VPN Router with IPSec Client software - tutorial

 

Configuration Challenge Level:  Meduim

Technical Summary: This article will show how to setup a Broadband Router that has IPSec VPN capabilities for secure remote access to your home network from anywhere on the Internet. Detailed configuration will be shown for multiple brands of routers. The VPN IPSec client will be SSH-Sentinel since it is free for non-commercial use.

UPDATE:  Please see this message for details.  Better tutorial in link.

How many times have you been at a friends house or at work and said 'Gosh, I wish I could get at that file on my hard drive at home'. With a broadband Internet connection and a shiny new 'VPN Router', you can connect to your home network over the Internet from anywhere on the planet SECURELY. This article will show you how.

Our goal will be to establish an IPSec VPN connection from somewhere on the Internet to your home network. In addition, the remote computer will be able to mount network file shares (and printers too!) located on the home network.

You can connect to your home hard drive:

  From work

  From a friends house

  From your laptop while on the road

You could also allow your friends and relatives access to your network over the internet. That makes file sharing especially!

  1 Solid Broadband Connection to your home

      (Preferably with a static IP address)

  1 VPN Broadband Router (about $150-$300)

  1 Copy of SSH-Sentinel (free for non-commercial use!)

Most of the consumer level VPN routers operate just about the same way because they all licensed the same IPSec code. The only differences are the number of simultaneous 'VPN Tunnels' they support and how many different 'VPN Profiles' they support at once. They also have the same performance levels - 500kbps to 700kbps max IPSec throughput.

A 'VPN Tunnel' is simply an IPSec VPN connection in this case. Each remote computer connecting to your home network is one VPN Tunnel.

A 'VPN Profile' is a set of parameters that define how your router will connect to other VPN end points. Some routers support multiple profiles making it easy to use for connecting to your work Intranet 'and' using it to dial into from the road.

In this example, we will be working with two computers and a VPN Router. Throughout the screen shots and the rest of the article, I will refer to the following IP address. Please write them down or print them for reference, it will help you understand the rest of the article.

Home WAN IP: 24.60.60.100 (from your ISP)

Home LAN Router IP: 192.168.100.1

Home LAN IP Network: 192.168.100.0: Subnet 255.255.255.0

Computer on Home LAN: 192.168.100.2

Remote (friends) computer on the Internet: 24.60.60.200

It is wise to change the IP Schema of your home network from the default your router configures. This will aid you in connecting multiple networks together - especially two VPN routers of the same brand. Often the IP Schema is 192.168.1.0/255.255.255.0. All you need to do is change the second from the last number (octet) to something higher than 2 and less than 255. In this example, I made my LAN 192.160.100.0/255.255.255.0. This step is not totally necessary but it could save you some routing headaches later.

It is also wise to convert your computers over to STATIC IP address instead of dynamic IP address. If your computers have dynamic IP address, you will not know what the IP address is of the computer you want to connect to from the road. One day it might be .2 the next day it might be .5. Again this is not necessary, but it will save you headaches later.

LAN Computer 1

  IP Address: 192.168.100.51

  subnet: 255.255.255.0

  Gateway: 192.168.100.1 (router address)

  DNS: 192,168.100.1 (router address again)

LAN Computer 2

  IP Address: 192.168.100.52

  subnet: 255.255.255.0

  Gateway: 192.168.100.1 (router address)

  DNS: 192,168.100.1 (router address again)

etc...

I have a

(more routers listed in the future)