Connect Android & Laptop to Internet via OpenVPN & RT-N66U?

[Habna]

Hi

If I'm on the road I normally connect to the Internet (over WiFi) via a commercial VPN provider.

At home I have an Asus RT-N66U, with the firmware upgraded to the latest asuswrt-merlin version (376.48_beta3).

Having read around the topic:

1. Am I right in thinking that I could use OpenVPN to replace my commercial VPN provider?
2. Is this a good idea? I've seen various comments about speed problems, for example.
3. Is there an easy-to-follow guide to doing this? The ones I've found so far have been about connecting 2 locations both equipped with a router, or about how to connect to a home network, rather than the way I'd use it.

Your guidance would be appreciated...

 

[CaptainSTX]

Running OpenVPN on your router and a VPN client on devices would allow you to securely connect to your home network and securely transfer files. That is what VPN connections were really designed for

It is also possible to use your Internet connection at home to connect to the Internet when away from home.

The downside is it is a complicated setup. Search the board and look for people who have done this and adapt the scripts they have written to make it work.

You will probably end up with a very slow Internet connection when traveling and connecting to your home network. Running a VPN on your N66U will reduce your throughput (both up and down ) by probably 25 - 40% even when connecting locally. Then add in a slow WiFi connection at the hotel where you are staying, further reductions in speed that occurs because of the distance from your hotel back home, the distance from your home to the VPN server, the VPN server to the web site and then reverse the path and you may not have speed much better than you would get with a dial up connection.

 

[netware5]

I am a "road warrior" like you and I'm using my N66 as an OpenVPN server. Configuration is easy, you don't need any scripts, everything is working fine.

Concerning the speed:

The router's CPU performance is much lower than a standard PC's one. So you should be prepared to accept lower speeds. The actual speed depends on type of encryption. With my N66 I am able to reach about 14-15 Mbit/s with 256 bit AES encryption. My home ISP provides 50 Mbit/s download and 33 Mbit/s upload. Merlin investigated the OpenVPN N66 throughput with different encryption and according to him you may reach about 25-27 Mbit/s with 128 bit AES encryption. Try to search the forum for Merlin's thread about OpenVPN performance.

Concerning the type of OpenVPN interface:

Personally I am using TAP interface, because it is easier to configure and the concept is easier to understand. The TAP interface also allows you to use all resources of your home LAN as you are wired to it. The TUN interface may give a slightly better performance as the TUN encapsulates less payload than TAP (IP packets vs Ethernet frames). I never made any comparisons concerning TAP vs TUN. Both interfaces allow you to forward your client traffic through your router as you want.

P.S. My N66 is 10% overclocked (662MHz), in the past while with standard CPU clock (600 MHz) my OpenVPN throughput was about 12-13 Mbit/s.

P.P.S. Official Android client does not support TAP interface. There are two other Android clients that do so. One of them has problems to forward the traffic through the tunnel on some devices. I never tested the other one. I never succeeded to run TAP on my HTC Desire C with Cyanogen Mod 10.1 yet.

 

[Habna]

Thank you both for your helpful feedback. Sounds like it's worth a try then!

Maybe I'll get chance to have a go this weekend...