VPN FUSION & VPN DIRECTOR Merlin Firmware

[L&LD]

You get very strong security and privacy and you get the best possible speeds better than OpenVPN and IPSec which has been proven by many people.

Nobody has ever proven that. And they never will.

A commercial VPN is snake oil with regard to security and privacy.

Don't believe the shady, or otherwise, marketing. Ever.

 

[marcd5123]

Nobody has ever proven that. And they never will.

A commercial VPN is snake oil with regard to security and privacy.

Don't believe the shady, or otherwise, marketing. Ever.

Ahh ...okay thanks for the heads up .

 

[marcd5123]

Hi Everyone...Okay after spending fair amount of hours this afternoon reading up and looking at your helpful points and information I have indeed managed to setup my VPN with 4 Server's which to be honest for me is more than enough.

Using the very best option I believe that's Wireguard and Surfshark VPN servers. Took me several attempts at first to get the hang of it all and some persistency and patience I got there Happy Days .

It's definitely a learning curve for me .

My main ISP WAN EE UK Server is based in Working London and I am west London so connecting to Surfshark London Server it literally only a few miles apart so I'm only losing around 4-5mbps on bandwidth which I think is bloody excellent and Wireguard definitely seems to be working seriously well .

I've gone and chosen a few handful of other VPNs for my Nvidia Shield Pro device (Kodi Omega RC1 and Real Debrid)and Apple TV 2022 128GB device for my general streaming Netflix,Disney+ Prime Video and Apple TV+ streaming.

I have set or rather told director when I switch to a VPN all devices use that VPN hence local IP address of my router or I can manually tell those or each device/client to direct VPN/tunnel to a particular VPN server and leave all the other devices on my default ISP address which is great! .

I suppose you could use either use director or WG client to manually enter the device IP address independently but I suppose director is better as you have a "drop down" list to choose from when the devices are live .

Last question please...Should I leave all those WG clients running in the background or should I just disable them when I'm not using them what's best for the router is it going to create more heat and or take up unnecessary room in a memory running in a background or is it designed to be left running continuously and I just use the WebGUI via the Asus app to manually switch on and off via director a VPN as and when I need it .

Please advise .

 

[ZebMcKayhan]

Last question please...Should I leave all those WG clients running in the background or should I just disable them when I'm not using them what's best for the router is it going to create more heat and or take up unnecessary room in a memory running in a background or is it designed to be left running continuously and I just use the WebGUI via the Asus app to manually switch on and off via director a VPN as and when I need it .

I'm having a us- client connected but not used. The reason is that I may use it but my provider kills it if its not connected for longer time. Have not seen any bad effects from this.

If I may propose 2 apps you may want to look closer to, Apple Shortcuts and Android "SSH button". Both are ssh based, allowing you to create buttons on your phone which sends one (or more) ssh commands. I know, It's another thing to learn, but you'll appreciate the result: a section of buttons on your phone that allows you to switch vpn with a single push. Just need to figure out which commands to send.... using Asus app with merlin is unpredictable but this way, you make it yourself.

 

[RMerlin]

The LAN subnet is incorrect. It should be 192.168.50.0/24.

 

[marcd5123]

The LAN subnet is incorrect. It should be 192.168.50.0/24.

Hi Thanks for that I'll make that amendment it still seems to work as it is through???..

What should I do with regards to leaving WG client's running continuously??? Is it safe and correct just to leave them all running all the time will it cause the router to work extra unnecessarily and using extra resources up necessarily ??? Should I just switch them all off when not needed or should I just switch each VPN on/off via director only when needed ...

Update ..I corrected using my tablet this time as per your recommendation thank you very much.

Please advise many thanks

 

[ZebMcKayhan]

What should I do with regards to leaving WG client's running continuously??? Is it safe and correct just to leave them all running all the time will it cause the router to work extra unnecessarily and using extra resources up necessarily ???

Do whatever is easiest for you. Wireguard is an extremely silent protocol, it requires a special option to send a ping every 25 sec to ensure nat tunnels to stay open. If you don't send any user data it's completely silent (without this option). Hardly using up router resources.

 

[marcd5123]

Do whatever is easiest for you. Wireguard is an extremely silent protocol, it requires a special option to send a ping every 25 sec to prevent nat tunnels to stay open. If you don't send any user data it's completely silent (without this option). Hardly using up router resources.

