Online Security: 2nd Router for VPN & Encryption

[olletsocmit]

I was not sure of a good topic for this thread so if anyone has any better ideas please let me know... I am getting back into online security and Mac security again. Currently running Velocity for the VPN service I use (company is called: private internet access). I have verizon fios and a good up/down speed. I wanted to buy a really nice router and run VPN on the router as well as encryption. But since my family used the network, I don't wants slow them down or make things difficult for them. I was thinking of buying a 2nd router just for me and setting it up. I was gonna have it connect to the fios router and then to my Mac. Would this make any dif since it's still connecting to the regular home router. I am looking for the most online anonymous as possible.

 

[yjchua95]

I was not sure of a good topic for this thread so if anyone has any better ideas please let me know... I am getting back into online security and Mac security again. Currently running Velocity for the VPN service I use (company is called: private internet access). I have verizon fios and a good up/down speed. I wanted to buy a really nice router and run VPN on the router as well as encryption. But since my family used the network, I don't wants slow them down or make things difficult for them. I was thinking of buying a 2nd router just for me and setting it up. I was gonna have it connect to the fios router and then to my Mac. Would this make any dif since it's still connecting to the regular home router. I am looking for the most online anonymous as possible.

Just connect to the VPN directly via your Mac (System Preferences → Network and create a new VPN to connect to). That way, you can directly connect to the VPN via your Mac without affecting other devices on your network.

 

[hallux]

If you're worried about their internet speed, buying another router will do NOTHING to avoid your traffic impacting their speed. Unless they're doing heavy internal file sharing, your traffic should have minimal impact on their experience as most internet connections don't even come CLOSE to saturating the bandwidth of a home network.

 

[scaredpoet]

I think we need some more context here. What are you doing/planning on doing that requires isolation from the others on your local network?

A VPN is fine, and Viscosity is a decent client. But if you're using that, adding a second router isn't going to do much of anything, since you're already securing/isolating your traffic from others on your subnet by virtue of routing your traffic through the VPN.

Also, unless you're doing heavy torrenting or running a high-bandwidth server, it's unlikely you'll saturate a FIOS connection to the point where others can't use it. Though if it's something you're worried about, FiOS Quantum routers do have QoS settings that allow you to prioritize certain traffic over others.

 

[wct097]

I think I understand that the OP is desiring to VPN all of his traffic through a 3rd party's service so that all of his traffic from his machine(s), but not his family's use, would go through this secure tunnel.

I suppose the benefit here would be to avoid your provider (Verizon) from being able to spy on your traffic and/or to hide the source of your traffic from the destinations.

If I have the original question properly understood, I would agree that you could run a second router behind your main router. In theory, you could configure that second router to use a VPN tunnel for all traffic coming through it, thus securing it's traffic without adding the same overhead (VPN overhead) to the rest of the traffic on the main router. Any device connected to the second router would have it's traffic automatically routed through the VPN. Then again, in theory, you could configure one router with two VLANs, one of which is routed over VPN, one of which that is not.

That said, I'm not sure what goes in to actually configuring the devices to accomplish this. Not something I've really considered doing myself. I think a Tor browser would be an easier solution. I assume someone has released one for Mac.