VPN server suggestions

[Bruno_A]

Hi all,

 

As the title suggests, I am looking for suggestions for a VPN server to host at home. I need to connect to my home network when I am away, to manage VMs and access local resources, and I am looking at a VPN solution for this. I tried searching online for tutorials, but to be honest, I haven't found one that was easy enough to follow. Most of them are for Linux, and they assume you have a certain knowledge in Linux, which is not my case. I would not mind using WIndows or Linux, but if I'm using Linux, I would like to know exactly how to do it.

 

 

Many thanks,

Bruno.

[Eigenvektor]

Have you checked whether the router from your ISP supports it? Some routers support it out of the box. I have a FritzBox from my ISP and it has a VPN server built-in, so no need to set up anything, just need to configure it. The router is always running anyway which is also a plus, no need for a separate box and port forwarding.

[Swealteek]

Look at open VPN the are realy good. not to mention free and easy to use. 

 

ltt made a video about it 

 

[Guest]

I would try using either Hotspot Shield (voted fastest VPN by Speedtest by Ookla) or Proton VPN. Hotspot Shield will prompt you to pay for "premium services"  but the free version is fine to stream most HD videos. Proton VPN comes with a 7-day free trial when setting up a Proton account . You will get marginally faster speeds but the free version after the trial is still great. What do you plan on using the VPN for? I might be able to find better options customized to your needs.

[AndrewJB]

I personally use Openvpn to access my home network, more specifically I used the Pivpn installer on my Pine64. It was very easy to set up, and the only tweak I had to do was change the duration of the CRL days to prevent it from expiring if I didn't need to add/revoke users often. I do have a static ip address though which made the process easier.

[beersykins]

I usually just spin up a VM with OpenVPN access server.  It’s a pretty easy ‘out of the box’ solution if you don’t want to sink a lot of time into it.

[Bruno_A]

22 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

Have you checked whether the router from your ISP supports it? Some routers support it out of the box. I have a FritzBox from my ISP and it has a VPN server built-in, so no need to set up anything, just need to configure it. The router is always running anyway which is also a plus, no need for a separate box and port forwarding.

I don't use the ISP router. I have a 40mbps VDSL line from the ISP, and the free router they provide is utter crap. It's barely good for routing as it is, to be honest. I use an OpenWRT router, and will actually have a look at setting up the VPN server there. I have configured a OpenVPN server in Ubuntu Server, and it kinda works.

[Bruno_A]

22 hours ago, Swealteek said:

Look at open VPN the are realy good. not to mention free and easy to use. 

 

ltt made a video about it 

 

Thanks for this, I ended up setting up an OpenVPN server in Ubuntu Server. It turned out to be quite easy to do, actually.

[Bruno_A]

22 hours ago, Jeve Stobs said:

I would try using either Hotspot Shield (voted fastest VPN by Speedtest by Ookla) or Proton VPN. Hotspot Shield will prompt you to pay for "premium services"  but the free version is fine to stream most HD videos. Proton VPN comes with a 7-day free trial when setting up a Proton account . You will get marginally faster speeds but the free version after the trial is still great. What do you plan on using the VPN for? I might be able to find better options customized to your needs.

Thanks for this, but I was actually looking for an on-premises VPN server that I could have at home, to connect to my home network.

[Bruno_A]

18 hours ago, AndrewJB said:

I personally use Openvpn to access my home network, more specifically I used the Pivpn installer on my Pine64. It was very easy to set up, and the only tweak I had to do was change the duration of the CRL days to prevent it from expiring if I didn't need to add/revoke users often. I do have a static ip address though which made the process easier.

I also installed OpenVPN in Ubuntu Server. I'm curious, could you tell me about how it performs, speed-wise? When I'm connected to my VPN, I get speed tests of up to 4mbps, which is pretty bad.

[Bruno_A]

18 hours ago, beersykins said:

I usually just spin up a VM with OpenVPN access server.  It’s a pretty easy ‘out of the box’ solution if you don’t want to sink a lot of time into it.

This is great. I installed OpenVPN server on Ubuntu Server, but the performance is not that great, which might be due to my ISP connection, actually. If that 'out of the box' solution works better, I'll use that instead. Thanks a lot!

[Eigenvektor]

On 3/9/2020 at 2:54 PM, Bruno_A said:

This is great. I installed OpenVPN server on Ubuntu Server, but the performance is not that great, which might be due to my ISP connection, actually. If that 'out of the box' solution works better, I'll use that instead. Thanks a lot!

I assume the 40 Mbps you mentioned above is not synchronous? How fast is your upload? Because that will be the limiting factor when you connect from somewhere else (your ISPs upload is the other side's download speed).

[Bruno_A]

2 hours ago, Eigenvektor said:

I assume the 40 Mbps you mentioned above is not synchronous? How fast is your upload? Because that will be the limiting factor when you connect from somewhere else (your ISPs upload is the other side's download speed).

Ahhhh, I figured this would be the problem. My upload speed is only 5m Mbps. I miss the days where I lived in a different country, with 200Mbps download and upload speeds. Those were the days