Virgin + VPN

amx

amx

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2 Dec 2005
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832
I want the whole house to connect to the Internet via a VPN, and the best way to do this seems to be with a router that has the function to connect directly to a VPN.

If I have a super hub 2, what's the best way / most cost effective way to achieve what I need?

I'm guessing it will be to use the hub in modem mode with a suitable router?
 
Why (more detail is better)? What speed of connection? You see in general what you suggest is an awful idea and one that's certainly better accomplished in another way and rarely cheap.
 
For what you describe you can achieve what you want by using a smart DNS service with zero speed hit, lifetime deals are circa $40 via Stack Social (getflix for example) and yearly plans are £10/yr for unblokr using the half price deal. A VPN is not required for streaming from ge-restricted or ISP blocked sites. If you were for example torrenting then i'd suggest using a VPN on the box you're downloading to.
 
Maybe it's the other way around.

Not tried this myself as I use a VPN for my machine so can't vouch for it but,

http://www.howtogeek.com/117528/how-to-easily-watch-netflix-and-hulu-from-anywhere-in-the-world/

While what you suggest should work for US based stuff (it'd need to be done at a router level for the FireTV) you'd also run in to potential issues about every UK geo-restricted site not working. This is why for the almost insignificant cost involved a smart DNS service which intelligently routes based on destination IP is preferable.
 
...stuff (it'd need to be done at a router level for the FireTV) you'd...

There's nothing to stop you setting up the DNS directly on the Fire TV. I've just reconfigured mine to use a 14 day trial of unblockr. The wife's now happy as she can watch Supernatural from the beginning on Netflix USA.
 
Put the superhub in modem mode
Get a Asus RT-N66U or RT-AC68U
Find a VPN provider that supports AsusWRT (eg AirVPN)
Follow the VPN's configuration steps (eg https://airvpn.org/asuswrt/)

Done :)

Optional: use Asuswrt-Merlin firmware

Based on what the OP has said he wants to achieve that's not really needed and even if it were you're advocating PTTP and some less than ideal hardware.

PTTP sucks, MS have said as much here. Don't use it.

If you VPN the whole connection you will have other issues with out of region purchases/payments/store direction, Steam have been known to get quite excited if they think you're trying to bypass your geographic store for your own benefit for example and every single device on your LAN will now connect as if in the US, same with payment providers etc. If you want to get back to normal you have to log into the router and turn the VPN off, then back in again to stream, frankly that's just stupid.

Hardware wise go and look at the hardware spec of the products you suggest, the N66U has a 600mhz single core SoC, it has to emulate FPU functions (inefficient and slow) and everything runs on that single core. The AC68U is better with it's dual core 800mhz ARM SoC (identical to the AC56U which sounds like a lower spec to the AC66/N66 but outclasses both), it still lacks an FPU but is quicker, it's still not going to handle near line speed on a fast connection (op has VM so up to 210mbit possibly) and it's still not going to solve all devices showing as US based and out of region.

So where does that leave the OP? Well either choose a smart DNS service which will intelligently route based on destination IP giving you the best of bypassing any geo/ISP blocking and full line speed (streaming is legal, even if downloading the content isn't (thanks EU!), or if you really want to go with a secure VPN then consider an Tomato capable router, ideally ARM based and set up a dedicated VPN SSID as described here: here. Normal traffic gets routed via conventional wired/wifi and anything that needs security or the ability to bypass ISP blocks/geo restriction can do so via the secure VPN. New you're looking at £80 for an AC56U and £100+ for an AC68U and then you need a VPN provider. The DNS option is a lot cheaper, quicker and simpler.

There's nothing to stop you setting up the DNS directly on the Fire TV. I've just reconfigured mine to use a 14 day trial of unblockr. The wife's now happy as she can watch Supernatural from the beginning on Netflix USA.

If you do a little googling you'll find a freely available code for 50% off a subscription, but really you shouldn't need to if you install Kodi and have a look at the thread in the AV sub forum ;)
 
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