useless VPNs blocked

[fred_jb]

The main problems with using a VPN is that they are very easy to detect and so block.

1) Any IP address that has a large number of connections to the streaming platform will get blocked. This is a fundamental problem with public commercial VPN services that have large numbers of customers and only a limited number of exit points.

The best way around this is to have a personal VPN from your van back to your own house. This will then look to the streaming service like an ordinary household using their service. I use my Pepwave router in the van which has a “Speed Fusion” feature that makes this easy. The software for the part that runs on a computer in your house is free. Speed fusion is highly optimised for streaming data it can also add several connections together to gain bandwidth which is also useful. I never get blocked by streaming services when using it on my laptop in the van (see next point).

I have also used Tailscale which is easy to set up on most devices. It is not so well optimised for streaming but is free, it is really useful.

That is interesting.

I used to work in IT, but though I'm not a network nerd, that sounds like something I could do. I have a GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) Router in the van and have found that it can run both vpn clients and servers, and also has a DDNS service. I was looking into using this to connect to the van's systems remotely but was stymied by the fact that both Starlink, which I mainly use, and the mobile networks use a form of internal address translation which prevents the use of a DDNS.

If I bought another Beryl router (only £62 Black Friday price on Amazon) to use on our Virgin broadband at home (Virgin router is already used in modem mode) I assume I would have to run a DDNS on this in order to overcome the non-static addresses used by Virgin? If I were to set that up do you think the VPN server in the Beryl router then be suitable to act as my own home based VPN service?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPSGJN7T/?tag=mhf04-21

 

[fishplug]

That is interesting.

I used to work in IT, but though I'm not a network nerd, that sounds like something I could do. I have a GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) Router in the van and have found that it can run both vpn clients and servers, and also has a DDNS service. I was looking into using this to connect to the van's systems remotely but was stymied by the fact that both Starlink, which I mainly use, and the mobile networks use a form of internal address translation which prevents the use of a DDNS.

If I bought another Beryl router (only £62 Black Friday price on Amazon) to use on our Virgin broadband at home (Virgin router is already used in modem mode) I assume I would have to run a DDNS on this in order to overcome the non-static addresses used by Virgin? If I were to set that up do you think the VPN server in the Beryl router then be suitable to act as my own home based VPN service?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPSGJN7T/?tag=mhf04-21

Depending on what you’re looking to achieve you could probably put Twingate on a Pi Zero W to get you into the van network.

 

[jerryz]

I try chan

I have no trouble using Nord VPN... often 24 hours a day.

I have learnt that if the Beeb get a hissy fit and tell me I'm not in the "correct" area, I have to turn off my location thingy and change server from Manchester to London or vice versa. (While I am doing this I always swivel my baseball cap around into the "backwards" position which fools them into thinking I am a tech save teenager.)

JJ

changing from london, to manchester on Nord all loaction devices turned off but still cant get BBC , i can on windscribe but sometimes the bandwidth is too slow ,,,same with surfshark ???

 

[matbic]

That is interesting.

I used to work in IT, but though I'm not a network nerd, that sounds like something I could do. I have a GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) Router in the van and have found that it can run both vpn clients and servers, and also has a DDNS service. I was looking into using this to connect to the van's systems remotely but was stymied by the fact that both Starlink, which I mainly use, and the mobile networks use a form of internal address translation which prevents the use of a DDNS.

If I bought another Beryl router (only £62 Black Friday price on Amazon) to use on our Virgin broadband at home (Virgin router is already used in modem mode) I assume I would have to run a DDNS on this in order to overcome the non-static addresses used by Virgin? If I were to set that up do you think the VPN server in the Beryl router then be suitable to act as my own home based VPN service?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPSGJN7T/?tag=mhf04-21

I don’t actually have a Beryl router or Starlink so I can only give you some pointers to how to do it. But hope this helps:

I am not sure what the type of “internal address translation” you are referring to but I assume you mean you don’t have a fixed public IP address in either the van or at home. This is no problem.

Tailscale is the easiest to set up. Go for that. It is free and works very well without public IP addresses. It also needs no special support on your routers.

