New VPN for router recommendation

F

fastman

n00b
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Apr 13, 2008
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28
Hello all,

I temporarily moved to Italy for three years for work and have been using a VPN router solution through WiTopia which has been meeting my needs for geo fencing purposes.

The main router is from my ISP and works well enough. The VPN router is an Asus RT-AC66U with a DD-WRT Buffalo build which I am used to. My main computer which is my gaming machine is connected directly to the router I need at that moment via a lan port. Everything else, Vonage Phone, Amazon FireTV, Roku, Netflix and smart TV's are WiFi.

The one year plan for the VPN has expired but I am still seen as being located in the U.S. Is this because of the U.S. DNS settings that I put in the router? Thus do I have a poor man smart DNS switch now? I assume the VPN encryption is no longer working as the VPN Hash/security keys are no longer valid as they did say I would have to place a new ones in the router when I renewed the lease, correct? The encryption factor isn't really a concern that I can think of just the geo fencing solution.

If I were to go with a different company I would like to keep the current Asus router solution! Would I just enter the new companies Hash and DNS settings if so?

TIA
 
You location should be set by your IP address. Since your VPN service expired has your external IP changed? Is the VPN tunnel still up?
 
Correct, my location is set by me and I can change that on the fly. My external address is still the same yes. VPN tunnel was a service so I'm sure the Hash is no longer valid.
 
Do you have 2 routers? 1 provided by your ISP and the other one is an ASUS one? How do you have both routers connected and what netowrk port is each using?


Let's go with the scenario - When your VPN was working, there were 2 external IP addresses.
  1. The public IP address provided to you by your ISP. If you were not behind the router with the VPN and you went to https://www.whatismyip.com/ let's say it was 1.1.1.1 (1.1.1.1 is what the internet thinks is your IP address.)
  2. The public IP address provided to you by your VPN provider. If you were connected to the router with the VPN and you went to https://www.whatismyip.com/ let's say it was 2.2.2.2 (2.2.2.2 is what the internet thinks is your IP address.)
Now if you do the same thing since your VPN subscription ended, is the public IP address from your ISP the same as the one you get when you are on the VPN router? If you are note sure whether an IP address is public or private Wikipedia can help you there.. :)

  • If you get the same results on both, then the VPN isn't working. You should get your current location in Italy instead of the US.

It could be that because the session for the VPN tunnel hasn't ended/dropped so you are still getting service while the tunnel is up?
 
I have two routers yes, one provided by ISP and the other (Asus) VPN is mine yes. I am using a LAN port out of the ISP router to the WAN port on the VPN router. I physically change the LAN cable from the computer to the router as needed. All the smart devices are connected via WiFi to the VPN router.

This is what I am currently showing for public IP:

Your Public IPv4 is: xx.255.137.249
Your IPv6 is: Not Detected
Your Local IP is: 192.168.1.12
Location: Rome, 62 IT
ISP: Telecom Italia S.p.A.

and when I change routers to the VPN I get this:

Your Public IPv4 is: xx.115.161.23
Your IPv6 is: Not Detected
Your Local IP is: 192.168.20.22
Location: Reston, VA US
ISP: Witopia Inc.

I know it says Witopia but that is just a coincidence as I am using one of their DNS servers I believe. I can change DNS servers to locations around the world.

Confusing now, I hit refresh on whatismyip and it gave me a different location and ISP name for the VPN.

Your Public IPv4 is: xx.119.98.206
Your IPv6 is: Not Detected
Your Local IP is: 192.168.20.22
Location: Lakeland, FL US
ISP: PSINet Inc.

"It could be that because the session for the VPN tunnel hasn't ended/dropped so you are still getting service while the tunnel is up?" This is a possibility as what I have noticed is a huge drop in speed when using the VPN!
 
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My original post maybe wasn't clear but what I am looking for is a better VPN provider. The one I have now seems slow with a lot of overhead as I just got fiber and see it a lot more. One that can send me new VPN security credentials as I don't want to pay again for a pre-configured router!
 
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