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bhdavis's avatar
bhdavis
Aspirant
Feb 19, 2023

Another VPN question

I recently purchased and installed an ORBI RBK50 system in my home.  At the same time I'm looking to cut the cord with the insanely expensive (and increasing) Charter Spectrum cable service.

 

My problem is that I am closer to Boston, MA than Hartford, CT so prefer to watch local news on the Boston stations.  All the streaming service though pick up my IP address and send me the Hartford channels for my local stations.

 

Reading online I see that a VPN service could mask my location and perhaps allow me to select Boston for my location (I might have to take my laptop up to a friends house in MA to set it up first).

 

Looking at the Netgear community forum there are a lot of topics on VPN and the ORBI.  However they all seem to say that the ORBI does not support VPN services.

 

But there is a VPN setting in the ORBI advanced settings.  Is this the same thing as the VPN services?  Or is it something else?

 

All new to me so I'm struggling to figure it out.

 

Thanks,

BH

1 Reply

  • CrimpOn's avatar
    CrimpOn
    Guru - Experienced User
    Feb 19, 2023

    VPN consists of two parts:

    • A VPN Host and
    • Clients who create a tunnel from their device to that Host.

    This tunnel encrypts communication between the Client and the Host and allows the Host to perform services.

    • Since the tunnel is encrypted, no one in the coffee shop, airport terminal, bordello, etc. can capture and snoop on the communication because it is impractical for anyone but the NSA to decrypt these streams.
    • If the Host sends the communication on to another destination, it appears to have come from the Host, rather than from the original location.
    • The Host can also strip information out of the communication to further anonymize things.

    Netgear provides a VPN Host feature on consumer routers: the open source OpenVPN.  When enabled, this allows customers to use OpenVPN Client software on their mobile devices to communicate with the Orbi/Nighthawk LAN devices. Perhaps to check up on local servers, to manage the router, etc.  And, the Host has an option to forward the connection to the internet, so that instead of appearing to be at the remote location, the client appears to be coming from inside the customer's router.

     

    There have been posts describing how to use VPN to appear to be home, so that services which check source IP address will allow streaming a movie (for example) when they would not allow streaming from the remote location.

     

    So, the router VPN feature is the exact opposite of what you want.  Sorry.