What is the Helium Network?

Helium is a decentralized wireless network congenital upward past multiple low-power smart devices (IoT) working together in society to transmit and receive data over a large area. Unlike Wi-Fi however, the range of a Helium hotspot can be several kilometers, and it transmits much less data than a traditional Wi-Fi network.

Coverage providers (that is, the companies or private citizens) that run the Helium hotspots are known as "miners" and miners can buy Helium hotspots to provide coverage for the Helium network and in return exist paid Helium tokens (HNT). The amount of HNT coverage providers are paid depend on various factors such every bit the number of other Helium hotspots located in the aforementioned area (more is better! Up to a signal).

What is the Helium Network used for?

The Helium network allows any compatible IoT device to connect to Helium hotspots without having to use a cellular network or Wi-Fi to transmit its data. This allows products such equally smart pet collars to keep rail of the location and health of your pet without having to connect it to a Wi-Fi or a mobile network.

How practice I configure my Helium Hotspot with a VPN?

If you want to configure your Helium Hotspot with a VPN, the first matter yous need is a compatible VPN router that also supports port forwarding. Examples of such routers are Vilfo and GL-inet.

In this guide, we'll be detailing how to do information technology on a GL-inet router.

Configure a Helium Hotspot on a GL-inet router

There are two ways to configure your Helium hotspot with OVPN, either with OpenVPN or WireGuard. Which i yous choose is upwardly to you lot. In this guide we'll be detailing how to do it in WireGuard as WireGuard offers better speed and lower latency than OpenVPN which is perfect for routers.

1. Download the configuration file

First you'll want to download the configuration file for OVPN. But earlier you practice that, make sure that you have purchased a subscription with OVPN also equally the Public IPv4 add-on equally both volition be needed to connect your Helium Hotspot to a VPN.

Once purchased, you volition want to make sure that your Public IPv4 addition is using WireGuard. To do that, go to the OVPN dashboard and click onOpen settings netherPublic IPv4. Then, click onChange next toProtocol and selectWireGuard in the new drop-down, followed byUpdate.

Next, you will desire to download a WireGuard configuration file which will be used to connect to the VPN. For that yous want to navigate to WireGuard® ->  Configuration Files:

On the configuration folio, first click onPublic IPv4, then onGenerate WireGuard keys, and finallyDownload.

ii. Configure WireGuard

The next footstep is setting up the WireGuard configuration in your GL-inet router. For that, you lot will want to log in to your router'south browser interface.

In your browser, enter192.168.8.1 into the URL field and click on OK. If the folio fails to load, it'south possible you are either not connected to the network created by the GL-inet router, or your router is using a dissimilar IP accost. In that instance, check the back of your router to see which IP accost it is using, or enter the IP address you gave the router if you have inverse it yourself.

Log in with your router username and password. The default username and password for your router should be included either on the backside of your router or in the router documentation, only it is strongly recommended that you fix your own username and countersign to forbid unauthorized access to the router.

Once yous have logged in, yous should be presented with the router user interface.

From here, you volition want to navigate toVPN -> WireGuard Client from the left carte where you volition exist presented wit ha new page.

Click on+Set up WireGuard Manually and and so onConfiguration. Next, you will desire to open the configuration file yous downloaded in the previous step. You lot can open the configuration file in any text editor on your computer such equally Notepad or Give-and-take. Copy the contents of your configuration file into the text field:

One time you've pasted the contents of the configuration file into the text field, click onNext, where yous volition be asked to name your VPN connexion. Nosotros've named it OVPN but you lot're costless to enter your own name.

You're almost done at present! Adjacent you lot'll want to start the connection. Simply click onConnect and you're good to go. If the connection successfully started you'll run across something like this:

Configuring the ports for your Helium Hotspot

Adjacent, you will demand to set a static IP adress for your Helium hotspot on your network. This will prevent your device's IP address from changing, thus losing the port rules yous've ready up.

Setting a static IP accost for your Helium hotspot

First, open the Helium app and open the Diagnostics tool and make note of your hospot's MAC address, yous will need it soon.

Next, navigate to More Settings → LAN IP in the carte du jour to the left.

Nether Static IP Accost Binding, select the MAC address of your Helium hotspot from the drop-downwards listing and click Add together. One time done, restart your Helium hotspot.

The final step is to forrad port 44158 from the VPN connection and transport it to your Helium hotspot.

Forwarding ports for your Helium hotspot

Navigate to Firewall → Port Frontwards

Enter the following information:

Name: Helium
Protocol: TCP
Internal IP: The IP your Helium hotspot was assigned in the previous step
External Zone: WireGuard
External Ports: 44158
Internal Zone: lan
Internal ports: 44158

Click onAdd

Information technology should now look something like this:

And you're done! Your Helium hotspot is now configured with a static IP address behind a VPN.

Source: https://www.ovpn.com/en/blog/how-to-configure-a-helium-hotspot-with-a-vpn

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