How to set up and use ExpressVPN application for Raspberry Pi

1. Download the installer for the Raspberry Pi version

Open the welcome email you received when you signed up for ExpressVPN. Click the link in the email.

If you can't find the link, please login to your account here.

Once you have clicked on the link in the welcome email or logged into the website, select Set Up ExpressVPN on the Active Subscriptions page . This will take you to the Downloads page .

Click on Linux on the left side of the screen and download the 32-bit Raspbian installer to your machine.

Copy the activation code. You will need to make it available after activating the app. To copy, click the copy info icon in the top right corner of the box.

2. Install the application

To install ExpressVPN for Linux using the command line for Raspbian:

Navigate to the directory where you downloaded the installer file. For example:

cd ~/Downloads/

Once inside the directory, run one of the following commands, depending on your distribution:

sudo dpkg -i expressvpn_1.2.0_armhf.deb

To activate the application, open a new Terminal. Run the following command:

expressvpn activate

… And paste the activation code from the Downloads page .

You can help by sharing anonymous information! Enter Y to accept or N to decline.

3. Connect to the server location

In Terminal, run the following command:

expressvpn connect

ExpressVPN will connect to the server that you connected to earlier.

If you have not connected to the server before, ExpressVPN will connect to a suggested location, called Smart Location , for you.

4. Disconnect from the server location

To disconnect from the server location, run the following command:

expressvpn disconnect

ExpressVPN will disconnect from the server location it is currently connected to.

5. Connect to another server location

To find a list of suggested locations to connect to, enter the following command in Terminal:

expressvpn list

By default, ExpressVPN will suggest the location that gives you the best experience, called Smart Location, at the top of the list.

Connect to a specific server location

To connect to a specific server location, type:

expressvpn connect [LOCATION]

Or:

expressvpn connect [ALIAS]

For example, to connect to the Santa Clara US server, type:

expressvpn connect "USA - Santa Clara"

Or:

expressvpn connect ussc

Connect to a specific country

To connect to a specific country, type:

expressvpn connect [COUNTRY]

For example, to connect to a server location in Germany, type:

expressvpn connect Germany

Connect with Smart Location

To connect to Smart Location, enter:

expressvpn connect

6. Switch to a different VPN protocol

VPN protocols are the methods by which the device connects to the VPN server. Switching to another protocol can help you achieve faster connection speeds.

ExpressVPN Linux client uses OpenVPN in the background. In OpenVPN, you can switch between TCP or UDP protocols. By default, ExpressVPN will automatically choose the best protocol for you.

To switch to TCP, run the following command:

expressvpn protocol tcp

To switch to UDP, run the following command:

expressvpn protocol udp

If you want ExpressVPN to automatically choose the optimal protocol, enter:

expressvpn protocol auto

7. Open the guide

To see the complete list of application functions, run the following command:

man expressvpn

8. Use the auto-complete feature

When entering commands, you can get a list of all functions by double clicking the Tab key .

For example, type:

expressvpn protocol

. and then double clicking the Tab key will list the available protocol options.

9. Uninstall the application

To uninstall the ExpressVPN application, run the following command:

sudo dpkg -r expressvpn

10. Troubleshooting installation

If you see the error message ' Cannot connect to expressvpn daemon ' ( Cannot connect to the expressvpn daemon ), enter the following command to restart ExpressVPN:

sudo service expressvpn restart

Kareem Winters

Update 25 September 2020