Netgear BR500 - VPN & Wireless

[njbrown21]

Hi, I an soon to be moving to Brunei and want to be able to access australian content on multiple devices so I recently purchased the insight instant VPN router. I am however not sure as to whether it will suit my needs. Does anyone know whether i can setup a VPN (i.e. NordVPN or PIA) on this router? Also I will require wifi and have a wifi router, am i able to connect this wifi router to the BR500 that will allow anyone connected to the wifi network to access the VPN without individual logins?

Apologies i am a novice technical person 🙂

[DaneA]

@njbrown21,

Welcome to the community!  

Does anyone know whether i can setup a VPN (i.e. NordVPN or PIA) on this router? 

You can use OpenVPN.  The guaranteed OpenVPN throughput with BR500 is at least 50mbps.  

Also I will require wifi and have a wifi router, am i able to connect this wifi router to the BR500 that will allow anyone connected to the wifi network to access the VPN without individual logins?

The BR500 does not have the capability to provide a wireless network.  If you will connect a wireless router to the BR500, I suggest you to set the wireless router as a standalone access point.  Since the BR500 is already a router and you will connect a wireless router behind it, you will have a Double NAT scenario which is not good. 

To know more about Double NAT, kindly access the articles below: 

What is Double NAT?

How to fix issues with Double NAT

Since you need a wireless network, you may want to consider the network setup below: 

For example, you have a 2-storey house (or office).  From the network diagram above, the modem is connected to the WAN port of the BR500 firewall router.  The BR500 firewall router supports VLAN.  You will need to configure VLANs to segregate networks.  For example: you need to separate the Private (or Admin) network from the Guest network.  A LAN port of the BR500 firewall router is connected to a port of the GC510PP smart switch.  The ports connecting the BR500 firewall router and the GC510PP should be configured as tagged ports so that it will become a trunk link. Tagging the ports is needed in order to identify which VLAN the packet belongs to. 

The GC510PP smart switch supports VLAN as well as PoE (Power over Ethernet).  One port of the GC510PP is connected to the WAC510 access point deployed at the 1st floor and another port of the GC510PP is connected to the WAC510 access point deployed at the 2nd floor.  Since the GC510PP supports PoE, it can power on the 2 WAC510 through its ethernet port to where it is connected to.

The ports connecting the GC510PP and the WAC510 should be configured as tagged ports as well because the WAC510 is a VLAN-aware device.  Since the WAC510 also supports VLAN, you can assign a wireless network dedicated to the Private network as well as assign a wireless network for the Guest network. 

To know more about BR500, GC510PP and WAC510, kindly access their respective data sheets below:

BR500 Data Sheet

GC510PP Data Sheet

WAC510 / WAC505 Data Sheet

If ever your concern has been addressed or resolved, I encourage you to mark the appropriate reply as the “Accepted Solution” so others can be confident in benefiting from the solution. The NETGEAR Community looks forward to hearing from you and being a helpful resource in the future!

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[njbrown21]

Thank you @DaneA

I am pleased that I will be able to use a VPN on this router to access australian content in another country. I presume that a combination of teh BR500 user manual and the VPN provider instructions will be able to guide me to set this up? - To note i coudl not find any information on either NordVPN or PIA websites about this specific router?

In relation to the wireless issue, do i need to get a switch to allow a wireless router to be connected as an access point or can it be directly connected to teh BR500 router? We will not need privbate and guest networks just one network that we can provide network detaisl for people to join.

Thanks again

Neil

[DaneA]

@njbrown21,

I presume that a combination of teh BR500 user manual and the VPN provider instructions will be able to guide me to set this up? - To note i coudl not find any information on either NordVPN or PIA websites about this specific router?

In setting up an OpenVPN connection with the BR500, kindly read pages 127-134 of the BR500 user manual here.

In relation to the wireless issue, do i need to get a switch to allow a wireless router to be connected as an access point or can it be directly connected to teh BR500 router? We will not need privbate and guest networks just one network that we can provide network detaisl for people to join.

Since you do not need to set up VLAN to segregate the network from guests, you can connect the WAC510/WAC505 access point directly to a LAN port of the BR500.  However, you will need to purchase a power adapter to power on the WAC510/505 access point because the power adapter is not included in the product package. 

If ever your concern has been addressed or resolved, I encourage you to mark the appropriate reply as the “Accepted Solution” so others can be confident in benefiting from the solution. The NETGEAR Community looks forward to hearing from you and being a helpful resource in the future!

Regards,

DaneA

NETGEAR Community Team

[MrJoshW]

Just to clarify on the VPN question. Are you wanting to be in Brunei and VPN tunnel to a server in Australia so that you can access Australian content? or is the BR500 going to be in Australia and you are going to VPN connect in Brunei to the BR500 in Australia?

[njbrown21]

Hi, thanks for the response.

looking to have the VPN router setup in our home in Brunei so that we can access Australian content

thanks

[MrJoshW]

BR500 OpenVPN support is client to BR500 device only. You would use the OpenVPN setup if you want to access the BR500's network resources remotely with the OpenVPN client. With the OpenVPN setup on the BR500 you cannot add custom certificates so you cannot use one from a third party VPN service.

The solution you would need is a VPN tunnel to a remote resource in Australia. The BR500 does support IPSEC which will create a site to site to a remote source. The remote source you'll need to connect to needs to support a proxy which will mask your connection when connecting to it. If you're using a third party VPN service you'll need to find out if it supports IPSEC and proxy. A lot of times the third party VPN services will list which countries their VPN servers are located at and sell you on "masking" or "hiding" your connection in these cases these services would work.

Once you have your VPN service select you'll need to create an IPSEC tunnel from your BR500 to the IPSEC service of the VPN provider and make sure the IP addresses or subnet ranges you want on your local network to participate in to be part of the allowed addresses in your IPSEC config. If everything works when you go to check where "you're located" it should say you're located in Australia as the IPSEC tunnel would be masking your connection with the third parties VPN provider. Some documentation on how to setup an IPSEC tunnel from the BR500 can be found below:

https://kb.netgear.com/000060839/How-do-I-set-up-a-site-to-site-IPSec-VPN-on-my-NETGEAR-BR500-Busine...