Possible silly question about setting up VPN on a router

mrochester

mrochester

mrochester

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Hi all

I have just bought access to a VPN (PIA) and I would like to set up access to this on my router. Do you need a specific router running specific software to do this or can you pretty much configure any router for this purpose?

I have a TP-Link Archer VR900.

Best wishes

M.
 
VPN via a router wont give you very good throughput, depends on what speed your internet access is and what you want the VPN for.
Using the pia application on your pc will give you far better speed
 
Router based VPN implementation is good as it offers convenience such that connected computers and devices don't need to install apps to have VPN on. it also makes sense as these paid VPN run on number of devices connected. so if you have multiple PC and tablets/phones that will be on at the same time then router implementation is certainly the most economical way of getting around that.

but you need routers that are capable of running VPN - openVPN specifically as this is the most commonly used protocol.

there are consumer graded routers that are capable of having OpenVPN running in client mode - the ones you need are the ones with custom rom such as the asus RT-AC series routers. None of the modem-router (routers with built-in modem) can support custom rom that is capable of openVPN client.

with router such as the rt-ac68u or even ac88u, the max speed achievable is about 50mbps, this is due to the limiting CPU power as openVPN runs very heavy encryption. the implementation of openVPN on these routers are extremely simple - type in server address and password and user name etc. so in your case, you need to use the VR900 as a modem and disable the DHCP in the router option and let the new router does the DHCP handling and routing.

the alternative route is a soho type router or selfbuilt router which basically is a computer running a firewall fireware such as pfsense. but i suspect this is not something for you.
 
I got an Asus RT N66-U recently and I'm sure I saw an option for OpenVPN in the Merlin firmware I put on it,will check tomorrow and update.
 
The RT-N66U has very good options for setting up OpenVPN if you're so inclined to go that way.
 
APM said:
The RT-N66U has very good options for setting up OpenVPN if you're so inclined to go that way.
Click to expand...
It does indeed, especially with Merlin firmware however as mentioned earlier, the routers limited cpu power will see any VPN traffic limited to a speed of approx 10mbit.
 
APM said:
What would you recommend?
Click to expand...
Depends how much you have to spend?

I see people spending over £100 on a home router, when you could pick up something like a small Cisco ASA 5505 firewall or a little Juniper SRX firewall off ebay. All depends on what you want out of it, if you dont mind having a modem or router in WAN only mode infront and seperate wifi.

Or you could buy something like a Cisco 887 VA.

Depends on what technology you are interested in I guess and how much you have to spend.

I thought some Draytek routers are capable of RAS and Site to Site VPN?
 
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Some info that I found on router capability with running a VPN client.....

[AC3100 (same as AC88U minus 4 ethernet ports)
CTF enabled
DL: 61 Mbps with core 1 at 25%, core 2 at 75%
UL: 84 Mbps with core 1 at 35%, core 2 at 100%

AC68U
CTF + FA enabled
DL: 43 Mbps with core 1 at 25%, core 2 at 80%
UL: 60 Mbps with core 1 at 35%, core 2 at 100%

AC68U
CTF enabled
DL: 44 Mbps with core 1 at 30%, core 2 at 80%
UL: 58 Mbps with core 1 at 40%, core 2 at 100%
Click to expand...

That is using AES-128 encryption.

My R7000 flashed with a Asus-WRT Merlin firmware and using a dual core 1ghz CPU tops out alive 40Mb..
If overclocked it does better.

That is with AES-256 CBC encryption.

It does allow policy based routing. That is very useful.

It is very different when using a pfsense box with AES instruction capable CPU but that can be difficult to setup.
 
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