Router gear and setup for StrongVPN

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gcorgnet

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#92184 28-Oct-2011 11:24

Hi all,

I currently use a cheapo D-Link router (might be 604t, not sure) that came with my telecom connection about 4 years ago and it seems like it is about to kick the bucket.

I would like to take the opportunity to get a nice setup that will give me good performance (including wireless N) and also allow me to get routed connection to StrongVPN (or similar)

From what I understand, I need to buy a router that is compatible with dd-wrt. So far so good, I have been told about the D-Link DIR-615 which can be had for a reasonable price. There probably are many more options but this is not the issue here.

I also understand that this router does not directly connect to the internet so I need another ADSL2+ device that will do that. Do I NEED to buy an ADSL2+ modem/router or would just an ADSL2+ modem suffice?

I was looking at DM111 (Netgear) or Nb6p4 (Netcomm) or TD8840 (TP Link)

Is there any gotchas?

Please feel free to share any experience or tips as to what to buy and how to set it up.

Thanks,

Guillaume

chevrolux

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#538643 28-Oct-2011 12:19

I dont know about strongvpn but if you go with Astrill you can install the client on to a dd-wrt router. Then your whole connection will be routed through the vpn. Cant go wrong with a linksys wireless router. Great wireless performance and price is always good. Cant comment on the d-link as i have never used them.

as for a modem, you just need one that can bridged with the dd-wrt router. I use a sh!tty old netcomm nb6 in half-bridge with my ipcop machine. A draytek vigor 120 is awesome as it does pppoa to pppoe which means you can fully bridge the connection to the dd-wrt router and let that do all the work. Im a tight a5s though and only use what is free lol. A draytek modem is around the $100 mark. I cant remember what model it is but there is an older linksys modem that does half bridge really simple. Just one click of a radio button and its done. In saying that though if you are confident with flashing firmware then bridging a modem is simple.

timmmay

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#538662 28-Oct-2011 12:50

http://blog.astrill.com/index.php/2011/03/03/what-router-for-openvpn/

gcorgnet

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#538693 28-Oct-2011 13:16

timmmay: http://blog.astrill.com/index.php/2011/03/03/what-router-for-openvpn/

Thanks for that. I had seen the Asus router as well which seems to be pretty good (although more expensive).

But I would still need a modem or modem/router to use with this, correct?

gcorgnet

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#538695 28-Oct-2011 13:18

chevrolux: I dont know about strongvpn but if you go with Astrill you can install the client on to a dd-wrt router. Then your whole connection will be routed through the vpn. Cant go wrong with a linksys wireless router. Great wireless performance and price is always good. Cant comment on the d-link as i have never used them.

as for a modem, you just need one that can bridged with the dd-wrt router. I use a sh!tty old netcomm nb6 in half-bridge with my ipcop machine. A draytek vigor 120 is awesome as it does pppoa to pppoe which means you can fully bridge the connection to the dd-wrt router and let that do all the work. Im a tight a5s though and only use what is free lol. A draytek modem is around the $100 mark. I cant remember what model it is but there is an older linksys modem that does half bridge really simple. Just one click of a radio button and its done. In saying that though if you are confident with flashing firmware then bridging a modem is simple.

Thanks a lot for your explanations.
I am still a bit confused and I don't really understand what is half-bridge, etc..
Is it correct to say that I need a dd-wrt router AND a modem or modem/router that can be set in half bridge.

If I have a dd-wrt router and an ADSL2+ mode/router, can I have 2 netowrks: one that uses my regular internet connection and one that goes through the VPN?

Thanks,

Guillaume

timmmay

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#538709 28-Oct-2011 13:29

I posted that link as it's to a router that's powerful, which is good if you want to VPN your whole connection. If you need a modem too work out what chipset is in that router, and get a combination ADSL modem/router/wap that has the same or a similar chipset.

chevrolux

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#539364 30-Oct-2011 21:27

i dont use my vpn over my whole connection as my adsl isnt that good so general surfing gets slowed down.

in my setup i have a media/seedbox PC that runs the astrill vpn client so is the only machine that gets vpn'd. the speeds are fast enough to stream netflix/BBC iplayer and gets decent torrent speeds.

like i said earier, i use a netcomm nb6 (like this:http://www.trademe.co.nz/computers/networking-modems/adsl-modems/auction-417819750.htm) in half-bridge with an ipcop machine and it is very very stable.

You cant run some computers off the modem and some off a router as you will have double nat and the dhcp will get all screwed up. If you want to run your whole connection through a vpn then astrill on a dd-wrt router is super easy as there is good documentation on doing that.

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sbiddle

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#539368 30-Oct-2011 21:37

If you route everything via a VPN any NZ sites you visit will be terribly slow, and possibly even unusable due to the massive increase in latency and reduction in speeds. You'll also potentially find services such as YouTube suffer a huge degradation in performance if your current ISP has a Google cache.