How to setup OpenVPN on a home router

[JT101]

Hi everyone

I must warn you firstly that I'm only slightly tech savvy so I can follow instructions with computers and programming but that's about it. Beyond that and I find it a bit challenging.

So I read about VPN's for creating a secure channel for me to use the internet. I bought a subscription from NordVPN.

I then realised it would be better and much easier if I ran VPN on my router to protect all devices in my home.

However, I'm struggling to do this, and not even sure it's possible. I have a TP-Link TD-W8968. According their tech support it only supports VPN Pass-through i.e. PPTP,L2TP,IPSec Pass-through.

From what I've read the most secure protocols now are Open VPN or IKEv2. OpenVPN seems ok so I'll go with that.

I'm getting conflicting advice from NordVPN and other sources as to whether or not I can setup an OpenVPN on a router. Their site says you have to setup a different protocol on each device which would be a complete pain.

So my questions are, how do I setup OpenVPN or even IKEv2 on a home router, and if possible should I be looking at a new router and if so what models support this. And finally do I need a subscription like NordVPN to do this?

I have searched quite a bit, and have yet to find anything that explains how to do this hence my question.

Thanks in advance

 

[JT101]

I've found this one which has dual core processors: ASUS RT-AC66U b1 and

Linksys XAC1900. Should do the trick.


Ok I will read the VPN threads. Anyway, I have a much better understanding of it all now. Thanks

 

[JT101]

yeah I hear what you're saying, and I read through all the posts to see which routers were recommended but I think the better ones such as the Mikrotik hAP Lite Classic are a bit too difficult for me to setup. I read a post on a different site from a guy who was trying to setup one of these routers with NordVPN using the OpenVPN, and it seemed he was struggling, so I think I will too. I guess that's the compromise. The consumer routers are more user friendly but less fit for purpose. To be fair, I'm not on virgin media, or any of the big boys and currently only achieve around 5Mb/s download speed so I doubt it will affect me anyway.
One question I do have though. Let's say hypothetically that I had a 200Mb/s setup with Virgin Media or the like, and I had a Mikrotik router, does my consumer level TP-Link TD-W8968 modem then become a bottle neck? Thanks

 

[JT101]

Ok. Well I'm pretty well concerned about security of personal info these days. I'm not bothered about people seeing what I surf the web about i.e. shopping, research etc. They'll find a way to send me targeted marketing one way or another. So really, it's more personal security details such as banking etc from all my devices i.e. mobile phones, ipads, laptop.
So Avalon, presumably I need a new modem too. Are there up market or specialised modems for this task, above and beyond consumer level ones? Presumably the likes of Mikratik sell such things. What sorts of specs would I be looking at? Has this been discussed in these forums already?

Thanks

 

[JT101]

Thanks for explaining all that BigT. Actually I didn't quite get what Avalon meant before but now I do. The modem has to be suited to the type of broadband you receive i.e. ADSL, VDSL or FibreOptic. Well I'm very happy with my provider, a small company called DirectSave, and my TP-LINK works fine with it, and I don't want too much equipment i.e. a dedicated WiFi device, so I will just stick to buying a dedicated router.
And re-reading Avalons message, he makes a crucial point. If I run everything via VPN, it may cause me issues with banking, shopping etc etc. Although I'll never know until I try right? Worst case I buy it, and have to sell it on Ebay.
As I said, I might be capable of setting up a Mikrotik router, but it's when things go wrong that I struggle, and i don't have any mates into computer hardware/software, so I'll go for the ASUS RT-AC66U b1.