Looking for a "Dummies Guide to VPN"...

[gatorgrabber]

Wow, trying to get up to speed on VPNs is quite an exciting endeavor! I was hoping to find a "read this first" section to this forum because I'm going to need it! In a nutshell, I've got what I consider to be a very vanilla system (Win10 desktop, Amazon Fire and an Asus RT-AC1900P) with equally vanilla requirements of wanting more security and the (long shot) ability to watch Netflix, Hulu, etc. Before I start asking all kinds of noob questions about VPN services, is there a link I can turn to and start reading? Thanks all!

As it stands now, I'm considering adding VPN to the desktop and leaving the Asus alone. Not my first choice but I need to crawl before I walk! ;-)

 

[Xentrk]

Most VPN providers provide client software to install on desktops, laptops, iphones, android phones and ipads.

For my use case, having it installed on the router works best for me, for the reasons you mention, especially getting around geo blocks for streaming media. Having it on the clients is great for when I am traveling though.

Configuring it to work on the router is not that difficult. Most providers have instructions. Here are instructions I put together for TorGuard VPN customers for you to review.

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-i.38281/

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-ii.38282/

https://www.snbforums.com/threads/torguard-openvpn-2-4-client-setup-for-asus-merlin-380-65-380-65_2-part-iii.38283/

 

[gatorgrabber]

Xentrk,

Thank you very much for getting back to me. I've being reading various threads on this site and it's impressive what these little black boxes can do if properly motivated! Since I'm still in the 'crawl' phase of the program, I've installed the ExpressVPN client on my desktop to get some protection for the PC. There's a trial period so I'll give it a test drive and see what I think. I'll also look at Torguard and hide.me. The number of options these days is impressive.

Other than my desktop, the only other connected devices involve the home entertainment system. My Fire box handles the movie streams from Amazon Prime, Netflix and Hulu. I'm looking to simplify this in the future with a purpose built HTPC but that's another topic. My goal is to get things configured to there's not a constant battle keeping things tweaked and happy. It would be nice to use streaming services without too much drama involving the VPN but we will see. Perhaps I can enable other security features on the router and leave the VPN client on the desktop? I'm just guessing at this point!

This so very much reminds me of someone learning how to build performance into an automotive engine! Lots of ways to get off track.

Cheers!

 

[unclebuk]

expressvpn has "mediastreamer" option which unblocks USA Netflix without using openVPN and does it very well. I have the expressvpn mediastreamer DNS servers entered on two smart TV's to watch Netflix USA, I have the AC88U configured with VPN client with policy routing with both smart TV's set to WAN. Try this arrangement, it works very well from my location in Thailand.

ExpressVPN mediastreamer does not afford VPN protection, but it seems it is not needed in my case with respect to ISP throttling which never happens in Thailand as far as I can tell.