In this article, I will take you through the steps to install NordVPN on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa). NordVPN is a VPN service and the flagship product of the cybersecurity company Nord Security. It is one of the fastest VPN in the world with state of the art features and capabilities. It is used by millions of users around the world to safely browse the Internet with tons of security features enabled. It is also very easy to install NordVPN client app on different Linux distributions. Here we will see how to install NordVPN client app on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS System.

 

Important Features

• It allows you to connect to any remote device directly over the private tunnels
• It's threat protection feature can be used to avoid any online attack of viruses, infected websites and trackers
• It provides dedicated IP address to use
• It provides data security with next generation encryption
• Faster Speed without compromising the performance
• It has strict no-logs policy
• Allows you to connect up to 6 devices in one account
• Protects your data with multi factor authentication
• Round the clock 24/7 support available
• Available as lightweight extensions for Chrome, Firefox and Edge browsers to safeguard your browsing data.
• You can also enjoy uninterrupted streaming services through NordVPN
• It shields your activity with Private DNS
• It has a kill switch to make sure your data will not be exposed

How to Install NordVPN on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)

Also Read: How to Install QEMU on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS (Focal Fossa)

Step 1: Prerequisites

a) You should have a running Ubuntu 20.04 LTS System.

b) You should have sudo or root access to run privileged commands.

c) You should have apt or apt-get and curl or wget utility available in your System.

 

Step 2: Update Your Server

In the first step, you need to sync all the installed packages with the latest available versions from the default Ubuntu repo and upgrade the required packages by using sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get upgrade command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo apt update && sudo apt upgrade
[sudo] password for cyberithub:
Hit:1 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:3 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:4 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease [114 kB]
Hit:6 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:7 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease [114 kB]
Hit:8 http://ppa.launchpad.net/wireshark-dev/stable/ubuntu focal InRelease
Get:9 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease [108 kB]
Hit:10 https://apt.boltops.com stable InRelease
Get:11 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [275 kB]
Get:12 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [40.8 kB]
Get:13 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [405 kB]
Get:14 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [93.0 kB]
Get:15 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [944 B]
Get:16 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/main amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [7,996 B]
Get:17 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports/universe amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [30.5 kB]
Get:18 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security/multiverse amd64 DEP-11 Metadata [2,468 B]
Fetched 1,192 kB in 2s (505 kB/s)
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
All packages are up to date.
N: Skipping acquire of configured file 'main/binary-i386/Packages' as repository 'https://apt.boltops.com stable InRelease' doesn't support architecture 'i386'
Reading package lists... Done
Building dependency tree
Reading state information... Done
Calculating upgrade... Done
Try Ubuntu Pro beta with a free personal subscription on up to 5 machines.
Learn more at https://ubuntu.com/pro
0 upgraded, 0 newly installed, 0 to remove and 0 not upgraded.

 

Step 3: Install NordVPN

You can visit official website and get the installation script to download and install the latest version of NordVPN. You can download it by using both curl or wget utility, whichever available in your System.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sh <(wget -qO - https://downloads.nordcdn.com/apps/linux/install.sh)
/usr/bin/apt-get
Hit:1 https://download.docker.com/linux/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:2 https://dl.winehq.org/wine-builds/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:3 https://dl.google.com/linux/chrome/deb stable InRelease
Hit:4 http://ppa.launchpad.net/ubuntu-toolchain-r/test/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:5 http://security.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-security InRelease
Hit:6 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:7 http://ppa.launchpad.net/wireshark-dev/stable/ubuntu focal InRelease
Hit:8 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-updates InRelease
Hit:9 http://in.archive.ubuntu.com/ubuntu focal-backports InRelease
Hit:10 https://apt.boltops.com stable InRelease
Reading package lists... Done
..................................................

 

Step 4: Modify User Account

After successfully installing the NordVPN client app, you need to modify the user account by using below usermod command.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo usermod -aG nordvpn $USER

 

Step 5: Reboot 

After modifying the user permission, you can either log out from your System and then login again or just reboot the System once by using sudo init 6 command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ sudo init 6

 

Step 6: Check Version

You can check the NordVPN version by using nordvpn version command as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ nordvpn version
NordVPN Version 3.15.0

 

Step 7: Login to NordVPN

Before connecting the VPN, you need to first login using nordvpn login command. It will give an URL to continue accessing the login link from Browser as shown below. You can open it in your favorite browser and log in to your account.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ nordvpn login
Continue in the browser: https://napps-1.com/v1/users/oauth/login-redirect?attempt=939d43d7-d054-43c2-af54-98bed3052676

 

Step 8: Connect NordVPN

Once logged in from the browser, you can now connect the VPN Servers by using nordvpn connect command from the terminal as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ nordvpn connect

 

Step 9: Access Client Settings

You can access NordVPN client settings by just typing nordvpn in the terminal. You will see list of all the available commands as shown below.

cyberithub@ubuntu:~$ nordvpn
Welcome to NordVPN Linux client app!
Version 3.15.0
Website: https://nordvpn.com

Usage: nordvpn [global options] command [command options] [arguments...]

Commands:
    account       Shows account information
    cities        Shows a list of cities where servers are available
    connect, c    Connects you to VPN
    countries     Shows a list of countries where servers are available
    disconnect, d Disconnects you from VPN
    groups        Shows a list of available server groups
    login         Logs you in
    logout        Logs you out
    rate          Rates your last connection quality (1-5)
    register      Registers a new user account
    set, s        Sets a configuration option
    settings      Shows current settings
    status        Shows connection status
    version       Shows the app version
    whitelist     Adds or removes an option from a whitelist
    help, h       Shows a list of commands or help for one command

Global options:
--help, -h show help (default: false)
--version, -v print the version (default: false)

For more detailed information, please check manual page.

Our customer support works 24/7 so if you have any questions or issues, drop us a line at https://support.nordvpn.com/