First Tailscale gets around any need for public IP addresses. There is a nice description of how it works https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works. In summary “it just works” - is all you really need to know to get it set up!

To start go to https://tailscale.com/ and click on get started. Once you have an account all you have to do is add each of your devices to your account and this sets up the VPN between them for you.

There are two steps to using Tailscale:

Step 1) Install/setup Tailscale on each of your devices and add these to your Tailscale account.

There are two types of devices :

a) laptop, phone, streaming box you want to use to connect to either the van or home and

b) one device on the network at home that is on all the time. This could be your router if it supports end nodes. But if not, you could use a server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer. Install the Tailscale software on it, add it to your account and leave it on. It does not have to be your router it just has to be something you can leave on all the time when away.

2) When you start up the Tailscale client app on your laptop, phone or streaming box you will get an option to specify an “end node” this is what you want to do. Once you have done this all traffic for the internet for that device goes through to this “end node”.

So when in the van, specify the device at home as the end node and all your traffic will look like it is coming from your home.

That is probably all you need, but to be complete, when at home specify the van as your end node and you can get to all the network devices in your van as if you were in it. It works either way around. I have a RaspberryPi in the van with Tailscale installed on it.

I had a quick look at the documentation for your Beryl router, it seems to suggest it supports Tailscale. However is says “GL.iNet router is not yet available as an exit node.” So if your Beryl router doesn’t support end nodes it’s not much use at home - but you can use something else (Server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer) and leave that on when away.

In the van as long as your phone, tablet, streaming box has the Tailscale app installed you can set the end point to your home device and you are done. No need to set up anything on the van router to make it work like this.

There are some devices (Smart TV for example) for which there is no Tailscale app available. This is where your Beryl router in the van can help - add it to your Tailscale account and set the end point as your home device. Now all traffic from your van will go via your home device with no need to install anything on the TV.

I hope this has encouraged you to experiment with Tailscale. It is very simple to use even if my description seems to have rambled on a bit!

PS Looks like you can hack your router to support end nodes https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/tailscale-exit-node-on-gl-inet-routers/49088

 

[matbic]

If you have an AppleTV at home looks like you can use this as a Tailscale end node. https://tailscale.com/kb/1280/appletv

That would be great because AppleTV will go to sleep when you are not using it and wake up automatically when you need it.

Has anyone tried this?

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seanandjules]

We used Nord for 5 weeks recently in Spain. No issues other than BBC was hit & miss.
Used it with a router and Yoigo (Orange) sim.

I used to do this for work, i.e. stopping you from watching BBC or whatever abroad.

It's not difficult. To be fair the broadcasters don't want to do it, it's the rights holders who get pissy.

Sounds like you have less buffer bloat via your home router.

It’s quite common for mobile networks to employ very large data buffers. It helps with managing congestion on the mobile network. Buffer bloat really increases jitter - the large buffers fill up and then this add lots of latency. When they empty the latency goes right down again. So you get lots of jitter when connected directly to the mobile network. Lots of little pauses as your data is held in large buffers on the network and it then arrives in big chunks as the buffers unload.

Sounds like your home router has some mitigation for buffer bloat. Usually this is done using a queue management technique called CoDel. It basically gently slows the stream of data down before the buffers fill up and when they start to empty it speeds up. This keeps the latency constant over your Tailscale link as all the data on it goes through your home router.

Even though your link home is going over a network with large buffers your router is slowing down the flow over the Tailscale to reduce jitter!

CoDel is very useful! More details here: https://www.bufferbloat.net/projects/bloat/wiki/Introduction/

Does your X3000 van router have a CoDel feature - sounds like you would benefit by turning it on. I noticed Open Wrt supports CoDel and some other buffer bloat management techniques as well, so maybe you have this option.

Yep - I understand buffer bloat (do network engineering as well as being an SRE) but the weird thing is I get it locally on the lan at home without anything else inbetween - the only time it improves is on 5g / 1pmobile (EE) using my home as an exit node. Home is on Vermin Media, which probably explains it.

I do need to look into the settings on the glinet but frankly I don't want to tinker too much. Me and the missus disappear in the van to get away from stuff, not for me to do my day job.

