VPN Possible with a True Online Router?

[JXCutter]

BACKGROUND: I just started using a Roku 3 and the choices of channels is limited because of the non-US IP address. I did a little research and was told that some routers can be configured to utilize a VPN to have a US IP address.

QUESTION: Has anyone had any success configuring a True Online router to use a VPN? And if you did how were you able to do so?

Thanx

[Ludacris]

I'm not sure if a True router can run VPN software, but any router running VPN software will limit the download speeds of your Roku because routers don't have enough processing power to handle the encryption at high speeds.

What I would recommend is buying a motherboard that has dual-LAN connections, then you can plug your Roku into your desktop and use internet sharing so your desktop is running the VPN software for the Roku. Then you won't have any speed limitations.

StrongVPN's software works well with this configuration.

You can also have a look at this VPN accelerator, which essentially is a high powered router/mini desktop running VPN software.

http://www.sabaitechnology.com/vpn-accelerator/

[Rooo]

Moved to Internet Forum.

[Morakot]

routers don't have enough processing power to handle the encryption at high speeds.

Nonsenses. Modern average routers (e.g. fritz!box) are all capable of running VPN servers or clients with compression and encryption at very high speeds -- no problem whatsoever.

Sounds like the sales rep of this vpn device (you linked) must have told you this piece of misinformation.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Morakot

[Ludacris]

I'm not sure of the exact performance of different routers, but at least the one I tried had no where near the performance of my desktop when running VPN software and was limiting the speed of my Roku. It was the only one recommended for VPN software installation that I could find in Thailand.

That product was recommended by the VPN provider after my router experience, but I went the desktop route instead.

I should add to my previous post- The Roku needs to be connected to a router before being connected to the desktop. At least in my experience, I tried running the VPN on both the desktop and router, and got much better performance running the VPN on the desktop.

[BudRight]

Ludacris is incorrect. Encryption is difficult to crack but trivial to decrypt if you have the key. That's the whole point. If you knew the algorithm you could decrypt on a digital watch from 1988.

Get a router like a Linksys E2500, flash it to Tomato firmware and setup PPTP.

This is vastly superior to any ad-hoc solution.

Edit: A 'True router,' by itself, does not have this functionality.

Edited February 23, 2015 by BudRight

[muratremix]

You can use connectify hotspot to share your laptop's vpn connected network via wifi using a second cheap wireless adapter or using internal laptop wifi card (if you are connected by ethernet cable of course)

Or buy a cheap dd-wrt supported $35-40 usd router from dx.com and create a 2nd wireless network with openvpn for roku purposes.

[MartinBKK]

Roku doesnt work well on a VPN here in my experience. I have a 30mb docsis line and a UK vpn from strong and ipvanish and it is a frustrating experience however you provide the Roku with its internet connection. Because you have a US Roku you might have more joy than me because the speeds i get to the US are much faster than to the UK. Unfortunately i am mainly interested in UK content.

You are better off going the smart dns route but once again this doesnt work well because TRUE use a transparent proxy which means many services wont work. I know it works with TOT but am not sure about 3bb.

[Morakot]

setup PPTP.

Please move forward and forget about this deprecated 20 years out-of-date insecure protocol.

[Ludacris]

Muratremix, that's exactly what I did. I went out and bought the Linksys WRT54GL which was the only VPN supported router I could find at the time and I can confirm that it provided horrible download speeds with VPN software, even when overclocked. Not sure if it's what some people would call a modern router or not.

MartinBkk, are you running the Roku with VPN software on a router or desktop?

You guys can believe whatever you want, but I've got personal experience with a Roku with both desktop and router VPN software and I've never had any problems with picture quality or download speed using StrongVPN with shared internet connections on a dual-LAN motherboard/desktop.

This is not info from a friend or what I think will work.

Encryption does have overhead- Truecrypt on my desktop gives me benchmarks of 3.2GB/s down to 145MB/s depending on the algorithm. Routers have a fraction of this processing power and at least the router I bought is not up to the task of decrypting fast enough for high quality video.

Edited February 23, 2015 by Ludacris

[MartinBKK]

I have tried it with a VPN router and also from my pc using connectify hotspot. I have also experimented with a service from connectify called Speedify which is similar to a VPN but can bond connections together. Sometimes it works ok and other times it buffers constantly. Just depends how the VPN is performing that particular day. I do think that the VPN router gives a slower connection than using my PC but that could just be with my setup. It's all just too frustrating for me so i have more or less given up with streaming services like Netflix, BBC iplayer etc. Like i said though, i think streaming things from the US will be much better than from Europe. I also use other IPTV services and they work a lot better than the ROKU probably because i don't need to use a VPN.

[JimSeid]

I'm thinking of connecting a VPN router to the True Online router. The Linksys E1200 300MBPS is cheap here in the U.S.at $32 at Target and Walmart . Then connect the ROKU 3 via ethernet from the Linksys and the ROKU 3 to the TV to a HDMI input. I will also connect the True Online router to the TV via another HDMI input. My Samsung TV has several HDMI inputs. This way my wife can watch her Thai TV channels and I can watch U.S. using the ROKU 3.

