[BozemanLUG] ASUS WiFi Router & VPN

[R. Potter]

I was poking around in my home Wireless router a couple nights ago and 
took a deeper look at the VPN tab. In the past my routers had a VPN 
option but it was just for allowing VPN connections to pass through. 
What I discovered was that this ASUS router actually allows you to set 
it up as a VPN authenticator or server basically. There is two options, 
PPTP and OpenVPN. I briefly looked at the OpenVPN option but it looked 
like a whole lot more work would be involved. I would still like to look 
into that option as I "think" it would allow me to run with much 
stronger encryption. But for now I slapped together a PPTP based VPN 
connection which from what I can tell only allows 40 or 128 bit 
encryption :( but I figure 128-bit is better than Coffee Shop wide open. 
The other cool thing it does is for home users with dynamic IP's, you 
can setup what looks like a subdomain off of ASUS. I would assume then 
the ASUS server is monitoring your IP and updating as needed. Then 
instead of connecting via IP you can just type in <subdomain>.<ASUS 
Domain> and authenticate. I am typing this email up from the library and 
sending it through my VPN connection with my home router without any 
real noticeable issues.

Anyhow, I know its probably not AMAZING but I am impressed that ASUS has 
provided the capability and appears to have done so without demanding 
additional subscription pricing. Like I said, I am not impressed with 
the encryption strength but figure its better than nothing and suspect 
that the option for something better might be available through OpenVPN. 
But if anyone else is interested the router I am currently using is an 
ASUS RT-AC56R. Not a super high priced router but also not a $50 model 
or at least not when I purchased it.

Rob