Remotely connect to home?

[Candurin]

Just curious if anyone can point me in the right direction. I’d love to be able to use more of the functionality of my router (R7800).

I assume I can use my router as a “server” and access it via VPN client on my devices while traveling so that Netflix, Amazon, etc. thinks I am on my home network.

Any links or advice how to do this easily?

 

[eibgrad]

I'm unfamiliar w/ that particular router's OEM firmware. These days, most will minimally include either an OpenVPN and/or PPTP server (the former being MUCH more preferable due to its vastly better security and features). Sometimes the client as well, although there are often limitations, such as you can't run both at the same time. Being able to run both at the same time means you could have your OpenVPN server at home route its remote OpenVPN clients through your own local OpenVPN client (e.g., to ExpressVPN or NordVPN) back home.

Personally, I prefer to install third-party firmware whenever possible to fully exploit the hardware's capabilities. Something like DD-WRT (which does support the R7800) would give you access to the above, plus WireGuard server and client. And you can run both the client and server at the same time. Plus use policy routing to be *selective* about what does and doesn't use the VPN.

So there probably is something already available on the OEM firmware, but it's usually very basic and limited. I suppose in some cases that's sufficient, but given that's a relatively powerful router, even if a bit dated (circa 2016), it would benefit greatly from third-party firmware in so many ways.

JMTC

 

[Candurin]

I should have mentioned. I am on Voxel’s latest firmware, if that helps.

 

[R. Gerrits]

Just curious if anyone can point me in the right direction. I’d love to be able to use more of the functionality of my router (R7800).

I assume I can use my router as a “server” and access it via VPN client on my devices while traveling so that Netflix, Amazon, etc. thinks I am on my home network.

Any links or advice how to do this easily?

Simply go to Advanced Setup -> VPN Service and enable the OpenVPN service
(I configured both TUN and TAP to run over TCP, as that is more reliable (but could be slower).

Download the OpenVPN configuration package and send the .ovpn file to your mobile device.
Then install OpenVPN client on your mobile device and import the .ovpn file.

Some important points:
- I think you must have DynamicDNS enabled and configured.
(at least on my R7800, the ovpn file has my DDNS name. So I don't know what happens without DDNS. It then might have your public IP-address, but depending on your ISP that could change.

- If you also use a VPN client on your R7800 (i.e. want to run both the OpenVPN client and server, or Wireguard client + OpenVPN server), then you may need to enable VPN bypassing for your router (for instance via Kamoj addon).
Or you need to enable port forwarding with your OpenVPN or Wireguard provider. (and use DDNS so that your ovpn doesn't contain your ISP IP-address).

- Not sure about Netflix / Amazon, but my the app from my TV-provider also used to check the GPS location -> I also had to disable the location service on my iPad in order for it to watch TV abroad via VPN.