Please comment if you think from your experiences if this will work. I see someone tried using a Linksys WRT54GL, but that is only 50MBPS.

[Tassawall]

Ludacris is incorrect. Encryption is difficult to crack but trivial to decrypt if you have the key. That's the whole point. If you knew the algorithm you could decrypt on a digital watch from 1988.

Get a router like a Linksys E2500, flash it to Tomato firmware and setup PPTP.

This is vastly superior to any ad-hoc solution.

Edit: A 'True router,' by itself, does not have this functionality.

BudRight,

I have purchased the Linksys E2500, flashed it to Tomato and tried on both VPNExpress and Hidemyass. I had each of them try to walk me through it and nothing. Something is obviously wrong. Can you tell which VPN provider you used and anything that might help me in the configuration?

Best

W

[DaveBKK]

"And tried and nothing". Not much information to go by to diagnose the problem. What specifically did you do and what specifically was the result? Is there a connection log? Was there an error in the connection log?

[sniffdog]

Routers need to be DD-WRT compatible. I am 99% sure the True routers are not. I have a ASUS ac87u router which is compatible and I can put a VPN in my network. But it seems that, compared to putting a VPN directly on my IOS devices, the throughput speeds are minimal.

Edited May 5, 2016 by sniffdog

[Tassawall]

"And tried and nothing". Not much information to go by to diagnose the problem. What specifically did you do and what specifically was the result? Is there a connection log? Was there an error in the connection log?

Hi DaveBKK, thanks for the reply- I purchased the E2500 online here in BKK, got it out of the box and flashed Tomato v3 to it and all seemed like it installed correctly. I then purchased a VPNexpress subscription and followed their directions and made no connection, then after a few hours with their support staff still nothing. I have cancelled their service and now have tried Hidemyass.com because their configuration seemed simpler if not different. This still does not work. Do I have to firstly configure the router without an VPN connection? It seems that no "internet" is getting into the second router (E2500) to begin with. I can connect to the E2500 via wifi and access its admin configuration pages. It is connected to a new True internet docsis wifi router. All of these VPN providers explain how to make a VPN connection to their servers but am I jumping ahead without configuring the Tomato (E2500) router for internet to begin with?

Best

W

[DaveBKK]

Let me try and understand your connection stream here. You have a True Docsis modem <<---- connected to an Tomato E2500 <------ connected to another E2500 ????

First thing I would do I make sure your Tomato E2500 was able to connect and get internet from the True Docsis alone WITHOUT the VPN. Simplify first, then add complexity. Once this is achieved, turn on the VPN without adding the 2nd E2500 (if there's a 2nd one).

Edited May 5, 2016 by DaveBKK

[DaveBKK]

Also let us know what kind of VPN you're trying to setup. Openvpn? PPTP? Etc.

[Bench499d]

Muratremix, that's exactly what I did. I went out and bought the Linksys WRT54GL which was the only VPN supported router I could find at the time and I can confirm that it provided horrible download speeds with VPN software, even when overclocked. Not sure if it's what some people would call a modern router or not.

MartinBkk, are you running the Roku with VPN software on a router or desktop?

You guys can believe whatever you want, but I've got personal experience with a Roku with both desktop and router VPN software and I've never had any problems with picture quality or download speed using StrongVPN with shared internet connections on a dual-LAN motherboard/desktop.

This is not info from a friend or what I think will work.

Encryption does have overhead- Truecrypt on my desktop gives me benchmarks of 3.2GB/s down to 145MB/s depending on the algorithm. Routers have a fraction of this processing power and at least the router I bought is not up to the task of decrypting fast enough for high quality video.

Although still available and popular, the WRT54GL must be at least 10 years old. Your phone probably has more processing power than that router! But you are right that encryption/decryption does add significant processor overhead so it's gonna be quicker on a modern desktop PC than a router.

[SoiBiker]

I'm not sure if a True router can run VPN software, but any router running VPN software will limit the download speeds of your Roku because routers don't have enough processing power to handle the encryption at high speeds.

What I would recommend is buying a motherboard that has dual-LAN connections, then you can plug your Roku into your desktop and use internet sharing so your desktop is running the VPN software for the Roku. Then you won't have any speed limitations.

StrongVPN's software works well with this configuration.

You can also have a look at this VPN accelerator, which essentially is a high powered router/mini desktop running VPN software.

http://www.sabaitechnology.com/vpn-accelerator/

Changing your motherboard is way overkill to do what you describe - a cheap usb LAN dongle will achieve the same thing for a few quid.

Rather than an VPN, I'd recommend trying a smart DNS service. They can unlock a whole load of geolocated stuff, and you can set them up on anything that lets you manually specify DNS servers,