(we probably need to talk on LinkedIn rather than here!)

 

[seanandjules]

I don’t actually have a Beryl router or Starlink so I can only give you some pointers to how to do it. But hope this helps:

I am not sure what the type of “internal address translation” you are referring to but I assume you mean you don’t have a fixed public IP address in either the van or at home. This is no problem.

Tailscale is the easiest to set up. Go for that. It is free and works very well without public IP addresses. It also needs no special support on your routers.

First Tailscale gets around any need for public IP addresses. There is a nice description of how it works https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works. In summary “it just works” - is all you really need to know to get it set up!

To start go to https://tailscale.com/ and click on get started. Once you have an account all you have to do is add each of your devices to your account and this sets up the VPN between them for you.

There are two steps to using Tailscale:

Step 1) Install/setup Tailscale on each of your devices and add these to your Tailscale account.

There are two types of devices :

a) laptop, phone, streaming box you want to use to connect to either the van or home and

b) one device on the network at home that is on all the time. This could be your router if it supports end nodes. But if not, you could use a server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer. Install the Tailscale software on it, add it to your account and leave it on. It does not have to be your router it just has to be something you can leave on all the time when away.

2) When you start up the Tailscale client app on your laptop, phone or streaming box you will get an option to specify an “end node” this is what you want to do. Once you have done this all traffic for the internet for that device goes through to this “end node”.

So when in the van, specify the device at home as the end node and all your traffic will look like it is coming from your home.

That is probably all you need, but to be complete, when at home specify the van as your end node and you can get to all the network devices in your van as if you were in it. It works either way around. I have a RaspberryPi in the van with Tailscale installed on it.

I had a quick look at the documentation for your Beryl router, it seems to suggest it supports Tailscale. However is says “GL.iNet router is not yet available as an exit node.” So if your Beryl router doesn’t support end nodes it’s not much use at home - but you can use something else (Server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer) and leave that on when away.

In the van as long as your phone, tablet, streaming box has the Tailscale app installed you can set the end point to your home device and you are done. No need to set up anything on the van router to make it work like this.

There are some devices (Smart TV for example) for which there is no Tailscale app available. This is where your Beryl router in the van can help - add it to your Tailscale account and set the end point as your home device. Now all traffic from your van will go via your home device with no need to install anything on the TV.

I hope this has encouraged you to experiment with Tailscale. It is very simple to use even if my description seems to have rambled on a bit!

PS Looks like you can hack your router to support end nodes https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/tailscale-exit-node-on-gl-inet-routers/49088

Good advice, again - though I do need to add the caveat it's an "exit node", not an "end node" for people googling it.

There's a lot of scary stuff for people who don't do our job - do you know if anybody does prebuilt raspi or whatever with Tailscale? It would remove the need to punch holes in the firewall and they could just drop a box into their network that works.

 

[seanandjules]

and the mobile networks use a form of internal address translation which prevents the use of a DDNS.

I assume by this you mean CGNAT?

 

[fred_jb]

I assume by this you mean CGNAT?

Yes, apparently that is what causes the problem.

 

[fred_jb]

I don’t actually have a Beryl router or Starlink so I can only give you some pointers to how to do it. But hope this helps:

I am not sure what the type of “internal address translation” you are referring to but I assume you mean you don’t have a fixed public IP address in either the van or at home. This is no problem.

Tailscale is the easiest to set up. Go for that. It is free and works very well without public IP addresses. It also needs no special support on your routers.

First Tailscale gets around any need for public IP addresses. There is a nice description of how it works https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works. In summary “it just works” - is all you really need to know to get it set up!

To start go to https://tailscale.com/ and click on get started. Once you have an account all you have to do is add each of your devices to your account and this sets up the VPN between them for you.

There are two steps to using Tailscale:

Step 1) Install/setup Tailscale on each of your devices and add these to your Tailscale account.

There are two types of devices :

a) laptop, phone, streaming box you want to use to connect to either the van or home and

b) one device on the network at home that is on all the time. This could be your router if it supports end nodes. But if not, you could use a server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer. Install the Tailscale software on it, add it to your account and leave it on. It does not have to be your router it just has to be something you can leave on all the time when away.

