Currently have a Netgear system that has a built-in VPN server that I can connect to remotely using the OpenVPN client on my Windows & other devices. It allows remote access to systems on my home network. I see that Express VPN has router firmware that allows your router to connect to its VPN servers, but does it support your remote devices running the Express VPN client to connect back to the router running their firmware so you can access you home network resources?
Through some light research it doesn’t look like it. I use ExpressVPN and surfshark. When speaking to customer service they said the max speed was 180 Mbps. I decided to go for the Vilfo VPN router which has a built-in OpenVPN server that supports (if memory serves me right) both 256 and 128 bit encryption. I chose 128 bit as I don’t think 256 is necessary. The most I’ve seen on Wireguard via surfshark is 717 Mbits/s (85.52MB/s)
The built-in VPN server on Vilfo supports Windows OS and Linux(I use it on my Android phone though)
Edit: if the IP address obtained via your ISP changes frequently you might want to use a free easy to use DDNS name service such as Dynu in the configuration before downloading the file generated by the router. and have a cheap mini PC on your network that can run the windows application to monitor IP changes to update it at an interval of your choosing
I use ExpressVPN.
While the speed is very good (far from excellent due to the nature of the connection), the firmware they provide is merely a poorly tweaked version of DD-WRT. My speed without VPN is 250Mbps. With VPN, it goes to 25Mbps. It’s 10X slower (on speedtest.net).
The options you have are VPN on or VPN off. You can select which devices are allowed to connect without VPN. And that’s about it.
My router has USB 3.0 ports and for some idiotic reason, the devs at ExpressVPN simply removed USB support on their firmware. I don’t know if all routers and firmwares are like this, but the ASUS AC56U has no USB support.
You cannot choose an alternative DNS server either. You can, however, choose a specific device to connect without VPN and this device can use an alternative DNS.
You cannot access the router remotely. You can enable SSH though.
There are options for Dynamic DNS such as noip and duckdns.
The claim that it bypasses geo blocks on Netflix and Amazon Prime is absolutely BS. It does work SOMETIMES but you will need to keep changing servers until you find one that works. Then, when you’re watching your movie on Netflix, the connection might just drop and an error message from Netflix will be shown to you.
The firmware also has no adblocking features. At all.
I guess the only pro for this firmware is that it’s fail proof. I am the only one in the house that has some knowledge of networks and I feel safe to leave my family connecting to the internet while at home. I know that the router will grant no internet access if the VPN connection drops.
The setup, in my case, involve the following:
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ISP router in modem mode
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pihole right after the ISP router
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My Asus router with ExpressVPN firwmare - this has wifi disabled and only my actual router connected to an ethernet port and a laser printer connected to another (to save an ethernet port on the other router).
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A Netgear Nighthawk X10 - AD7200, with DD-WRT, doing all the networking, NAS and mesh in the house.
Mind you that this setup is not very cheap nor is it very easy to use. In case of a power cut, I have to turn everything off and reboot them manually as my ISP router in modem mode struggles to give an IP to the Piehole as it has typical ISP crap that doesn’t give me many config options, the Asus runnint ExpressVPN takes forever to obtain an IP from the Piehole too and it may require a few attempts.
The only things that are working outside the VPN are the XBOXes. Microsoft doesn’t like VPN and there are sooo many connection issues that makes it unusable. And I kinda trust the XBOX security and don’t worry about it too much.
I currently use a NetGear Orbi system that has the OpenVPN server built-in along with no-ip for DDNS so I can connect with the DNS name. I would like a system like Express VPN that I don’t have to do the manual connection on, as well as being able to tunnel back home. I’ll probably just stick with the Orbi if it doesn’t support the tunnel back to the router. I’ve had to double tunnel in the past from one VPN into another and the latency is annoying.
as someone who pass a+/net+ they made it very easy for the average person with their Vilfo GUI.
One major quirk however is to make sure you choose the correct amount of addresses for the subnet as a change to the subnet requires a reset. For example 192.168.1.0/24
Gives you 254 usable hosts because 1.0 & 1.255 are used for the network itself and broadcasts respectively.
Other than that, they have pre-installed open VPN providers such as such as ExpressVPN surfshark
If you do however want to use a Wireguard or non-listed provider they support custom for Wireguard and OpenVPN Only at the moment not lightway
This configuration is very simple
You follow the directions of your providers router section for wireguard/ OpenVPN
In my case with surfshark it was putting in if memory serves me correctly The public and private key they generated on their site through my account and copy and pasting it in on the router and I was done
Also to clarify my first post
The OpenVPN server’s tunnel is separate From whatever VPN provider you choose
It’s a connection from your device using open VPN connect client for Android, Linux, or Windows directly to your router giving you local area access as if you were in the house from anywhere with an internet connection
You can have VPN connection for each group
That way you can decide which devices you would like to be connected and to what provider
Groups are made by creating a name in using the drop down to put devices in each group