DD-WRT Routers and Offshore VPN Advice

[LedaOhio9]

I am thinking DD-WRT is my best option but, not sure, and asking for help is always a good idea.

I currently have a NETGEAR ProSafe™ Gigabit 8 Port VPN Firewall FVS318N and use privateineternetaccess.com (PIA) but, I have been unable to get a reply from their tech support going on 6 days now. Pretty crappy customer service when I have been with them for over 5yrs now.
With PIA VPN I install their applet to connect each PC to the VPN and my FTP or Plex machine will not port forward with the PIA Applet running / VPN turned on.

MAYBE this is the best direction?
Can anyone here help me out in picking the best DD-WRT router?
Can spend around say, $250 t0 $300 price range.
Someplace that accepts Paypal a PLUS as payment if possible. Every other CC I have is max'd out LOL

My current Netgear router has a VPN tab and many places in there to set up a VPN but, I cannot get PIA to answer me on what their info is I would enter to get my current router on their VPN.

Also, once a VPN is installed, will I be able to port forward ports to LAN PCs just the same as having no VPN?
I want my entire LAN on the VPN and still be able to port forward my FTP and Plex servers.


Thanks in advance...
Frustrated :/

 

[LedaOhio9]

I cannot even fnd on PIA's website where they offer the info you would enter. Can anyone else find it?

Here's my current router.. One of the TABs for VPN setup.
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p647/Leda_May/Capture2_zpsogfyzdi7.jpg

Here's the options TABS list..
http://i1344.photobucket.com/albums/p647/Leda_May/VPN_zpsxpwajw8a.jpg

 

[bill001g]

I have used asus merlin for vpn for so long now I forget how to set it up on dd-wrt. Both have the ability to load a small configuration script that will set most the option for you. PIA is actually one of the easier ones.

Not sure about the netgear. Make sure you are setting it up as a client. A lot of the vpn routers are designed for you to run them as a server. Many unfortunately mix the configuration options on the same page. I am not sure if that router supports openvpn client mode. There are a lot of guides to set up openvpn connection to PIA. PIA support other forms of VPN but I have never been successful at getting them to work. Things like IPSEC will outperform openvpn if you can get it to work.

You can not port forward device that use the VPN. You can configure some device to bypass the VPN those devices run as though the vpn is not configured.

 

[LedaOhio9]

I have used asus merlin for vpn for so long now I forget how to set it up on dd-wrt. Both have the ability to load a small configuration script that will set most the option for you. PIA is actually one of the easier ones.

I finally got a reply from PIA thru their facebook page.
Below is what they posted.. Would you happen to know of which Firmware may work with my model router without messing it up? Sure would be a lot easier if they had a page showing the settings I could just freaking input! Arg..
My Router: NETGEAR ProSafe™ Gigabit 8 Port VPN Firewall FVS318N

--paste--
Hello Leda sorry for the unacceptable delay. Almost any router with VPN capability could work with our service. However, we only offer ready VPN setup guides for routers using specific router firmware. Here is a list of routers compatible with each of the currently supported firmware types:

DD-WRT -- http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_Devices

Tomato -- http://tomatousb.org/doc:build-types

Pfsense -- https://www.freebsd.org/relnotes/CURRENT/hardware/support.html
https://doc.pfsense.org/index.php/IPsec_Compatibility#IPsec_Compatibility


The directions for router based VPN setups for these firmware can be found on this page: https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/pages/client-support/

In all likelihood, you will need to install ("flash") such custom router firmware onto your router. Please be aware that router flashing falls outside our support scope, and doing so would be at your own discretion and liability.

It may be possible to configure VPN use on stock or other firmware, provided it has VPN configuration options, but we would not have a ready guide for its use. You could try to find help with such a setup on the PIA forum:

https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/forum/
--end--

 

[bill001g]

The problem is they can only support the most popular routers. Like them I have never used the box you have. dd-wrt and tomato are used by so many people there are really good instructions.

I don't think your router can run third party firmware so that I do not think that is really a valid option. So now you are stuck figuring out how to configure it yourself more or less.

If it supports openvpn then the configuration should be very similar to the dd-wrt configuration. If it does not (and I suspect that is the case) you can try to follow the pfsense document for IPSEC. IPSEC is a industry standard that has been around for years so the options should be similar between platforms. The main problem with IPSEC is there are a lot of options and getting one wrong and it will reject the connection.

VPN is actually rather tough even for network professionals, I still do not get commercial cisco and juniper routers right the first time.

 

[boosted1g]

I also use asusmerlin with VPN (PIA even).

I would suggest getting an ac68 (ac1900) or ac88u (ac3100) from asus, and load asusmerlin on it.
I have used dd-wrt, tomato and asusmerlin and I hands down prefer asus merlin. The UI is just better designed/easier to use in asusmerlin and still have CLI when I need it.

With asusmerin you can also manually select which computers/IPs are on VPN interface and which are on WAN interface.
I ended up setting up an additional NIC on my nas/server to have for incoming WAN traffic (ftp, security camera, etc).

 

[LedaOhio9]

I also use asusmerlin with VPN (PIA even).

I would suggest getting an ac68 (ac1900) or ac88u (ac3100) from asus, and load asusmerlin on it.
I have used dd-wrt, tomato and asusmerlin and I hands down prefer asus merlin. The UI is just better designed/easier to use in asusmerlin and still have CLI when I need it.

With asusmerin you can also manually select which computers/IPs are on VPN interface and which are on WAN interface.
I ended up setting up an additional NIC on my nas/server to have for incoming WAN traffic (ftp, security camera, etc).

Alrightie then! So this router here:
https://www.cnet.com/products/asus-rt-ac88u-router/2/

And for handy reasons.. Where is the link to the firmware I will Flash it with?
Is there anything more configuring-wise I will need to know other than passing the ports?
As far as plugging in the PIA information putting my entire LAN on the VPN AND allowing port fwd?

Thank you!!!!

 

[boosted1g]

https://asuswrt.lostrealm.ca/download

Flashing to merlin is as straight forward as upgrading to new OEM firmware, just download the file, go to router gui and go to firmware upgrade page, navigate to file and click upgrade; nothing compared to the hacks it takes to get DD-WRT on some devices.

After that you should be able to get PIA setup as OpenVPN on the router with their guides.
If you have any trouble I can post up my configs when I get home.

 

[ianw61]

Another option is something like https://www.privacyhero.com which works with your existing router. Probably can't go with PIA then though, but should be faster than a vpn router and will solve your problem of allowing streaming to bypass the VPN.