Best VPN Setup for Remote Work

VPN
1

This has been covered to varying degrees in other posts but none completely match my needs! Hope some of you can lend your expertise.

I need a setup where I can work from different locations outside the US but have my work device show a US IP address. I’ll need to connect to the company VPN so any solution would have a double VPN, I imagine.

I’m thinking that I could setup up a router with a VPN and then connect that to whatever router I have access to wherever I am (yes, I’m aware I’d need router admin access). I believe this setup would allow my work device to always show a US IP address (if I connect to the VPN router with my work laptop and the VPN is configured to exit in the US).

  1. Has anyone tried this setup? If so, how did it work for you? Are there simpler alternatives?
  2. Can you foresee any issues with the setup?
  3. Any technical pointers would be super!

Finally, I know how these threads can digress! Please stick to my problem at hand and technical solutions to address it. Thanks!

2

Just answered a similar question on another thread. So I’m copying my answer here.

This should work:

  1. Set up a VPN server at home (US)
  2. Use a router to establish VPN connection back to US
  3. Turn off WiFi on the work computer. Connect the work computer to the router above by wire.

The are two reasons that you want to run the VPN client on a router:

  1. You need to run the company VPN on the work computer
  2. You want the work computer to get a public IP address from US

Turning off WiFi on the work computer is needed because WiFi might leak your location despite that you’re on VPN: https://www.pcwrt.com/2021/01/how-does-my-browser-know-my-real-location-when-im-on-a-vpn/

VPN on routers usually suffer in performance. So make sure you get a high-end router, or one that supports WireGuard. Also make sure that your ISP at home gives you a public IP address (otherwise it’s hard to run a VPN server at home). Here’s how to test: https://www.pcwrt.com/2019/12/how-to-find-out-if-your-router-is-behind-nat/.

If you’re shopping for a router, please take a look at ours too: https://shop.pcwrt.com/.

Here’s how to set up a WireGuard VPN server at home: https://www.pcwrt.com/2019/12/how-to-set-up-a-wireguard-vpn-server-on-the-pcwrt-router/

3

The problem I found with using a router is when you only have wifi available

4

A VPN is for you just a changed IP adress?

5

I’m a paid user for turbo vpn now I tried to set up on my pc, and it’s not bad. I use it for gaming and streaming so recommend.

6

Thanks. To clarify 1), when you say “Set up a VPN server at home (US)“ does that mean I have to have a physical location in the US?

7

If you connect to a commercial VPN in the US, it might trigger a warning on the company’s VPN server (depending on the server configuration). Because hackers usually h

Is there a way to do this virtually without having a physical VPN server at home?

8

I think I understand - meaning when there’s no router that you can link your VPN router up to?

Did you manage to find a solution for those situations?

9

Thanks. Would you mind elaborating?

10

No, but that’s my primary purpose for setting it up.

11

That’s the best option if you do. From the view of the company VPN server, you’re coming from a residential IP address. A reverse dns lookup will show d-d-d-d.x.comcast.net, for example.

If you connect to a commercial VPN in the US, it might trigger a warning on the company’s VPN server (depending on the server configuration). Because hackers usually hide behind a VPN connection.

Our router provides the “guest VPN” mode to help providing VPN service to friends and family. A “guest VPN” user can use your VPN server to access the Internet, but they can’t access your internal network.

12

Unfortunately, I don’t understand enough.

The best solution I can think of is to buy a wifi extender that gives an Ethernet out. Connect your router to that. Atleast then you could connect your laptop straight to the router. I haven’t pulled the trigger out yet to test it. I’m no expert on this stuff

13

Thanks. Couple of qs:

  1. Is anything special needed to create a VPN server at home?
  2. How can I create a VPN connection to that US home server?
14
  1. There are many ways to to create a VPN server at home, but in general it requires some technical expertise. We’ve made it easy to set up a VPN server on our router. Easy enough so that people without technical expertise can set it up by themselves. Please take a look at our guide here and see if you can follow the steps: https://www.pcwrt.com/2019/12/how-to-set-up-a-wireguard-vpn-server-on-the-pcwrt-router/. (FYI, WireGuard is a type of VPN which is easy to set up and offers best performance on a router)
  2. You’ll need another router that runs a VPN client to connect to the US home server. If the server runs WireGuard, the client should run WireGuard too. If you use our router, then you can download a configuration file from the server and import it on the client router. The client router will then be able to establish a VPN connection to the server router.
15

Yes. Kill switch is always on.

16

Of course the client router needs Internet access to establish a VPN connection. And you’ll need to configure the client router with the server router’s DNS (IP address) and login credentials before a VPN connection can be established.