2) When you start up the Tailscale client app on your laptop, phone or streaming box you will get an option to specify an “end node” this is what you want to do. Once you have done this all traffic for the internet for that device goes through to this “end node”.

So when in the van, specify the device at home as the end node and all your traffic will look like it is coming from your home.

That is probably all you need, but to be complete, when at home specify the van as your end node and you can get to all the network devices in your van as if you were in it. It works either way around. I have a RaspberryPi in the van with Tailscale installed on it.

I had a quick look at the documentation for your Beryl router, it seems to suggest it supports Tailscale. However is says “GL.iNet router is not yet available as an exit node.” So if your Beryl router doesn’t support end nodes it’s not much use at home - but you can use something else (Server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer) and leave that on when away.

In the van as long as your phone, tablet, streaming box has the Tailscale app installed you can set the end point to your home device and you are done. No need to set up anything on the van router to make it work like this.

There are some devices (Smart TV for example) for which there is no Tailscale app available. This is where your Beryl router in the van can help - add it to your Tailscale account and set the end point as your home device. Now all traffic from your van will go via your home device with no need to install anything on the TV.

I hope this has encouraged you to experiment with Tailscale. It is very simple to use even if my description seems to have rambled on a bit!

PS Looks like you can hack your router to support end nodes https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/tailscale-exit-node-on-gl-inet-routers/49088

Thanks for taking the trouble to post such a comprehensive answer. It is going to take me some time to digest that, though I have already had a read on their website of how Tailscale works. It may be overkill for what I need, and I am a little uncomfortable in making myself reliant on a third party, but will investigate further. I will get a GL-inet router for home anyway as that looks like it will give lots of options.

Regarding the external address issue - it is not just that the external address is not static, but with the CGNAT system which is apparently used by Starlink and the mobile phone networks, you don't have your own external address at all, as a single IP address is effectively shared by multiple customers of providers using this system.

^{_{Subscribers  do not see these advertisements}}

 

[seanandjules]

Yeah, it's a pain in the arse. But Tailscale use STUN nodes to avoid this so you're fine.

Ipv6 would fix this but I've had 20+ years of being told it's going to be the default, yet Vermin Media still don't support it.

 

[seanandjules]

Thanks for taking the trouble to post such a comprehensive answer. It is going to take me some time to digest that, though I have already had a read on their website of how Tailscale works. It may be overkill for what I need, and I am a little uncomfortable in making myself reliant on a third party, but will investigate further. I will get a GL-inet router for home anyway as that looks like it will give lots of options.

Give me a shout if you need a hand!

 

[MichaelT]

I don’t actually have a Beryl router or Starlink so I can only give you some pointers to how to do it. But hope this helps:

I am not sure what the type of “internal address translation” you are referring to but I assume you mean you don’t have a fixed public IP address in either the van or at home. This is no problem.

Tailscale is the easiest to set up. Go for that. It is free and works very well without public IP addresses. It also needs no special support on your routers.

First Tailscale gets around any need for public IP addresses. There is a nice description of how it works https://tailscale.com/blog/how-nat-traversal-works. In summary “it just works” - is all you really need to know to get it set up!

To start go to https://tailscale.com/ and click on get started. Once you have an account all you have to do is add each of your devices to your account and this sets up the VPN between them for you.

There are two steps to using Tailscale:

Step 1) Install/setup Tailscale on each of your devices and add these to your Tailscale account.

There are two types of devices :

a) laptop, phone, streaming box you want to use to connect to either the van or home and

b) one device on the network at home that is on all the time. This could be your router if it supports end nodes. But if not, you could use a server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer. Install the Tailscale software on it, add it to your account and leave it on. It does not have to be your router it just has to be something you can leave on all the time when away.

2) When you start up the Tailscale client app on your laptop, phone or streaming box you will get an option to specify an “end node” this is what you want to do. Once you have done this all traffic for the internet for that device goes through to this “end node”.

So when in the van, specify the device at home as the end node and all your traffic will look like it is coming from your home.

