VPN Primer for Noobs

What VPN Solution are you using?

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Okay, I am a complete n00b at this stuff but I am trying to learn so please bare with me.

My wife works from home and has to connect through a VPN that her work uses (only her laptop connects this way) we use netflix and amazon fire stick for TV.

So my questions are, If I set up my router with the VPN and Firewall:
Will that cause a conflict with her laptop or any of the other devices? * I hear that Netflix does not like going through a VPN but that may be bogus heh*
Is there a way to let any of these things operate outside my VPN and firewall while still using the same router?

Thanks!
 
@Rockford622 yeah until you walk into starbucks and it automatically gets on there open wifi that everyone nearby can see what your doing..
 
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Darid said:
Will that cause a conflict with her laptop or any of the other devices? * I hear that Netflix does not like going through a VPN but that may be bogus heh*
Is there a way to let any of these things operate outside my VPN and firewall while still using the same router?
Thanks!
Click to expand...

Wont mess with her at all, Netflix and none of your data is going through a VPN, your running a VPN Server that only your remote devices will use.. read the Is VPN Free? part again.
 
Darid said:
Okay, I am a complete n00b at this stuff but I am trying to learn so please bare with me.

My wife works from home and has to connect through a VPN that her work uses (only her laptop connects this way) we use netflix and amazon fire stick for TV.

So my questions are, If I set up my router with the VPN and Firewall:
Will that cause a conflict with her laptop or any of the other devices? * I hear that Netflix does not like going through a VPN but that may be bogus heh*
Is there a way to let any of these things operate outside my VPN and firewall while still using the same router?

Thanks!
Click to expand...
The VPN in this thread is incoming only and on no way should affect anything within your network, beit netflix or your wife's remote connection.

Sent from my OnePlus 3T
 
Darid said:
Okay, I am a complete n00b at this stuff but I am trying to learn so please bare with me.

My wife works from home and has to connect through a VPN that her work uses (only her laptop connects this way) we use netflix and amazon fire stick for TV.

So my questions are, If I set up my router with the VPN and Firewall:
Will that cause a conflict with her laptop or any of the other devices? * I hear that Netflix does not like going through a VPN but that may be bogus heh*
Is there a way to let any of these things operate outside my VPN and firewall while still using the same router?

Thanks!
Click to expand...

Shouldn't be an issue. The vpn that Netflix probably doesn't like are the anonymizing vpn services that hide you and make your IP location that of the service. Example, you live in Algeria and can't get Netflix service, so you use one of these vpn services with an IP address in the US to make it look like you are a US consumer.

The client vpn setup on your router is a completely different animal. It allows you to connect to your cameras while you are away from home using a secure connection (not port forwarding). This is how your wife's company and her computer connect securely. It's not set up to block IP traffic, your router is what would be used to do that with rules. The vpn setup on your router isn't a block, but an encrypted phone line you can "call" to from outside the home network.
 
Rockford622 said:
Then you turn it on. It doesn't make sense to have it on all day long if you are not actively using it.
Click to expand...

So you'll remember all the wireless networks it'll auto join and know when your within range to enable it? Why shut it off, it hurts nothing.. You can set it up so only the traffic to home goes over VPN if you get free data on pandora or something, alot of us have other IoT devices and home automation and automator routines that like to have a connection to home so they can perform actions w/out putting your automation systems on the internet too.

Or Push notifications that you want to see the video quickly, I can come up with more reasons to leave it enabled than I can to disable it
 
Exactly. We have a small cell phone data plan, so my WiFi is on all the time. The only time I purposely connect is at work, home and friends houses, but I like to pull up my camera feed occasionally and want it to just work. Keeping the VPN on all the time allows me to view my cameras instantly and get push notifications.

I will say, we also have a 1Mbps upload speed at home and I feel like I can notice that slowing some things down like trying to look at pictures on this website. Eh. That's just something I deal with. The ability to instantly see my cameras and get push notifications is worth it to me.

If you only want to connect to your VPN strictly to view cameras... Download Tasker and set it up to automatically connect when you open your camera viewing app,then automatically disconnect when you close the app.
 
DavidDavid said:
Exactly. We have a small cell phone data plan, so my WiFi is on all the time. The only time I purposely connect is at work, home and friends houses, but I like to pull up my camera feed occasionally and want it to just work. Keeping the VPN on all the time allows me to view my cameras instantly and get push notifications.

I will say, we also have a 1Mbps upload speed at home and I feel like I can notice that slowing some things down like trying to look at pictures on this website. Eh. That's just something I deal with. The ability to instantly see my cameras and get push notifications is worth it to me.

If you only want to connect to your VPN strictly to view cameras... Download Tasker and set it up to automatically connect when you open your camera viewing app,then automatically disconnect when you close the app.
Click to expand...

I would think most things you would access that would be of a sensitive nature (banking, email, etc) would be over a HTTPS connection anyway, so it should be ok. If you want to access your home, fire up the VPN, use it and close it. Seems silly to walk around with it connected all day. I don't really need to have my Gmail mail connection (or other activity not related to my home) going through my home server, just to go back out to the Internet.
 
I don't have my VPN connected all the time for security purposes. I do it because I have a really bad habit of looking at my cameras quite often. If I had to start and stop the VPN connection every time I'd go nuts. Depends on how often and how connected you want to be to your cameras I guess.

If you don't have a bad habit like me, don't care to get instant push notifications from your cameras or NVR that you configured to not have access to the internet, don't have any IoT devices that you need or want a constant connection to at home, and keep your WiFi off except when you're home or purposely connecting to a public WiFi (and manually connect to a VPN when you do) then I guess I can't see any reason to be constantly connected.

That being said though...if you have a reasonable upload speed at home I can't see any reason to not just be connected all the time while away from home.
 
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Also, I have a lot of files on my home network that I at least 2-3x week on average like to access. I'm talking word, excel, photos whatever. The ability to open up my file manager and boom, theres my files, is nice. If my VPN was off then I'd have to connect beforehand. Also, knowing me I'd connect the VPN, view whatever I wanted, close the VPN, set phone down, then think, huh, I wonder if that mulch got delivered yet. Then I'd have to open it all up again to check my camera feed.

But that's just me. I have a lot of bad habits haha.
 
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Haha. It's amazing I get any work done at work. And to be fair I've been getting 5-6 deliveries a week for the past 2 months, so I like to keep an eye on the guys making the drops. The fact that I have invited strangers on my property daily while I'm not home is always in the back of my head.

I've contemplated buying the cheapest WiFi tablet I can find to set on my desk at work and use to constantly view my camera feeds.
 
Thanks for the responses, I have more studying to do on this but I will move forward with setting up a VPN ( may have to get a new router since I dont know if my netgear has the ability or not) and then setup a firewall, Im sure I will have many more questions, hope yall dont get overly frustrated with me heh

Thanks again!
 
So with everything going on I dove head first into trying to install a VPN. Using the configuration generated from my netgear router everything went smooth until I tried to get the app on my android device to connect. Imported the configuration just fine and ran into this.
 

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You need to change your VPN server to use a TUN device instead of a TAP device. The Android app does not support TAP per this. Same applies to the iOS version of the app.
 
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Anyone familiar with the Pace D5001 cable modem/router? It's a OE solution that comes with my Internet provider and has built in VPN software but I cannot find any documentation on it anywhere. I'd like to utilize it's VPN capabilities. Attached is a screenshot of some of the options.

D5001 VPN.jpg
 
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