VPN Tutorial for Newbies
Installing BolehVPN on the ASUS RT-N66U Router
with Merlin Firmware
By Don DeGracia, Jan 01, 2014
STEP 1: Install Router & Upgrade Firmware Ingredients
Like any recipe, you need a list of ingredients:
[1] Internet connection. Obviously! I have cable internet.
[2] Router – Asus RT-N66U (The “dark knight” – sheesh – marketing!). What I am describing here only works with the newest routers, which can be programmed. I actually went and just bought this router (again as of Dec. 2013) just for the purpose of being able to program it to run the VPN service.
[3] Router firmware. This is the web interface to control your router. For the RT- N66U, I installed the Merlin version of the Asus firmware (version 3.0.0.4.374.35_4).
[4] VPN Service. I decided to go with BolehVPN, because I heard they had good customer service (which subsequently I discovered is true – they are very responsive to customer support) and for other reasons in the article above. You need to research companies and go with one that meets your needs and that you think is trustworthy. The best type of VPN service uses the open source OpenVPN which is a form of the SSL/TLS protocol. The company you choose should allow an option for OpenVPN. Since it is open source, and everybody can see the code, there is no chance for hidden backdoors put in by the NSA or whoever. For some background, here is a short list of VPN protocols Here is a more extensive explanation of VPNs in general.
Like any recipe, you need to follow the steps.
[1] Install router and upgrade firmware.
[2] Program the OpenVPN client in the firmware to connect to your VPN.
[3] (optional) Program the router to control whether specific devices go through the VPN or through your ISP.
This is straight-forward: just follow the instructions that came with your router.
DD-WRT. I went through a whole thing with the open source firmware DD-WRT. The short of it is, this didn’t work for me, but I will briefly give some background. DD-WRT is a firmware that allows one to have much greater control over their router. It is an incredible piece of software, but for many people, including me, it is probably WAY too much control. The reason dd-wrt enters the picture is because it contains an OpenVPN client, and many VPN companies have instructions for setting up their VPN service on dd-wrt. So there is A LOT of stuff on message boards about setting up VPN services on dd-wrt. It may be the case that, for your particular router and your particular VPN company, you need to install dd-wrt on your router. Then, the VPN company will give specific instructions to install access to their VPN servers on dd-wrt. If this is the case for you, just follow instructions.
Merlin/Tomato firmware. In my case, it turned out that all I needed to do was install the Merlin firmware on my router. Merlin has an OpenVPN client based on the Tomato firmware (Tomato, like dd-wrt, is a non-proprietary firmware that expands your router’s capabilities). It is easy to install Merlin and the instructions provided are easy to follow.
Note: there is a whole thing out there about the 32 kB or 64 kB nvram which is particularly confusing in the dd-wrt forums. If you install the latest version of Merlin on the RT-N66U, it will make your router 64 kB nvram, and you don’t need to do anything fancy. Just follow the install instructions in the Merlin download.
The steps to install Merlin on your router are:
That’s it! You now have an OpenVPN programmable ASUS RT-N66U. Now, before you get started with steps 2 and 3, make a backup of your default configuration. Then, if something goes wrong, you can just restore the default configuration and start from the begining.
BACKUP YOUR ROUTER CONFIGURATION
[1] Click "Administration" on left bar.
[2] Click "Restore/Save/Upload Settings" tab
[3] Click "Save" under "Save Settings".
[4] Rename file to something that reminds you what the settings are and store safely somewhere.
Go to STEP 2: Install the VPN on the OpenVPN CLIENT on your router