Lantern VPN on Linux

Lantern is an open source VPN. I couldn't find much info on how to install and use so I figured I'd share my notes for Linux:

1. Download the installer

2. Install: sudo dpkg -i lantern-installer-64-bit.deb

3. Run by simply typing: lantern

4. A browser window will open and your local lantern proxy server will connect to the fastest VPN server automatically

5. In the top-right corner, click on the avatar icon and choose "Settings"

6. Click on "Show Advanced Settings"

7. Check or uncheck desired settings. For example I disabled Lantern running on operating system boot, sending usage metadata to their organization, and showing ads. In addition, Lantern by default runs in split-tunnel mode but I want full-tunnel coverage so I chose "Proxy all traffic":

Make a note of the HTTP(S) proxy port number (38073 in the example above)

8. Now that we have a local proxy running, we need to tell our browser to use it. Open your browser settings and search for "proxy"

9. Open your network proxy settings page and select "Manual proxy configuration" and enter "127.0.0.1" into the "HTTPS Proxy" textbox and enter the port number from Step 7 above:

10. Click "OK" to save and close the proxy settings, then browse to https://whatismyipaddress.com/ to verify your traffic is routed through a remote VPN server.

11. When you're done browsing or don't need the VPN server, go to the local proxy server admin page and click the "ON" button (with the green dot next to it) to turn it OFF.