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Forum Discussion
orbio and expressvpn
I wanted to upgrade my Asus router and selected a NETGEAR Orbi Pro WiFi 6 Tri-band Mesh-system (SXK80) which I am now in the midst of installing. I was a bit disappointed to be met by the opening screen "out-of-life-product" when starting up, but continue to stride along.
However, now when I have connected my chromecast and thus wanted to set up the VPN tunnel so I can watch geoblocked channels, I just realised that it seems my new router isn't supporting this (I use ExpressVPN).
Can this really be the case? I thought this was a very standard feature and am now freaking out a bit (I have thrown away the packaging so cannot return the router and satellite...). If this is really the case, does anyonw know of a workaround?
If not I fear I will have to keep my asus just for the vpn feature (and use it for those of my devices needing it - albeit it will be a bit of a hassle having to switch networks on my phone whenever I want to stream something).
4 Replies
It depends on how you were using ExpressVPN.
Residential WiFi routers do not interfere with the use of VPN by devices connected to the system. A customer might have
- A laptop using NordVPN
- A tablet using Express VPN
- A smartphone using some other VPN
This is "all good".
The issue is that vendors bundle different types of VPN software in the router itself. There are two basic types of VPN
- VPN Host. This feature allows devices that are on the internet to connect through the router to devices on the local network. Netgear routers support OpenVPN in 'host mode' for this purpose. Some other vendors support OpenVPN and also other types of VPN.
- VPN Client. This feature allows devices on the local network to all share one VPN "tunnel" through the internet to a VPN Host, such as NordVPN, ExpressVPN, etc. etc. Netgear does not include this feature in their routers. It appears that Asus may be one of the vendors which bundle VPN Client as a feature.
https://mashable.com/uk/roundup/best-vpn-routers-uk
So, if ExpressVPN is running on specific devices, then the Orbi system supports that just fine. If the Asus router includes a VPN Client feature, then you have some choices:
- Install ExpressVPN on individual devices, or
- Purchase a device which supports VPN Client mode. For example, the Brume 2 supports VPN Client mode for a number of VPN services, including ExpressVPN:
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt2500/
The Brume 2 is available on Amazon for $80 (US, plus tax and shipping) - Keep the Asus router and use it as the internet gateway for specific devices. (This would be similar to installing a Brume 2.) It would require configuring those devices to use the Asus as the internet gateway (static setup) rather than accepting the Orbi router as the gateway.
p.s. Yes, it is a bit disappointing that Netgear has apparently decided to abandon the "Pro" line of Orbi products. My guess is that they did not sell well enough to justify the expense of updating to WiFi6E (and then WiFi7)
Many thanks!
My current Asus router is working as a VPN client - and it was a big mistake by me to not realize I had to check this function before selecting my new router. It seems that Netgear has some models which support ExpressVPN (Nighthawk R7000, R6300v2, 6400v2, R6700v3, R7000P), but Orbi is not one of them. Now I have to decide whether to give up on my Orbi and just purchase another router - or maybe simply stick to my very old Asus.An alternative would be to let my Chromcast stay on the old Asus wifi (and thus use VPN), but it would feel frustrating to have to change wifi network on my iphone each time I want to stream something to my Chromecast. So at the moment I feel rather unhappy and "lost" - will put it all aside for a couple of days and think about it. A bit sad as I was so happy to have decided to get a new router with all the improvements it would give me and have already spent some time setting up the various sub-networks, etc.
Several VPN companies install third party firmware on older WiFi routers
- ExpressVPN has firmware for several models of Asus, Linksys, and Netgear routers
- NordVPN has firmware for routers which can run OpenWRT or Tomato (there's a LONG list)
- etc.
The point is that these routers are not running manufacturer firmware and are thus "unsupported". (probably not a huge problem because Netgear provides only 90 days of 'complimentary support' with a new purchase).
(I confess to having zero experience with Chromecast, but......)
Perhaps it is possible to use ExpressVPN on the iPhone and mirror or cast to the Chromecast device?
ExpressVPN has a web page about using the Chromecast with Google TV which seems to imply that this particular version of Chromecast does support ExpressVPN:
https://www.expressvpn.com/support/vpn-setup/setup-chromecast-with-google-tv/
