Im trying to access geoblocked content (daily news etc) in Scandinavia from the US. All the main commercial VPNs are blocked and don’t work for this so I’ve decided the best path is to create my own VPN to a relatives house in Scandinavia.
Can I simply plug in a router there that supports openVPN or the like? Or do I need a machine running a vpn server at that home in order to stream content back to me in the states? Will a router with openVPN server support be able to supply a fast stream?
A Pi running Wiregaurd (via PiVPN) only needs a port opening to it and you’re good to go. Wiregaurd is very secure, fast, and light on battery use. It’s really easy to setup with pi VPN too! It’s not “plug and play” but it isn’t far off:
Im pretty happy with my Shellfire Box, some stuff is blocked but a lot of things work. They recently updated the firmware to add Wireguard support, making the connection a lot faster than before. https://www.shellfire.net/box/
Not sure if there is a ready made solution to create your own VPN.
A router running Merlin firmware will allow you to create an open VPN server, or a Raspberry Pi on the network with an open port could also do the trick (Raspberry Pi will open up a lot more options for vpn protocols that you could setup and install).
Try the pcWRT, which comes with a plug & play VPN server that supports OpenVPN, IPsec and WireGuard. It also has builtin DDNS so you don’t need to set up a separate DDNS for your VPN server. WireGuard is preferred since it’s faster than OpenVPN and IPsec (especially on a router).
And you can create guest users on the VPN server. Guest users can access the Internet through the VPN but don’t have access to the local network on the VPN server.
3 months ago I was looking for exactly the same solution. I found a router at freedomrouters.com and it did the trick for me. They have a simple control panel where you can change your identity or VPN location with one click. Works seamlessly.