How to use VPN to connect two PCs that are on different public internet network to the same network as if they were on LAN

VPN
1

Hi All,

I have two Windows 10 Pro PCs.

One is my home workstation and the other is my on-the-go Laptop.

My use case is that when I am on the go, I want to access my home workstation and its connected network. For example - I have a raspberry pi device connected to my Wifi - and from my Home workstation I can ssh into it and work as they are on the same network.

While I am on the go, I want to have the same access. I.e, I want to turn on my laptop on the go - ssh into the raspberry pi device while I am on a completely different public internet.

I have been trying to get my head wrapped around OpenVPN and their Remote Access Guide - but looks like I am missing something.

Has anyone attempted this?

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Edit:

So I have sorted this using SoftEther. https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howto/1.VPN_for_On-premise/1.Ad-hoc_VPN

I can now just type in my raspberry pi private IP [ 192.168.x.x ] on my on the go laptop, and ssh in! woohoo!

I also tried Tailscale - though it is connecting the 2 PCs, my PCs are getting an IP 100.x.x.x. My firewall is treating this as an connection coming from the public internet.

Tailscale is letting my two PCs be connected, but looks like they are on a separate network to my local LAN.

I would probably also need to install Tailscale on my raspberry pi to have it on the same network as my Home PC.

So for now I am going to use SoftEther. Thanks Guys!

2

Tailscale. Seriously, it’s all you need.

3

For now I have got it working with SoftEther.

Wasted 10 hours today trying to tinker with OpenVPN :frowning: damnit.

Looks like it’s open source and free. Though the UI looks a bit dated.

OpenVPN documentation really needs some work - I am not a network engineer, and making sense of their docs was doing my head in. :frowning:

Also user u/e-a-d-g has suggested Tailscale. That one looks nice too, I am going to try that too.

4

I use OpenVPN setup on my Synology. Works great. When remote I open that, pop in my creds and boom, I’m inside my network. I can then html into any device on my network or rdp to a local workstation. Same from my phone.

5

An update - tried out Tailscale today
It is connecting the 2 PCs, my PCs are getting an IP 100.x.x.x.

My firewall is treating this as a connection coming from the public internet. Had to explicitly turn on rules to let inbound connection from the internet for testing RDP.

Tailscale is letting my two PCs be connected, but looks like they are on a separate network to my local LAN.
I would probably also need to install Tailscale on my raspberry pi to have it on the same network as my Home PC.
So for now I am going to use SoftEther. Thanks Guys!

6

You say you want to access your home workstation and connected network when remote.

Why wouldn’t you consider a VNC solution like RealVNC Connect? It will give access as though you are sitting at the PC keyboard and monitor.

I need to access apps and app data remotely, generally not available through HTML. Quicken is a prime example where data and app need to be on the same machine (at least the implementation of Q that I use).

7

Just use wireguard because it’s simple and free and arguably the best solution right now.

You run WG server on end link PC and run the client on the PC you’re actively using.

8

I think if you are trying to VPN two PCs together you can set that up in windows

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Tailscale

Going to check it out asap! Thank you for the reco!

In the meantime - I have been able to get it working using SoftEther. https://www.softether.org/4-docs/2-howto/1.VPN_for_On-premise/1.Ad-hoc_VPN

Looks like its open source and free. Though the UI looks a bit dated.

10

Tailscale also uses wireguard. They actually have a good comparison here.

11

For real, came to say this. Tailscale free lets you connect up to 20 devices. It’s INSANE how simple it is to set up. I have my unraid server on it, as well as 3 Raspberry Pis (one of which is my travel nas and on the road with me) as well as my laptop, phone and tablet. I worked remote from iceland for a month with my stuff on my server in Germany - only because of the slow internet in iceland did I notice a bit of transfer time here and there, but Tailscale is the closest thing to magic I’ve used.

12

You don’t mind paying or using closed source software? Tailscale is indeed quite good.

Headscale is an open source version of Tailscale (of the closed sourced component of Tailscale).

There is also Netmaker and Nerbird that does the same.

I personally use Nebula. It requires a bit more work to get going but I find the design much more sound.

13

Yeah. I love Tailscale because it’s so easy to install, connect to my account and forget. I love how it works without opening any port or having to go through and set up an OpenVPN server.