VPN/OpenVPN questions to facilitate remote access

[wayner]

I have tried googling for info on running OpenVPN but I can't find the type of info that I am looking for.

I want to be able to access my home LAN and resources on my LAN from mobile devices like an iPhone and iPad. Occasionally I will also want to connect to the VPN from my laptop although this would happen less frequently. I can do some of this today with port forwarding but I think it would be a lot easier and I could do more if I had a VPN.

My other use case is also to facilitate connecting my European based Virtual Private Server(VPS) to my LAN. My VPS runs Ubuntu and I would like to be able to mount drives to facilitate copying files from files on my home PC(s) to the VPS. I can use FTP to do this today but I would think it would be more convenient to have a more persistent type of mounting, like NFS, SAMBA, etc.

Do I need to install OpenVPN on my router?
Is the router then the OpenVPN server?
Or does that just facilitate the connection to the VPN?
If the router isn’t the VPN server then do I install VPN server software on one of the PCs on my LAN?
Do I then install OpenVPN client on other devices like iPad, iPhone, laptop and my VPS?
When I am connected via VPN do my VPN clients then get IPs on my local subnet - ie in the 192.168.1.X range?

Can anyone suggest a tutorial/guide on these issues?

FYI - My router is an Asus RT-N66U which is currently running the stock firmware but I will likely be installing Merlin this weekend.

 

[sinshiva]

using the router as the OpenVPN server is probably the most efficient way to get started.

regarding the VPS; you really should use SFTP. otherwise, it sounds like you'd be VNCing into the VPS, connecting back home via VPN and then mounting a vps share on a home network pc?

most portables only support a TUN style vpn connection, which means that connected clients would be on a different subnet, but is then routed to your home subnet for access. what trips people up most with this is wanting to use Netbios names, which you'd also have to set the router as the master browser, etc to make work. (this is a simple matter of checking a couple options in the USB disk/ server center area of asuswrt.) otherwise, accessing devices at home via IP works just fine.

yes, everything will need it's own client software which means testing a few to find the one that works best for you/your configuration

for additional information, i recommend the forum 'search' function, the help menu provided by asus and there's a wiki for asuswrt-merlin.

good luck