General Consultant Discussion

I need a VPN solution for myself. Any suggestions? Home office runs fiber optic, work office runs cable. tia.

It's been a long time since I dealt with this kind of thing but a hardware firewall device with VPN feature should do what you want. Google reviews to find a good one, appropriate for your needs.

It really depends what you need the VPN for I suppose. If you're looking to create a LAN-like network where you can hit the home/work office remotely, Hamachi is a pretty easy solution to install and configure. Pretty sure it's still free... not sure, but it was for a certain number of workstations the last time I checked. I also use GoToAssist's ""Unattended Support"" feature to jump onto my three primary workstations as well (home, office, laptop). Both create a nice redundancy/digital safety blanket. If you're looking to privatize what you're doing electronically, there's a myriad of those available. Most of which have some sort of limitation to how much you can filter through the VPN on the free versions. Currently testing TunnelBear today actually (fun coincidence) and I've already maxed out my 500mb free for the month in less than 5 hours. Not sure if I should be worried or impressed by that....

Inbound or outbound? For inbound, the Asus routers run a polished-up version of dd-wrt, and open source router OS that has several VPN options. For outbound from your laptop privacy, I use ExpressVPN

Thanks, @KevinMoyes that's what I've always recall to be the recommendation, a hardware solution but as @BasilMalik mention TunnelBear caught my eye in various searches. I already use LogMeIn for remote connection and it works great. It's the day-to-day VPN privatizing that I'm most interested in. I use Opera as browser with their free VPN but often it over blocks sites and I'd like to move to a VPN.

ExpressVPN? I'll look at @PhilMcIntosh thank you.

I've had good luck with PIA (https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/). Pretty cheap, too.

We use Meraki's - which have the built in VPN that Kevin mentioned...

One thought (we use many different VPN's to connect with our customers): avoid FortiClient and anything that relies on Windows VPN configuration. You want dedicated software (and FortiClient causes conflicts with other VPN software... BSOD...). Windows VPN is user friendly when it works... but any issues are a nightmare to troubleshoot. For privacy (like when you are using un-trusted WiFi) look for something with an option to route all network traffic over the VPN.

We are a WatchGuard Reseller and use them here for our VPN connections. It allows for Branch office VPN (hardware to hardware) or mobile VPN (hardware to software). The firewall is great at protecting your network and allows you to have Botnet detection, application control, data loss prevention, gateway antivirus, spamblocking, etc. This way you don't open your office to an attack because of an issue at home or visa versa.

Gosh, thanks everyone. I'm experienced Forti and didn't like it, now I know why. WatchGuard is new to me. I never heard of Private internet access, PIA the acronym hopefully is not a descriptor.

We also resell and use WatchGuard and I work remotely 3 days a week with hardly a hiccup.