I love having a PiVPN setup in my home network. It allows me to VPN anytime I need to without open ports or using tailscale, or other, solutions...

However I only use the box once a week, or so... I'd love to leave it OFF most of the time and only boot it when needed. How might YOU do this?

The best idea I have is to get some smart plug and connect it to my Home Assistant setup - this would allow me to 'boot' the PiVPN any time my home network is online... or, the functionality would only be down if the internet was down - which would mean I couldn't use the PiVPN anyway, so...

Are there other solutions?? I guess I could do similar, somehow, with POE - but





















































































































































































































































haven't thought that thru too much, either.

Any ideas I'm not immediately thinking of?



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Re: PiVPN ... how to boot on demand?
By: paulie420 to All on Mon Dec 04 2023 09:44 pm

I love having a PiVPN setup in my home network. It allows me to VPN anytime I need to without open ports or using tailscale, or other, solutions...

However I only use the box once a week, or so... I'd love to leave it OFF most of the time and only boot it when needed. How might YOU do this?

How come? (IE: Why dont you leave it on... Pi shouldnt consume that much power,










































































































































































































































etc...)

The best idea I have is to get some smart plug and connect it to my Home Assistant setup - this would allow me to 'boot' the PiVPN any time my home network is online... or, the functionality would only be down if the internet was down - which would mean I couldn't use the PiVPN anyway, so...

This was the route I was thinking...



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How come? (IE: Why dont you leave it on... Pi shouldnt consume that much power, etc...)

I have a few Pi's that *have* been is use for years - one for I think closing in on 5 years straight... and thats all good and dandy, but I only use the PiVPN like once a month; or just whenever I stay at my GFs house or am out of town - just thought it would be better if I could only boot it when those times









































































































































































































































happen.

The best idea I have is to get some smart plug and connect it to my Hom Assistant setup

This was the route I was thinking...

Yea - I went for an old Home Depot branded one and guess what; they dropped support and left the device unusable!! :P LOL... I'll have to shop for another.



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However I only use the box once a week, or so... I'd love to leave it OFF of the time and only boot it when needed. How might YOU do this?

How about using zones with a HA controlled power socket? Once you leave the house (possible for like X minutes), the pi is booted so you can use VPN. Or, once you are at your gf's house (in that HA zone), you boot the pi :)

cheers,

dozo

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How about using zones with a HA controlled power socket? Once you leave the house (possible for like X minutes), the pi is booted so you can use VPN. Or, once you are at your gf's house (in that HA zone), you boot the pi :)

Ahhh - thats a nice one; I can boot with zones whenever I'm at the GFs (or other locations) house, and use an event to trigger anytime I'm not in a zone.

Now just to grab a new smart-plug - the couple I had laying around were older Home Depot offerings in which the company went away and can you believe they didn't even leave the functionality!?!? ... actually, I didn't search HA - maybe theres a way to use them STILL.



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Ahhh - thats a nice one; I can boot with zones whenever I'm at the GFs (or other locations) house, and use an event to trigger anytime I'm not in a z

I must admit that for me, it's theoretical at the moment. I haven't been tinkering with HA that much. I recently started using it again since, well, I seem to have left the RPi's unattended and somehow they multiplied... Also, I have now have Ikea stuff too in our new house (besides the Hue stuff we already





































































































































































































































have since ages), so a bit of home automation adds a lot.

Now just to grab a new smart-plug - the couple I had laying around were ol Home Depot offerings in which the company went away and can you believe th didn't even leave the functionality!?!? ... actually, I didn't search HA - maybe theres a way to use them STILL.

I use the ones from Homewizard.com myself. They're not cheap, but feel solid and can measure power usage as well. I noticed (ofc after I bought those) that Athom plugs tend to be a lot cheaper. Must say that my purchasing decisions are





































































































































































































































largely based on 'what do I have already', and I already own a p1 and kWh meter





































































































































































































































from Homewizard.

Let me know how it goes!

cu

dozo

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