Basic VPN router recommendations?

[mmesford]

Hello,

I'm looking for a VPN router that will provide secure access to a PLC at a remote installation. We don't need wifi and there will never be more than 3 users at a time. We currently have a Cisco RV180 which has been problematic from day one. Our windows users had to use Cisco's QuickVPN and most of them found it hard to set up. Our Mac users had it better but now Apple has removed all support for PPTP. This leaves no option for Mac or iOS users. What is a good, relatively inexpensive, option that will support multiple protocols over time so we can all connect easily?

 

[dave_the_nerd]

PPTP is considered insecure now, that's why Apple removed it. OpenVPN is the current VPN protocol of choice, but afaik, neither Windows nor MacOS have a built-in client. (You'd need to install an OpenVPN client, of which there are many to choose from.)

I've only done a little bit of googling, but it looks like the RV180 you have won't support OpenVPN.

OpenVPN is an open-source protocol, so most Linux distros have client/server packages available, and there are quite a few linux-based mid-to-high-end consumer routers that have an OpenVPN servers/clients built in. (Including fairly affordable ones like the Asus RT-N16.) Additionally, OpenVPN support is in the dd-wrt and openWrt custom router firmwares, which means any supported router can be flashed, and used as a VPN server as well.

I would avoid getting an absolutely bargain-basement router, since they frequently have low memory ceilings and slow CPUs that might cause performance problems while using VPN software. smallnetbuilder has router reviews that include tech specs - try to get a router with at least 64MB of RAM and a 500+MHz CPU. (Or dual CPUs.)