That is probably all you need, but to be complete, when at home specify the van as your end node and you can get to all the network devices in your van as if you were in it. It works either way around. I have a RaspberryPi in the van with Tailscale installed on it.

I had a quick look at the documentation for your Beryl router, it seems to suggest it supports Tailscale. However is says “GL.iNet router is not yet available as an exit node.” So if your Beryl router doesn’t support end nodes it’s not much use at home - but you can use something else (Server, PC or a RaspberryPi mini computer) and leave that on when away.

In the van as long as your phone, tablet, streaming box has the Tailscale app installed you can set the end point to your home device and you are done. No need to set up anything on the van router to make it work like this.

There are some devices (Smart TV for example) for which there is no Tailscale app available. This is where your Beryl router in the van can help - add it to your Tailscale account and set the end point as your home device. Now all traffic from your van will go via your home device with no need to install anything on the TV.

I hope this has encouraged you to experiment with Tailscale. It is very simple to use even if my description seems to have rambled on a bit!

PS Looks like you can hack your router to support end nodes https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/tailscale-exit-node-on-gl-inet-routers/49088

So if I buy a raspberry pi what do I need to use it?

Once set up I have a ZTE MU5001 in the van, do I set the VPN as my home Internet router address?

I have a BT router at home do I need to do anything with that?

 

[fred_jb]

Just wondering if video streaming in the van via a VPN to my home network is going to fall foul of the asymmetric upload/download speeds on Virgin broadband? Pulling iPlayer stuff into my home network will be a download via my 350 Mbit/s connection, but I assume passing it across the VPN link to my van's router will be an upload which maxes out at about 1 tenth of that, so about 35 Mbit/s. Probably still more than adequate I suppose, and might be limited anyway by how good a connection I have from the van. This will be Starlink on longer trips, which gives me anything up to 200 Mbit/s though often rather less, or a smartphone USB tethered to the van's Beryl router for shorter trips where it is not worth incurring up to a month's worth of Starlink fees. The latter will be very variable depending on location, though worked fine for streaming in the wilds of Derbyshire recently!

 

[fred_jb]

Depending on what you’re looking to achieve you could probably put Twingate on a Pi Zero W to get you into the van network.

I will look into that but not sure about a solution needing extra hardware to be left running, and also not sure if the free version will do everything I need and will remain free. I have had experience of similar free software which changed to not free in the past!

What I would like to be able to do is run the Renogy app on my smartphone while away from the van, to allow me to see the state of the batteries, power consumption, solar charging level etc. The Renogy equipment is Bluetoothed to a display node which sits on the Local IP network in the van. This acts as a gateway to the Bluetoothed devices which can then be viewed by any phone connected to the same IP network. In future I might also like to directly access one or more security cameras in or on the van. A lot of these seem to provide remote access via the vendor's cloud systems anyway, though some require a subscription to do so.

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[StillGoing]

Just wondering if video streaming in the van via a VPN to my home network is going to fall foul of the asymmetric upload/download speeds on Virgin broadband? Pulling iPlayer stuff into my home network will be a download via my 350 Mbit/s connection, but I assume passing it across the VPN link to my van's router will be an upload which maxes out at about 1 tenth of that, so about 35 Mbit/s. Probably still more than adequate I suppose, and might be limited anyway by how good a connection I have from the van. This will be Starlink on longer trips, which gives me anything up to 200 Mbit/s though often rather less, or a smartphone USB tethered to the van's Beryl router for shorter trips where it is not worth incurring up to a month's worth of Starlink fees. The latter will be very variable depending on location, though worked fine for streaming in the wilds of Derbyshire recently!

My BT home connection is 150Mbps download and 30Mbps upload. It’s fine for running a VPN server at home and allowing me to watch HD programmes remotely. I don’t get any congestion at peak times - I don’t know if you get that with VM?

 

[fred_jb]

My BT home connection is 150Mbps download and 30Mbps upload. It’s fine for running a VPN server at home and allowing me to watch HD programmes remotely. I don’t get any congestion at peak times - I don’t know if you get that with VM?

Thanks for that which is reassuring. I have never noticed any congestion with VM.

