Need Advice on Setting up own VPN

Discussion in 'privacy technology' started by rogerauy, Jan 16, 2013.

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  1. rogerauy

    rogerauy Registered Member

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    Hi everyone,

    I need some advice on the simplest way to set up VPN. My goal is the following:

    1. I need to access the connection on my network in US. It is an AT&T Uverse ISP and I have the 2-Wire Router provided by them.

    2. I need to connect to the internet from another country via the IP address of my AT&T network in US.

    3. I will just be using this connection for web surfing. BUT I need to be connected under my US AT&T IP address.

    What is the most straight forward way to achieve this? Please explain in simple English.

    Thank you very much for your help!
     
  2. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Do you have a hardware firewall? If you don't, you could buy one that includes a VPN server. That would probably be the easiest option to set up.

    You could also run pfSense on low-end PC hardware, and use its OpenVPN or IPsec servers. But you must use hardware with network adapters that pfSense supports. See -http://www.pfsense.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=44&Itemid=50 You might spend a little more, but you'd have a very cool router/firewall :)
     
  3. rogerauy

    rogerauy Registered Member

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    Thanks for your advice.
    So is there no way to set this up with the current hardware that I have available?

    I have a 2-wire router from ATT and a windows 7 PC.

    What is the most cost effective way to have this set up?

    Thanks again!
     
  4. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    What model router from ATT?
     
  5. rogerauy

    rogerauy Registered Member

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    The Uwire 3800HGV-B RG
     
  6. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    That router can't run a VPN server.

    For $100-$200, you can get a router/firewall that will host IPsec tunnels. Look on Amazon. My first hit was a ZyXEL, but there are other brands. I'm not prepared to recommend one.

    Ready-to-use pfSense appliances cost more, but there are a couple Hacom it-100 models that cost $200-$250 (-http://www.hacom.net/catalog/openbrick/it-100-).

    Another option would be running OpenVPN server on your PC. OpenVPN provides a free ready-to-use server with a web GUI. It comes with two client licenses. And it's very easy to set up. But you'd need to open a port to allow connections, which is a risk.
     
  7. rogerauy

    rogerauy Registered Member

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    Hi ,
    Thanks a lot from your advice.

    So would I connect the Zytel (or similar) router to the 2wire router on the US side?

    And then on the overseas side, I can use a PC to connect to this VPN using the Windows preloaded VPN function? Would I need any other hardware/ software?

    Thanks again!
     
  8. rogerauy

    rogerauy Registered Member

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    Also,

    Can I use a DD-Wrt router?
     
  9. PaulyDefran

    PaulyDefran Registered Member

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  10. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    It depends. If your current router is also your broadband modem, you'd put it in bridge mode, and connect the new router to it. If it's just a router connected to your broadband modem, you'd replace with the new router.

    Yes, that's all that you'd need. You'd need to configure the VPN, and make sure that it works properly.
     
  11. mirimir

    mirimir Registered Member

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    Yes, I've heard good things about Buffalo routers with DD-WRT. As I recall, ra's Incognito Gateway is based on OpenWRT :) I like pfSense better, but it's definitely heavier and requires beefier hardware.
     
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