VPN @ home, what is the best solution?
 

I am in the process of upgrading all my tech at home and I really want a VPN set up or an equivalent to fit my needs.

I have been searching the interent etc to find a decent solution that will fit my needs and there are several options.

I was wondering if anyone here has a VPN setup at home/or small business and what type it was, also cost/pitfalls etc.

I was thinking about going down the hardware route rather than the software options, general set up and what i want to achieve is below, any advice would be greatly apprieciated.

Equipment:

2 x Desktop PCs - one for gaming/design, one for office work and running VMs (to test and use Ubuntu etc)
1 x NAS (yet to buy - but have been looking at Seagate Armour Black 400 4-bay - very sweet!)
2 x Laptops - hence the need for Wireless

I want to/requirements:

1) Be able to access the files on the NAS (from anywhere) - without PCs running
2) Be able to remote access (and control) the two desktop machines (and wake on LAN)
3) The router needs to be Gigabit ethernet and Wireless ("n" will do)
4) I will also need one switch - does this need to be "VPN" or pair with the router or can it be an off the shelf job?
5) Also a bonus would be able to do the first two points from my N900 :D
6) I don't really want a server left running while I'm away (power requirements) which is why I wanted the hardware (VPN router) rather than the software solutions.

I have:

Sky ADSL broadband (UK) - does anyone know of any issues using VPN and all the stuff that comes with that (tunneling etc) while using Sky broadband?

I was thinking:

Wireless VPN ADSL Router (there are a few if you google it) - but the Cisco "small business version" requires you to install QuickVPN on the remote machine - which isn't a problem for my laptop (while travelling) but I wouldn't be able to use my N900 :(

The others (that aren't cisco) require a web page login - does anyone know how this works and what the limitations are? They also offer some other options like IP access but to be honest, I'm not sure how that works when you are remote? Is that option for fixed bases, like other offices offsite?

Re: VPN @ home, what is the best solution?
 

Get a router with enough flash and ram to run dd-wrt with openvpn. Be sure to get a compatible model with no outstanding issues. I use the good old WRT-54GL with openvpn and configured using the webui. It works fine (it's been over one year) I use it to access my pc's and nas and also my wife uses it when she needs a secure connection when on free wifi as she travels quite a lot.

Drawbacks: the old wrt-54gl has a slow cpu and so I don't reach over 700kb or so. It's enough for my needs but they might not be enough for you.

Let us know what you choose in the end.

Re: VPN @ home, what is the best solution?
 

Ok thanks, well I hadn't heard of that software for the router before, so looks like ive got a bit more reading to do :)

So I guess the server version of openVPN goes on the router and the client on the remote devices....its a win-win as there is a "openVPN" client for N900 in the repos if memory serves...:D

...I'll probably need high speeds than those, but I guess there must be an updated router that is compatible. Thanks again.

Re: VPN @ home, what is the best solution?
 

I have the Cisco e2000 wifi router running dd-wrt. It is my openvpn server and it is plenty fast.

Re: VPN @ home, what is the best solution?
 

If you want a fast and reliable router that can host VPN server get an ASUS RT-N16. It can run tomato, dd-wrt, open-wrt(not fully supported), debwrt. However, it's pretty expensive and it has only 2.4 ghz wifi n radio.
But the price is worth it. Mine runs tomato rock solid, I am pushing almost 100 megs across the network. (RAM mounted partition -> SSD) I didn't test VPN on this thing, but it will definitely run better than most other routers on the market. It has 400 mhz cpu and 128 MBs of ram.

The cheapest and the best way is to get some old linux supported pc and run VPN on it.