 

[fishplug]

We share the same concerns fred_jb !

I'm allergic to subscriptions for exactly the reasons you gave and I've just started looking at https://openziti.io/ as a result.

They also seem to offer a free (limited user) cloud based service, but it's also possible to self-host as it's open source.

Self hosting does seem to be a bit more complicated on the setup and I haven't really had a chance to get into it properly.

However, Twingate on a Pi Zero W only takes a few minutes to set up and the 'always on' Pi is a really minimal draw (0.7w) and it's currently free so it seemed like an easy starting point. The day it stops being free or stops being supported then I'll just repurpose the Pi for something else. No real loss.

I'm not 100% sure that it would do what you needed it to though.

I have the same CCTV conundrum too. I got an MDVR which on paper can be accessed from a free web link, but in truth you're on a CMS V6 (fleet manager) server provided by the vendor with about ten million other people and so your 'real time' viewing experience is usually a failed connection or when you're lucky it's a frame every ten seconds.

However, there seems to be zero information about setting up a CMS V6 server that I've found and I'm yet to find someone offering a paid subscription that isn't designed for your fleet of 200 lorries...

Perhaps I'll just live without that ability for now.

 

[seanandjules]

Just wondering if video streaming in the van via a VPN to my home network is going to fall foul of the asymmetric upload/download speeds on Virgin broadband? Pulling iPlayer stuff into my home network will be a download via my 350 Mbit/s connection, but I assume passing it across the VPN link to my van's router will be an upload which maxes out at about 1 tenth of that, so about 35 Mbit/s. Probably still more than adequate I suppose, and might be limited anyway by how good a connection I have from the van. This will be Starlink on longer trips, which gives me anything up to 200 Mbit/s though often rather less, or a smartphone USB tethered to the van's Beryl router for shorter trips where it is not worth incurring up to a month's worth of Starlink fees. The latter will be very variable depending on location, though worked fine for streaming in the wilds of Derbyshire recently!

Traffic goes to your download (home) to your upload (home) then your upload (home) to your van. You'll be fine on 35mbit apart from buffering at the start may be a bit slow.

 

[seanandjules]

Thanks for that which is reassuring. I have never noticed any congestion with VM.

Vermin are awful because of their network.

If you're in an area that is full of heavy users (students, etc) you're buggered. We now live in an area which is full of old people, so we're fine. Previous place where the only option was VM it was terrible - it's not even the size of the pipe, it was the packet loss which made even looking at BBC News tortuous.

But as I said ATM it's fine - nobody else around else uses anything else other than Facebook, we've got the gigabit option so the upload is apparently 100mbit. Will find out how good it really is when we go to France for a month in January.

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[matbic]

Regarding the external address issue - it is not just that the external address is not static, but with the CGNAT system which is apparently used by Starlink and the mobile phone networks, you don't have your own external address at all, as a single IP address is effectively shared by multiple customers of providers using this system.

Tailscale is just fine with CGNAT - really just try it! It’s very good!!

 

[matbic]

We share the same concerns fred_jb !

I'm allergic to subscriptions for exactly the reasons you gave and I've just started looking at https://openziti.io/ as a result.

They also seem to offer a free (limited user) cloud based service, but it's also possible to self-host as it's open source.

Self hosting does seem to be a bit more complicated on the setup and I haven't really had a chance to get into it properly.

However, Twingate on a Pi Zero W only takes a few minutes to set up and the 'always on' Pi is a really minimal draw (0.7w) and it's currently free so it seemed like an easy starting point. The day it stops being free or stops being supported then I'll just repurpose the Pi for something else. No real loss.

I'm not 100% sure that it would do what you needed it to though.

I have the same CCTV conundrum too. I got an MDVR which on paper can be accessed from a free web link, but in truth you're on a CMS V6 (fleet manager) server provided by the vendor with about ten million other people and so your 'real time' viewing experience is usually a failed connection or when you're lucky it's a frame every ten seconds.

However, there seems to be zero information about setting up a CMS V6 server that I've found and I'm yet to find someone offering a paid subscription that isn't designed for your fleet of 200 lorries...

