Replacement for the BT Home Hub 6 with OpenVPN

[juss]

Good day,
I can stream HBO via NordVpn to my UK Laptop, but not my Smart TV unless i cast it from my L/top, which isn't convenient for the rest of the family.

So I'm after a replacement Router with an OpenVPN client to replace my BT Home Hub 6, which will route traffic for HBO over the NordVPN otherwise send it out over the standard BT network.

Would someone able to recommend a device that would provide this capability please.

I also wonder if I should purchased an openreach modem to increase my options, unless the new router has this built in.

Hopefully,
Just

 

[BigT]

What sort of budget do you have in mind and what sort of speed do you need over the VPN?

 

[juss]

Hi BigT and thanks for you initial response.

I would like to maintain enough speed to be able to stream HBO via NordVPN as I can using my HH6 and I suppose to around £150

 

[BigT]

Single stream? Right now your VPN speed is a factor of your laptop processor as it is doing the en/decryption. Offload that job to your router and it has to do it and most aren’t built for that. Any consumer router at your price point with appropriate custom firmware to do this won’t have as powerful CPU as your laptop.

I don’t personally have experience at £150 but I’m sure someone will be along who has. Does it need to be all in one? I.e. do wireless and modem as well as routing/firewall?

 

[juss]

Many thanks!

I'm really looking for options...NordVPN had made some recommendations in the following link, but in my ignorance as a novice, i would not know if these are compatible with replacing a BT HH6.

https://support.nordvpn.com/Connect...42/Which-router-should-I-use-with-NordVPN.htm

Perhaps my question should be; what are the minimum requirements to replacement a BT HH6 that would allow traffic routing via Nord VPN so I can stream Films etc? At this stage I'm only interested in routing to receiving HBO Streams in the UK and have the other traffic route as standard (of course this may evolve over time).

 

[Avalon]

The problem you have is the combination of variables. VPN tends to mean 'OpenVPN' which is single threaded so needs a fast core speed or hardware assistance, most routers use low power MIPS/ARM CPU's that lack the hardware capabilities (either a fast enough CPU, a dedicated FPU or hardware support for an instruction set to accelerate the cryptography) to do OpenVPN quickly. Before we go down the rabbit hole of getting a consumer router to run a 3rd party firmware and then configure it to handle OVPN and selective routing, I notice NORD mention a proxy service on the site, your TV is likely to have the ability to support this easily, if that works with HBO US then that's your cheapest (read free) option and will give you near line speed or at least as close to it as your TV/Nord can support.

 

[BigT]

Certainly try @Avalon 's advice re their proxy. That would be easy and free.

To answer your question @juss about replacing the BT Home Hub then it's worth understanding the jobs the home hub does typically and how that might vary from other routers.

By way of a simple explanation it does the following jobs:

1. Acts as a modem that connects your home to the internet
2. It acts as a router, giving IP addresses to devices on your network, translating traffic from your internal network to the internet and various other services
3. It acts as a firewall
4. Typically it has more than one LAN port so is also a switch, physically interconnecting things
5. It acts as a wireless access point, giving you wifi

If you want to replace it then you need to consider how many of those jobs the new device will do.

A replacement that does them all will generically be called something like a VDSL router or fibre router. It would be a like-for-like replacement - an all-in-one. Many of the Asus devices listed on that Nord page are such a device and Asus often make DSL (with modem) and non-DSL (without modem) versions of the same router.

Next category tend to do all the jobs except 1. (acting as a modem). These tend to be generically called cable routers, I guess because cable services in the UK (Virgin) require you to use their equipment for the 'modem' portion as a minimum. If you wish to use a cable modem with fibre then you'll need a DSL modem to complement it. Simplest option is nearly always a BT Openreach second hand modem off ebay for £20

Finally you get to routers that are more specialist and more likely to be equipped with the sort of features and performance to be able to do what you want more easily if you pursue the VPN at the router option. Quite often these are just routers though and as well as needing a modem you'll need something to do the access point part (point 5) of the all-in-one you are replacing and even sometimes the switch as it may come with only one WAN port (to connect to your modem) and one LAN port (off which you need to put a switch and then access point(s) off that)

That's just stuff typically worth considering on an enthusiast forum - there's a whole other world of enterprise routers beyond that.

 

[bremen1874]

Could you watch HBO on a Fire TV, Roku, etc.? Stick the NordVPN app on there as well, plug it into the TV, and enjoy without having to replace the router. Cheaper than messing with routers as well.

 

[juss]

Many thanks everyone - using a smart DNS service allows me to connect with excellent stream quality at a fraction of the price. I may still explore replace my router is thing change.