What is everyone using for VPN service provider?

catcamstar

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1) (chinese) ratbots are scanning the internets continously. Every open port will be probed and if a "known" protocol is responding, they'll fire up their magics on your service. And I prefer that to happen in a "corner" of my network than on a device which has potentially access to everything else. If the edge of your network goes down, your inner LANs are (hopefully) well protected.
2) at least your BI infrastructure remains "safe". The question with the pi is if it can provide the required bandwidth you are aspiring for. Do not expect 10 users watching cam seeds at Full HD. What you should (re)consider is how you want to secure your network. Some people have dual nic BI pc setups (at least to split off the cams from the local LAN - but it secures the cams also from inbound crazy stuff). Other users (like me) have implemented vlans. I personally have a combination of both ER-X (for the firewalling/VPN), vlans everywhere and an additional ASUS (with its own VPN through backup ISP line). Is this the best setup ever? No, but one has to evaluation the $$$ versus the benefits/impacts left and right.
3a) I encounter them especially in my professional customer base, not in a home environment
3b) ASUS is "off the shelf" ready for what you might require (and provides good firmware / security updates through the Rmerlin packages). Edgerouter is not user-friendly at all (slight steep learning curve, except if you are used to command line hocus pocus, as many stuff are not readily available for configuration through the Edgemax OS gui. The first does (very limited) vlans, the latter is a key component in your infrastructure if you'd like vlans. And on a plus, on both VPN service can be aggregated.

Hope this helps!
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looney2ns

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I was just answering your basic question, a lot of us here use an Asus router with OpenVPN already installed on the router in the firmware.
There are lots of things to consider as per @catcamstar .
 

Kendive

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I use the TP Link A7 and Open VPN for access to the NVR and then I have a second TP Link with VPN Vanish for a separate network for video steaming, laptop internet surfing. etc...
 
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I'm in the same boat, looking at setting up an IP camera system and would like remote access to the cameras. I have purchased a Dell optiplex and a second NIC but trying to find a cost effective way of running OpenVPN. My router does not support VPN and will be costly to buy an Asus just to run VPN.

Cheapest option is to just run it on the BI machine or I can purchase a new TL-R600VPN TP-Link SafeStream Gigabit Broadband VPN Router for about $75. Will this do the job and be reasonably easy to setup?
 

mikeynags

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For an inexpensive OpenVPN option, you can run OpenVPN on a Raspberry Pi. They run about $35.


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th182

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For an inexpensive OpenVPN option, you can run OpenVPN on a Raspberry Pi. They run about $35.


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This is exactly what I did to start! My neighbor is setting this up as well. Plenty of instructions online for how to get it running.

I have since moved to pfsense for my router and that has OpenVPN built in so I no longer use the pi for that. The pi ran great for several years and it’s sole purpose was OpenVPN.


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I have since moved to pfsense for my router and that has OpenVPN built in so I no longer use the pi for that.
Hi th,
I am a bit intrigued by pfsense and what it can do. Can you tell be what hardware you use for pfsense? I'm a real noob with this networking stuff.
 

th182

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Hi th,
I am a bit intrigued by pfsense and what it can do. Can you tell be what hardware you use for pfsense? I'm a real noob with this networking stuff.
I have a 1U server that I bought from a buddy. It has two NICs and I just installed pfsense on it from their website.

One NIC is my WAN side that goes to my ISP router. The other is my LAN side and goes to a managed switch that is VLAN aware. I have VLANs to isolate my IoT devices and CCTV stuff, among other things.

Pfsense has an OpenVPN option so it was super easy to configure, easier than manually doing it on the pi. Also has options for blocking ads and such network-wide with the different packages available through its web GUI.

Overkill for most home users but I like to go nuts with it and learn stuff along the way.


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KC8FLB

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I have a 1U server that I bought from a buddy. It has two NICs and I just installed pfsense on it from their website.

One NIC is my WAN side that goes to my ISP router. The other is my LAN side and goes to a managed switch that is VLAN aware. I have VLANs to isolate my IoT devices and CCTV stuff, among other things.

Pfsense has an OpenVPN option so it was super easy to configure, easier than manually doing it on the pi. Also has options for blocking ads and such network-wide with the different packages available through its web GUI.

Overkill for most home users but I like to go nuts with it and learn stuff along the way.


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i am also a pfsense user and love it. Used to have it running in a 1u Dell r220 server but just moved it to one of the many $120 HP 290 boxes flooding eBay. it’s great. Also look at opnsense
 

Riclyo

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Raspberry Pi and WireGuard.
I know very little about networking and was able to get this up and running with minimal issues.
 
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