Perhaps I'll just live without that ability for now.

I use Tailscale to access my CCTV - when I turn it on and select my home as the exit node everything works in the van exactly at if i was at home.

Zitit looks interesting, thanks for the heads up - but it seems to be targeted at those building applications who want to embed this sort of technology in them. Seems like a lot of programming would be required. Or have I misunderstood?

I will give Twingate a try! I will let you know how it compares with Tailscale. Should be interesting to compare.

For self hosting https://github.com/netbirdio/netbird looks very interesting.

 

[fishplug]

OpenZiti self hosted does look like a lot of programming - I haven't really got much beyond reading the blurb to be honest.

Equally, I didn't know about Tailscale until this thread so that's on my 'projects' list to tinker with for comparison.

Netbird looks VERY interesting - thank you!

 

[StillGoing]

Thanks for that which is reassuring. I have never noticed any congestion with VM.

I’ve currently got 3 streams running simultaneously from Spain on the hotel WiFi. All working well. Everyone wants to watch something different!

WinGuard on a Pi doing a great job.

 

[fred_jb]

I had a look at Tailscale but decided that was overkill for my immediate requirement which is just to ensure that I can get access to UK streaming services while in Europe, as it seems that Surfshark is now being detected and blocked by some providers, so for the moment I have decided to set up a Wireguard VPN server on my new home router.

I bought the GL.iNet GL-MT6000(Flint 2) home router to complement the GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) portable router I use in the van. I have set up the DDNS server provided by the home router and created VPN client profiles for the Beryl router and for individual devices such as phone, tablet and laptop where I have installed the Wireguard client. On the Beryl router I have both Surfshark and the native Wireguard VPN configured and can chose which devices to apply either of these to by MAC address as I don't necessarily want everything routed via a VPN. I can run VPN clients on other devices if I wish, but need the router to do this for the TV where I can't install a client. At the moment I only have the smart TV routed via a VPN and have changed it from using Surfshark to my new home Wireguard VPN server.

I have been testing this and am very pleased with how well it works, and hopefully as it uses the UK Virginmedia provided external IP address, it won't be detected by any of the streaming services we use. I have Starlink paused at the moment, but when I tether my spare phone with iD SIM (Three network) to the Beryl router I can prove that the VPN is working properly by running the Ookla broadband speed tester on a connected client device such as laptop or phone. With the VPN disabled it reports the connection is via the 3 network and here at home I get a pretty good 5G signal with 80-90 Mbit/s download speed. With the Wireguard client enabled it reports that the connection is from VirginMedia and I get 36 Mbit/s download speeds. As predicted, this equates to the upload speed of the home Virginmedia broadband which is one tenth of its download speed of 360 Mbit/s.

For the future I would like to work out a way of getting into the van network remotely to monitor battery state and charging, and possibly view a security camera. In the past I have remotely accessed my home network, and IT support clients, using Windows based remote access software and Windows RDP (Remote Desktop Connection) on a laptop to connect to a mini PC running at home or on client sites. I would like to do something simpler for remotely connecting to the van's LAN to access the van's systems, and to do so from my phone rather than a laptop. Maybe a Tailscale exit node running on the Beryl router would achieve this?

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[MitchandJenny]

That is interesting.

I used to work in IT, but though I'm not a network nerd, that sounds like something I could do. I have a GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) Router in the van and have found that it can run both vpn clients and servers, and also has a DDNS service. I was looking into using this to connect to the van's systems remotely but was stymied by the fact that both Starlink, which I mainly use, and the mobile networks use a form of internal address translation which prevents the use of a DDNS.

If I bought another Beryl router (only £62 Black Friday price on Amazon) to use on our Virgin broadband at home (Virgin router is already used in modem mode) I assume I would have to run a DDNS on this in order to overcome the non-static addresses used by Virgin? If I were to set that up do you think the VPN server in the Beryl router then be suitable to act as my own home based VPN service?

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0BPSGJN7T/?tag=mhf04-21

What ???
Mitch

 

[fred_jb]

What ???
Mitch

Was that a serious question or just indicating an understanding deficit!