In this tutorial we will teach you how to establish a connection between a mobile device, PC or laptop and a VPN server using WireGuard UI. The process is really straightforward - you just need to follow these basic steps.
As a side note, it is important to remember that your provider should have given you your initial user profile, meaning that it will already be created for you when you open your server’s control panel.
Log into your WireGuard VPN Server
If you would like to connect an additional device or perform any changes to your VPN server, then you would need to log into the server control panel. Open up your web browser and paste in your server’s IP address and portand hit ‘Enter’.
If a warning screen appears, do not panic – it is completely normal as your operating system does not recognizne the VPN server page you are trying to reach as a trusted source. To continue forwards click on the ‘Advanced’ button:
Next, select ‘Proceed to...’:
This will now take you to the login page. Simply input your username and password into the corresponding fields and click on the ‘Sign In’ button. You could as well tick the ‘Remember Me’ option, if you would like to stay logged in.
Navigating the control panel
Once you have successfully entered your credentials, you will arrive at the WireGuard UI control panel. This is the place from which you can manage your server by tweaking its settings, creating new user profiles and connecting additional devices. Generally speaking there are currently 2 ways to connect a device regardless of its type - by scanning a QR code or by uploading a unique pre-generated tunnel configuration file to your user client. Let’s go over both methods in more detail.
Connecting a mobile device - iOS, Android, Windows, Symbian & Others
In order to connect your mobile device to your server, you need to download the WireGuard user client from the app store first. Just open the application store that your mobile’s operating system supports, search for ‘WireGuard’ and click on the install button.
Once you have downloaded and set up the WireGuard app, simply open it and tap on the ‘+’ button, located at the bottom right of the screen.
Following that, a menu will pop up on the bottom of your screen, prompting you to choose 1 of 3 options - importing a file, scanning a code or setting up everything from scratch.
Option 1: Scanning a QR code
Simply tap on the ‘Scan from QR Code’ button and your camera should automatically load with the screen being ready to find a QR code.
Next, navigate back to the VPN server client in which you have previously logged in and from the the buttons, located on top of the user profile that you want to choose, select ‘Scan’.
You will now be presented with a unique, pre-generated QR code, which you need to scan using your mobile device. Simply keep your camera focused on the code for a couple of seconds and the user client will automatically detect the VPN tunnel.
Once successfully recognized, the app will prompt you to name the tunnel. Name it however you like and once finished, simply click on the ‘Create tunnel’ button and your connection will be established.
Then, in order to connect to or disconnect from your VPN server, all you have to do is to just tap the slider button like shown in the image below.
When connected to the VPN server a key icon will appear inside of the status bar of your device, letting you know that you are successfully using a VPN connection.
Option 2: Uploading a configuration file
If your mobile device happens to have a damaged or completely unusable camera, making it unable to properly scan the provided QR code, you will need to connect to the VPN server by uploading your user profile manually.
As we mentioned previously, you should have this profile given to you by your provider.
However, if you have already created a new user profile from your control panel, you can also use that as well. Then rather than tapping on ‘Scan’, select ‘Download’ and the profile will be automatically downloaded onto your mobile device.
To manually insert the user profile file, open your WireGuard user client, which you have already downloaded from the app store, and click on the ‘Import from file or archive’ button.
A menu will open that will present you with the different folder directories and files stored on your device. From here, you will need to navigate to the folder, where your downloaded file is stored, which will in most cases be - ‘Downloads’.
Afterwards, select the configuration file that you have downloaded and tap ‘open’ in the top right of the screen as illustrated in the following image:
That’s it! You are now connected. You can switch your device’s VPN connection on and off by using the toggle button. Also, be sure to look out for the key icon inside of your status bar, which will appear as a signal to let you know that you are safely connected to the dedicated VPN server, as illustrated in the image below.
Connecting a PC or Laptop
In order to connect a device that is not capable of scanning a QR code, you will need to manually upload the VPN server configuration file into your user client (just like you would do with a damaged-camera mobile or any other device that cannot scan a code).
Similarly to how you have to download the WireGuard user client for mobile, you need to do the same for your PC or laptop. However, rather than going to the app store, you need to visit WireGuard’s website by searching for ‘WireGuard client’ inside of your preferred search engine or alternatively using the following page to quickly download the WireGuard client.
Once you are on the page, search for your PC/laptop’s operating system and download the correct client version.
When it has finished downloading, double click on the file and proceed to complete the required installation.
You should now have the WireGuard user client installed on your PC or laptop. Upon opening it, the client should look like the image below.
Now go back to your VPN server's control panel (log in if you still have not) and from the available buttons select ‘Download’, as you would do with a device that cannot scan a QR code.
This will automatically download a tunnel configuration file onto your PC or laptop and it will have a ‘.conf’ file extension.
Next, go back to the WireGuard client you just installed on your machine and click on the ‘Import tunnel(s) from file’ button.
Search your PC or laptop for the configuration file that you just downloaded and select it. The following window should now be displayed inside of your user client.
Here you will find data about your VPN server as well as your IP address. That’s it! Your setup is complete. All you need to do is to simply click on the ‘Activate’ button and your machine will be connected to the VPN server securely.
Whenever you have an active connection, the tunnel icon will turn green and the status will read ‘Active’. It is important to note that it can take a couple of seconds for your user client to connect to the server, due to the mandatory handshake that is required by the protocol.
If you wish to disable the connection, simply click on ‘Deactivate’.
If you want to connect additional devices, we advise you to create new user profiles for each one in order to minimize the impact on the VPN server that can occur when there are multiple devices using the same profile. The process is really simple and we also have a very detailed tutorial on how to do so.
Additional connection checks and further support
If you want to be completely sure that everything is in working order, regardless of the connected device type, you can check your IP address prior to connecting to the VPN server and after doing so, to ensure that they are different, in which case the VPN connection is properly established and you are safely connected. If you do want to perform this extra check, you can do so by searching for ‘What is my IP’ on your web browser of choice.