Ahhh okay interesting..I just want to do what ever makes the router work less stressful and use up only resources as and when it needs rather than waste resources unnecessarily and cause undue stress on the router . Yes I saw the 25sec ...So if that's the case I can just leave it running silently in the background I suppose.

 

[marcd5123]

I'm having a us- client connected but not used. The reason is that I may use it but my provider kills it if its not connected for longer time. Have not seen any bad effects from this.

If I may propose 2 apps you may want to look closer to, Apple Shortcuts and Android "SSH button". Both are ssh based, allowing you to create buttons on your phone which sends one (or more) ssh commands. I know, It's another thing to learn, but you'll appreciate the result: a section of buttons on your phone that allows you to switch vpn with a single push. Just need to figure out which commands to send.... using Asus app with merlin is unpredictable but this way, you make it yourself.

That sounds great. Yes this is were VPN Fusion and using the ASUSwrt app came in very handy you could do all that part via the app that the only thing missing using Merlin software that last peace .

Their is Wireguard app it self but I don't think it gives you that ability to change region on the "fly" like VPN Fusion does via the asusart app .

 

[marcd5123]

Hi Guys ,I've come across a problem...

When I change to either Paris VPN or Canada VPN I then do a "what's my IP" on Google and it shows that I am being ported/tunneled to either of those servers however when I check and try via streaming apps they don't seem to change at all its staying as my regular IP address?? I'm not sure what going on the WG clients are setup for all IPs ..I even tried porting to the device's directly my Nvidia Shield pro and or my apple TV device but they are still logging in as my UK accounts..
I'm somewhat confused?? I booted up my Shield and enabled the Surf shark android app and engaged France -Paris server and when I logged into that particular streaming app it logged in as France region..So what I'm I doing wrong or missing out .

Oddly enough when I tryed this via the Original AsusWRT stock firmware and used VPN Fusion via the AsusWRT app and changed regions it worked perfectly on all my devices and would log into those regions .

 

[Aiadi]

Just direct the individual device(s) to their respective VPN tunnel (and not the whole subnet as shown in your screenshot).

 

[marcd5123]

Just direct the individual device(s) to their respective VPN tunnel (and not the whole subnet as shown in your screenshot).

I'm sure I tried there isn't that what the whole point of VPN director is for you either select the IP of the device directly that you want the VPN to tunnel through or you allowed all devices ??? Otherwise I agree with the above member for all this trouble and time it's far easier to use fusion lol getting a bit ridiculous now . I told VPN France to tunnel directly to my Nvidia Shield device and director even shows the shields IP address when you show the list so I selected the shield's IP address clicked update..then check again and it still not working yet it will show on my mobile on a IP check .

 

[Viktor Jaep]

I'm sure I tried there isn't that what the whole point of VPN director is for you either select the IP of the device directly that you want the VPN to tunnel through or you allowed all devices ??? Otherwise I agree with the above member for all this trouble and time it's far easier to use fusion lol getting a bit ridiculous now . I told VPN France to tunnel directly to my Nvidia Shield device and director even shows the shields IP address when you show the list so I selected the shield's IP address clicked update..then check again and it still not working yet it will show on my mobile on a IP check .

How does which device on your 50.x/24 network know which tunnel to go over? I would think there would be massive random confusion... VPN Director is just that -- "direct" which device you want to go across which interface. So if you have a TV that needs to go to Vienna... pick just that.

 

[bennor]

I'm sure I tried there isn't that what the whole point of VPN director is for you either select the IP of the device directly that you want the VPN to tunnel through or you allowed all devices ???

You have all of your rules set to a local IP of 192.168.50.0/24. Which means the entire subnet is being routed. If you want a specific network client to be routed to a specific VPN destination then input a specific IP address.. The following example with specific LAN client local IP's for the rules is from the VPN Director wiki page on Asus-Merlin's Wiki:

VPN Director

Third party firmware for Asus routers (newer codebase) - RMerl/asuswrt-merlin.ng

github.com

 

[Aiadi]

I'm sure I tried there isn't that what the whole point of VPN director is for you either select the IP of the device directly that you want the VPN to tunnel through or you allowed all devices ??? Otherwise I agree with the above member for all this trouble and time it's far easier to use fusion lol getting a bit ridiculous now . I told VPN France to tunnel directly to my Nvidia Shield device and director even shows the shields IP address when you show the list so I selected the shield's IP address clicked update..then check again and it still not working yet it will show on my mobile on a IP check .

Yes, exactly what @Viktor Jaep and @bennor have said here (and they are much more knowledgeable than I am).