AiCloud versus VPN server

[Dref]

Forgive my innocence but here is probably a silly question

I have an Asus AC68 with Merlin

Now Merlin within VPN has apparently the ability to set up individual clients with a different VPN.

Also in this section it appears you can set up servers. So does that mean that I can set devices

on my network (my NAS box for example) to be accessible via the internet (ie remotely).

If that is the case how does that differ from AiCloud (apart from the type of encryption - I assume AiCloud is encrypted or at least HTTPs) and what are the pros and cons of each one?

 

[Dref]

Wow obviously was stupid question 101 views and NO answers. I am disappointed and chastened

 

[PolarBear]

how does that differ from AiCloud

I have not used AiCloud and am still learning about setting up VPNs, so am no great expert in this field. However I will venture a response as no-one else has.

I want to be able to access my files from my laptop while travelling, and much prefer having my data on my own hardware, rather than somewhere "in the cloud".

So I thought about using AiCloud, or setting up a VPN server a home, so I could access a NAS on my home network. As far as I can see, they both achieve the same overall goal.

I decided to set up a VPN server (on an Asus router using Merlin firmware) for the following reasons.

-I have a dynamic IP address which changes periodcally, so need to use a DDNS service. As far as I know, AiCloud uses Asus's own DDNS service. While it is good that Asus make this available to their customers at zero cost, others here have commented that it does not have 24/365 uptime.

-I also had concerns about the security "hardness" of AiCloud. My feeling was that the OpenVPN solution in Merlin's firmware is more likely to be patched rapidly if vulnerabilities are discovered, compared to AiCloud.

-I found on this forum and elsewhere much more documentation concerning OpenVPN than AiCloud. I like to know how things work before relying on them, and AiCloud was for me too much of a "black box".

-There are a lot of active threads on this forum and elsewhere about setting up OpenVPN, so help would be at hand if I had questions.

As I mentioned, I am no great expert in this field, so will be happy to stand corrected if any of this is based on misunderstanding.

 

[Dref]

Hi Polar Bear

Thanks for your input.

I too prefer having everything in my own control and so intuitively I veer towards a server setup in Merlin.

As far as AI cloud is concerned I think the word"cloud"is used far too loosely and I suspect Ai Cloud does not put my files somewhere other than my LAN but rather like when I access my NAS box it connects via a port on the router (Nas Box uses port 8000 or 8001), This being the case maybe the biggest difference as I mentioned in my initial post is security and encryption, but like you I'm still learning

 

[Dref]

Anyone reading this thread since answers were very sparse I emailed ASUS here is their answer.

The only things I will go back to them about are:

1. What is the encryption in AiCloud
2. The issue of a static IP from ISP

Thank you for contacting Asus.

My name is XXXX and I will try my best to assist you with your situation.

The difference between the two is firstly the encryption(the vpn is the stronger one) the costs( a vpn server requires a static ip from the internet provider) and the ease of setup(the ai cloud is easier to setup) also the vpn will give you access to the internet from the location were the server is setup.

 

[PolarBear]

2. The issue of a static IP from ISP

I looked at a lot of DDNS services, and in the end decided use dnsomatic.com (a standard choice in the Merlin software), which then notifies my IP address to myonlineportal.net.

My IP address changes only once every few months, but so far no problems.

Total cost per year 1 Euro (or free if I extend my account on myonlineportal.net every month).

I suppose Asus's own DDNS service could also be used even without AiCloud, but I was discouraged by the reports of downtime. I have no plans to change router, but if ever I moved away from an Asus router I would have to choose a different domain name, and explain the new domain name to the rest of the family (that's the difficult part!)

also the vpn will give you access to the internet from the location were the server is setup

I suppose this could be an advantage if anyone wished to stream TV while travelling. You could log onto the VPN server on the router at home, and access the streaming service on the Internet, as though you were at home. (No geographic restrictions becuase your laptop is in a different country.) But I'm not sure how good the performance would be.

(Edited on mature reflection)

 

[PolarBear]

Another advantage of going the VPN route is that you could set up RDP or (more expensively) Citrix so that you could access and work comfortably from remote locations which have very slow connections.

In my previous job I successfully used this arrangement to access an application requiring a very high bandwidth over a very slow line - 2Mb down and 0.2 Mb up. It worked because effectively the only data going backwards and forwards to/from the remote location were screen shots of the processing happening on the server back at the office. The data itself never left the office.

I have not investigated and genuinely do not know if this could be done in conjunction with AiCloud.

 

[Dref]

Hey thanks Polar Bear,

Is your vpn server running OK?

When I asked Asus support about setting up with a ddns such as dn0matic I got this answer:

"Unfortunately, the vpn server requires a public, static ip address."

Maybe Merlin is different to the standard Asus -or maybe their frontline support isn't very knowledgeable.

 

[Dref]

Hi I am a little confused.

In a previous post you spoke about dnsomatic and myonlineportal.net. I looked at both and I see that myonline>>> also has a DDNS service. So do you use dnsomatic for the DDNS and myonline to host your domain??

If so is there a reason for this?

Regards

 

[PolarBear]

Hi I am a little confused.

In a previous post you spoke about dnsomatic and myonlineportal.net. I looked at both and I see that myonline>>> also has a DDNS service. So do you use dnsomatic for the DDNS and myonline to host your domain??

If so is there a reason for this?

Regards

I decided that I wanted to use myonlineportal.net, but it is not one of the choices on the drop down list in Merlin. To use it directly, I would have had to write a script and I felt I didn't want to spend the time going up the learning curve, at that stage.

However, dnsomatic.com is one of the standard choices in Merlin, and I could very easily configure the router in the GUI to notify dnsomatic.

Dnsomatic then forwards the new IP address to myonlineportal.net, where I have a domain "myname.myonlineportal.net".

The whole set up was very quick and easy, once I had understood how all the pieces fitted together.

My IP address changes infrequently, but so far no problems.

 

[PolarBear]

Hey thanks Polar Bear,

Is your vpn server running OK?

When I asked Asus support about setting up with a ddns such as dn0matic I got this answer:

"Unfortunately, the vpn server requires a public, static ip address."

Maybe Merlin is different to the standard Asus -or maybe their frontline support isn't very knowledgeable.

My VPN is working fine.

Perhaps Asus is thinking of a propagation delay between the IP address changing, and the record being updated in myonlineportal.net. I do not know how long this delay might be, and it has not been a problem for me. (Having said that, my IP address changes only infrequently.)

In any case, if I ever need to log on remotely during the propagation delay, I can always go to dnsomatic.com (which is updated immediately if the router gets a new IP) and look up the new IP address there.