Some basic newbie questions about how vpn works

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hddnewbie

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Jul 27, 2008
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Hi
I have googled "how vpn works" etc but I have some unanswered questions.
I saw that my router supports dd-wrt with openVPN:
http://
Edit: Trying link again: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/OpenVPN

My basic need is to be able to rdp from work (or whereever) to my machines at home (VM:s and not VM:s). Of course with some security in mind.

Some very basic and easy questions for you:

1)
If I for example use openVPN to connect from work to one of my machines at home, what happens if I use the browser on my work machine? Am I then using my home network?
What if I would like to connect and use remote desktop and at the same time browse from my work machine? (This is not important, I just want to understand how VPN works)

2) Assuming that I set everything up correctly, what can my employeer see (when I connect from work)?

3)
I have a couple of family members using the wireless (Ipads etc), what about them? Can I install openVPN on the router without affecting them or do they need to install some openvpn software in order to continue using the wireless?

4)
If someone knows my IP and wants to access my home network, will it be safer after I install openVPN on my router?


Thank you
 
Solution
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1) If I for example use openVPN to connect from work to one of my machines at home, what happens if I use the browser on my work machine? Am I then using my home network?

This depends on how you configure your VPN. Split tunneling is how you control this. What split tunneling does is allow you to specify what traffic gets sent over the VPN. So for example if your home IP range is 192.168.1.1-254 then you would set up a split tunnel policy that sends any traffic destined for that IP range over the VPN and leaves the rest of the traffic alone.

Another consideration you may need to think about is overlapping IP ranges. I.E. if your home network uses the same IP address range as your work. You can make this work but it is not at all...
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bill001g

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Aug 9, 2012
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1 if you enable split tunnel...it is not a good security practice but neither is allowing unauthorized VPN tunnels.
2 Odds are if RDP is not allowed out you will not get VPN to work with IPSEC or PPTP. You only hope is to use ssl/tls which should look like https. If your ISP does not let you run port 443 out of your house...they think it is a server.. you are going to be out of luck I suspect.
3. You can configure the open vpn to only tunnel traffic from certain internal machines
4. It will be no different, any port forwarding will still put you at risk and if you don't have port forwarding then there traffic will never enter your network
 
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jeff-j

jeff-j

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Dec 13, 2013
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Hello,

I am going to see if I can answer most of your questions.

If you use your VPN at work your internet traffic should still go throught your company's internet. You should be able to RDP from work to home as long as you have the vpn up and can ping your home computer. But if the company you work for is blocking the port that open vpn uses they you will have to find an open port to use.

Your employeer should only be able to see that there is traffic on the port that open vpn will use.

For your wireless at home, you do not need to install openvpn on them, they should be able to use the wireless as normal.

If someone wants to get in they will, opening a service on your router will make it a bit less secure.

If your home internet does not have a static WAN IP you will have to update the IP everytime it changes.

There are a few other ways you can go about RDP into a computer from home.

One I would look into is team viewer, this software works just like a remote session but requires a lot less configuration and you do not need a vpn, also there are some nice security features and there are also apps to control your computer from android or iphone. Also as long as you have internet you can access your home computer.

Another way is to just open a port for RDP on the routers firewall and point it to the computer you want to RDP to. With this way you do not need a vpn but it does make your home computer a little open to the internet.
 
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fredweston

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Jul 21, 2006
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1) If I for example use openVPN to connect from work to one of my machines at home, what happens if I use the browser on my work machine? Am I then using my home network?

This depends on how you configure your VPN. Split tunneling is how you control this. What split tunneling does is allow you to specify what traffic gets sent over the VPN. So for example if your home IP range is 192.168.1.1-254 then you would set up a split tunnel policy that sends any traffic destined for that IP range over the VPN and leaves the rest of the traffic alone.

Another consideration you may need to think about is overlapping IP ranges. I.E. if your home network uses the same IP address range as your work. You can make this work but it is not at all simple or elegant.

2) Assuming that I set everything up correctly, what can my employeer see (when I connect from work)?

They would see ISAKMP, IKE, and UDP traffic to port 500. In short, they would easily be able to tell that you're using a VPN, but assuming you configure your VPN to encrypt traffic, they would not be able to tell what you were using it for.

3) I have a couple of family members using the wireless (Ipads etc), what about them? Can I install openVPN on the router without affecting them or do they need to install some openvpn software in order to continue using the wireless?

It would not affect them at all.

4) If someone knows my IP and wants to access my home network, will it be safer after I install openVPN on my router?

It would not really make a difference one way or the other, assuming you set everything up properly and are using strong passwords.
 
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Vick75

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Dec 18, 2013
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Hi!
I am using VPN service for 6 months now. The connection speed is really much more faster. And my family members can also use it in their Ipads and Iphones. But my VPN is from Faceless.me and they have app for gadgets. Who is your provider?
 
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