New to VPN - Fire TV?

[Rickyearl 0]

Hi everyone.

 

Very new to VPNs generally. Got a question on setup/implementation. I have a weird 7,000-ish sq ft post-industrial space we have decided to use as our home. It’s a big space that used to be offices and we are slowly reconfiguring it with rooms for ourselves and the kids. Think of it for the purposes of this discussion as one long rectangle with stairs up to a loft on one end that we want to use as a media/game room . All outside walls are brick, so certain connections are literally “set in stone,” such as my internet connections, of which I have two – one on one end of the space and the other in the loft on the opposite end. I have it set up with two routers. The two routers overlap somewhat, but I can’t cover to the far end with just either one. Both are Netgear Nighthawk AC1900s.

 

So, I need to keep some of my routed traffic outside a VPN for a number of reasons, so I can’t just flash my routers and set them to run everything through the VPN. What I primarily need to route through VPN are Ipads, 2 desktops, a laptop, and two FireTVs. I don’t think the PS4 and Wii-U need it.

 

Now, for the Ipads and Windows PCs, this seems simple – I can just run the OpenVPN and/or Eddie. But how do I run the FireTVs through the VPN? I looked online and it seems that I might be able to sideload OpenVPN on the FireTV and put a .ovpn config in place, but how do I get those on the FireTV? Alternatively, is there a way to set my router up where it VPNs some clients but not others?

 

I have read that some people actually run two routers, one VPN and one not – that makes some sense but don’t they interfere? Especially here, where now we’d be talking 3 routers.

 

Any rhoughts on how I should do this?

[Rooty 3]

I bought a mini router from Amazon "GLI Mini Travel Router GL-AR300M" for around £40 (GBP) and connected it via Ethernet to my main Asus router, downloaded and installed the relevant .ovpn file on the mini router and changed the WiFi connections on my iPhone + iPads and a Fire TV to connect to the mini router. Now they all go through VPN.

 

The reason I chose that particular mini router is that it's basically click-and-go with very little user fiddling required. Note that Amazon Prime and Netflix videos will not work through VPN, at least not for me in the UK.

 

Note that there is a speed restriction on the mini router of around 20Mbps I think. Thus my two Mac desktops connect via Eddie and Ethernet to main router and thus achieve full bandwidth (of 80Mbps+).

[Rickyearl 0]

Thanks! That makes sense. I was once told that having two wifi networks on the same frequency in the same place causes issues. Is that not a problem?

[Staff 9894]

Thanks! That makes sense. I was once told that having two wifi networks on the same frequency in the same place causes issues. Is that not a problem?

 

Hello!

 

The same base frequency is not by itself an issue provided that you use different channels that do not overlap the slice frequency. Each channel has normally a 20 MHz slice frequency. Unfortunately every channel overlaps with "near" channels, so if you experience issues you might need some trial-and-error procedure. However, the problem is treated here for a more scientific approach. Also, some useful tools are suggested. You can find additional articles facing the problem more properly for your country (the example article is specific to UK) through a web search engine.

 

http://www.expertreviews.co.uk/networks/1401371/how-to-extend-wi-fi-range-increase-speed-and-fix-problems/page/0/1

 

EDIT: an additional nice article https://www.howtogeek.com/197268/how-to-find-the-best-wi-fi-channel-for-your-router-on-any-operating-system/

 

Kind regards

[Rooty 3]

Staff covers it nicely, but just to share my own WiFi set up, I have three 2.4GHz networks on the go. My router supports 5GHz, but I've very thick brick walls and it just couldn't get through!

 

o Channel 1 is outside (garage / garden) via an access point, itself connected to main router via underfloor Ethernet.

o Channel 6 is interior of house, from centrally located main router.

o Channel 11 is the mini VPN router which, as mentioned above is also centrally located.

 

Channels 1, 6 and 11 are the three unique primary channels, the others sit in-between 1, 6 and 11, so that's why I chose those.

[flat4 79]

I would suggest that you look into pfsense (no bias lol) or OPNsense and us your night hawks as ap's.