first attempt at setting up a VPN, looking for some advice

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fleep

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Nov 7, 2007
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Hello,

I'm getting ready to dip my toe in to the VPN pool and I'm hoping someone can provide some guidance before I get myself in a pickle. I can't get adequate home coverage using just the Netgear Nighthawk (r7000) and I like how Linksys Velop manages the connections of the devices 'under the hood'. It doesn't appear the that Velop (WHW03) is eligible to be flashed with dd-wrt firmware, but since I have a r7000 laying around here is my plan:

1) flash the r7000 with the appropriate dd-wrt firmware
2) connect the r7000 to the cable modem
3) set up a VPN
4) turn off the WiFi and direct-connect the primary Velop using one of the LAN ports.
5) Use the Velop mesh to manage my WiFi connection(s)

My question is...is this a viable / reasonable approach? In my head, this would seem to give me a whole-home VPN...is that right? Really any advice people are willing to provide would be welcome.

Thanks in advance!
 
Solution
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The pass-through is if an individual computer wants to hav ea VPN connection, not the entire router.

In your case of using a VPN client, not a VPN server having the setup on the top primary router will allow protection regardless of how things under it are wired.
It is still a bad idea to have two routers funcitoning as routers as you now have 2 nats, are slowed down to the weakest of the 2 routers, and will make configuring anything like portforwarding much more difficult. Thus it is always advised to have any additional routers on your network setup as an access point (which makes it act as an extension of your primary router and still be 1 large network instead of 2).
But by doing this the Velop wont be managing the connections...
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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If you connect the LAN from nigthhawk to WAN of Velop you wil have double NAT, and inbound VPN access will not be able to access the devices on the Velop router.

If you set Velop in Access Point mode and connect nighthawk to LAN of Velop then you will have single large network but Velop is no longer "manainging" the connections.

Now are you trying to setup a VPN client on your router to protect your privacy, of are you trying to setup a VPN server so you/others can connect to services on your network?
 
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fleep

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To protect my privacy.

From the Linksys Official support page they have this:

6. Does Velop support VPN pass-through?

Yes. The Velop supports Internet Protocol Security (IPSec), Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP), Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP).

But quite honestly, I'm not sure what to do with them (and my google-foo skillz are failing me). More than happy to read up on a tutorial if there is an "idiots guide" out there.
 
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boosted1g

Titan
Jun 12, 2013
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The pass-through is if an individual computer wants to hav ea VPN connection, not the entire router.

In your case of using a VPN client, not a VPN server having the setup on the top primary router will allow protection regardless of how things under it are wired.
It is still a bad idea to have two routers funcitoning as routers as you now have 2 nats, are slowed down to the weakest of the 2 routers, and will make configuring anything like portforwarding much more difficult. Thus it is always advised to have any additional routers on your network setup as an access point (which makes it act as an extension of your primary router and still be 1 large network instead of 2).
But by doing this the Velop wont be managing the connections anymore so you loose the entire point of using the Velop.

Thus if you do not need the Velop for extra wifi coverage doue toa large house I would suggest you just use the nighthawk router.
 
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fleep

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I do need the additional coverage of the Velop and I like not having to manage the various connections as I move about the house. I was hoping to find a use for the Nighthawk, since it was an expensive router and just sitting on a shelf, and the Velop doesn't support dd-wrt or any other custom firmware that allows for the installation of a VPN.

Seems like, since I don't have a specific need for a VPN other than "I want one" and an excuse to learn a bit, probably best to bag the whole idea. Even if I get something wired up and it works ,if there is significant degradation in speeds, I'll never hear the end of it from the family :pfff:.

Nonetheless, thank you very much for taking the time to help me!
 
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boosted1g

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Jun 12, 2013
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VPN for prvacy is not free, you have to pay a service to connect to their server.
I use PIA VPN (i can pick and choose which computers use it with my ASUS router) and I can only get a max of about 50mbps (often only 35-40) on the PCs connected to VPN despite having 70mbps connection.
 
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fleep

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yeah, I'm okay with paying for the service. I live in an area that will soon have 1gig fiber service (currently have "up to" a 300mbps connection that is often times ~25% of the "up to" speed).
 
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dp1971

Jul 25, 2018
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Hi Fleep, I am in a very similar situation as you was. Did you find a solution for using VPN with velop? I shall be thnakful if you can share your setup and experience.
Thanks

 
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