Can someone help me setup a VPN? Noob here

dr.stevil

dr.stevil

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So with the amount of public and private networks that I use, I'd like to give myself a little peace of mind knowing that I'm protecting myself and any sensitive info that I might pass through to the web (bank info, passwords, etc, etc).

I want to setup a VPN on my home PC (Windows7 Pro 64bit) but not really sure where to begin or what software I can/should use. I tried to set one up using Windows default VPN setup, but can't seem to figure out how to connect to it via my phone since Windows doesn't really give me the info that I need to enter into my phones VPN settings.

My only real requirements are a secure connection, the ability to connect to it through my laptop as well as my iPhone and iPad (or any other device like that). So I'm guessing it has to use some sort of standard protocal. I looked into Hamachi, but read that it requires a client to use (something that's out of the question for iOS).

Can anyone help me out with this? I'd really appreciate it.
 
What do you need a VPN for?
If I am reading this correctly your looking for somthing add additional security to your data when surfing from home or when surfing from a mobile device at say a Starbucks.

A VPN is used to create a tunnel from an external site to a local network.

For example, from your Iphone while your at Starbucks to your local network at home to access music or files.

Regardless of usage your going to need to setup the VPN on your router, what is the make and model of the router?
 
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I'm not really looking to protect myself while at home. I'm wanting to tunnel my internet/data traffic from my laptop(s), tablet and phone encrypted through my home's broadband connection (so using my desktop at home as a psudo VPN server) while outside my home network. So bars, cafes and other typical public hotspots.

I'm not actually running a router at the moment (you can say that my PC is acting as a router right now). The line goes through my cable modem directly into my Desktops NIC. From there I broadcast a wireless signal to the rest of the devices in my home network with an old broadcom card and Connectify.

thanks for the help. I really don't know what I'm doing with this type of stuff. It's all pretty new to me.
 
Well next step would be to pick up a copy of somthing like OpenVPN, and set it up.

Here is a link to the how to page for them. HOWTO

Provided your cable modem has all its ports opened your going to have no issues, just need to open the ports from the windows firewall.

Best Practice would be to pick up a wireless router that can act as a VPN, imo much more security than just a Windows Firewall protecting your entire network.
 
thedocta45 said:
Well next step would be to pick up a copy of somthing like OpenVPN, and set it up.

Here is a link to the how to page for them. HOWTO

Provided your cable modem has all its ports opened your going to have no issues, just need to open the ports from the windows firewall.

Best Practice would be to pick up a wireless router that can act as a VPN, imo much more security than just a Windows Firewall protecting your entire network.
Click to expand...

the best way.

To the OP, I actually do this too, my ipad & phone all tunnel traffic over vpn when i'm at a hotspot or on some one else's WiFi..
 
checking in for when I get around to doing it.

the way I see it if your IT savvy there is no reason not to do this.
 
Keep in mind you might be at a remote site say starbucks and not that they woyld have it but you could be on a gigabit connection to the internet but if you have a 512k connection at hone and you tunnel in that will be your end device speed i.e. cell phone laptop tablet iver cpn.
 
tangoseal said:
Keep in mind you might be at a remote site say starbucks and not that they woyld have it but you could be on a gigabit connection to the internet but if you have a 512k connection at hone and you tunnel in that will be your end device speed i.e. cell phone laptop tablet iver cpn.
Click to expand...

yeah, I realise that. I have a pretty decent connection at home though, so not terribly worried about it.

I've done a lot of looking around on this subject and came to the conclusion that I might be better off using a 3rd party VPN service instead. I really like the idea of using my home desktop as a VPN server, but it's only been a headache so far. I might look into again in the future, but for now I tried a VPN called HotSpot Shield and it's been great. It works on Windows, OSX, iOS and Android. You can pay 10.00 for the year or 0.99 a month (for mobile). It's ad supported on Windows and OSX though (or can buy the premium version).

So far the sevice is excellent. Speeds are great and it's reliable. My only complaint is that my gmail account doesn't like it since it keeps reporting a different IP address. I really don't use it too much anyway (it's a throw away junkmail account) but still.
 
I use a SSH tunnel setup in dynamic mode so it acts like a SOCKS proxy. Very simple to setup.
 
Setting up a VPN isn't a cake walk especialy the first time you do it.
I still have issues now and then.
Was going to rec a service to you considering your going to be limited by your upload on your home network as tango mentioned, that and the technical issues. However I see that you have done that allready, its a good call for what you need.

IMO mess around with the OpenVPN software (you can't do to much dmg if any), and at least get a real wireless router for your home.
 
I'd be more worried about the latency from your ISP to your house and back.

Starbucks -> your ISP -> your house -> your ISP -> the website you want to visit

Starbucks -> webiste you want to visit

Also, what if your home connection is down or your cat turns your computer off? Do you 'risk' going online without the VPN?

I would use a hosted service or install something on a VPS (virtual private server) somewhere..
 
I would look at setting up a VPN server on a VPS. I have a couple VPS around the world running Ubuntu with OpenVPN Access Server installed on them. They work great. I can now watch BBC content and Hulu from anywhere in the world :)

OpenVPN would work for your laptop but you'd also need to setup a L2TP/PPTP/IPSec server for your "i" devices.

I currently use a couple of VPS providers but I find VPS.net to be the best.
 
Not sure if it was already mentioned, however. If you are looking to get secure Internet browsing back to your house, you could use SSH.

You --> Internet --> ISP --> House --> SSH server
--create appropriate NAT or port forwarding to SSH server

Use this from your device:
Code: 
ssh user@house-ip:port-forwarded -D 7777(or SOCKS port you want to use)

In Firefox or your favorite browser change the proxy settings to use localhost:7777 SOCKS. Bam internet browsing under an SSH tunnel to your house.
 
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