View Full Version : Virgin media broadband over VPN
Hello
I have at home the virgin media package which include xl broadband 20mb, however I have had to move back home for a few months to look after my parents whilst still keeping my house and my virgin broadband, Howver my parents house is not in a cabled area and can only receive 1mb via talk talk.
Is there any way I could set up a VPN at my house so I can connect at my parents house at my 20 mb speeds. I realise it will be expensive to set up a VPN but if it is possible as it is with business it will be well worth it
I hope someone can help?
Simple answer would be yes, Virgin do not block VPN and many a forum member has setup a VPN.
Hope this helps.
ps Welcome to the Cable forum.
AndyCambs
22-03-2009, 18:16
Surely though irrespective of VPN you would still be limited by the speeds at the terminal end - i.e. your parents house?
Hi this is what I need to know, Businesses allow their staff to connect to their internet in other locations I just wanted the same principle.
I need to be able to access the 20mb broadband I pay for from my house to my parents house 7 miles which is a non cabled area and has capability of just 1 mb, There must be away via a network or vpn for me to harness this, does anyone know how??
You can't fit 20mb down a 1mb pipe, not only that but if you are sending it via your PC then the upload is even more limited. You can't do what I think you are attempting without having a faster connection from your house to your parents house. You could still use the connection to download stuff to your PC to use when you get back....
General Maximus
22-03-2009, 19:17
the best thing you can do is buy an external hdd or two (if you dont have one already), use the VPN to remotely download data to your parents pc and then copy it to your external hdds when you go round.
Yep, relatively straightforward really but asumes your router has vpn en-point capability and you can leave the pc at your house switched on.
Setup a dial-up vpn account on the router at your house, probably better to stick with PPTP to begin with until your comfortable with the setup process then you may wish to secure it with an ipsec compliant vpn at a later time.
Moving on . . . decide on a remote client access application (such as RDP or VNC - free) and enable/install the server side component on the PC at your house. Once you are happy your pc can be acessed locally across your own home network (by way of test from another computer running the relevant client side application) then you should be in a position to setup the dial-up vpn client at the remote location (in this case, your parents house). Use the built in wizard to create this vpn dial up network connection and make sure you enter the relevant details when prompted (you will need the WAN IP at your house and any credentials that you programmed onto the router for the dial up account when you created it). Lastly, where relevant, install and setup the client side software on your parents pc for the remote access application you chose earlier.
There you have it. You can now vpn to your home network, take control of your home pc (via whatever remote access client you opted for and to the private IP assigned to your computer at your home) and surf the net from you own pc as if you were sitting at home in front of it.
Note, many people make the common mistake of trying to setup vpn's between routers with common (or the same) private network addresses at each side of the connection. Each private side network needs to be different else the vpn will be unable to route traffic across the connection.
Hope this makes sense . . .
Cheers mate
sent u a pm to say thanks as well.
So this will mean I could connect to the internet at my parents house via vpn network set up at my house at speeds of 20mb or have I got carried away with it all
Not quite, you will ultimately be connecting to and taking control of your own pc at home, from your parents house and over the vpn you setup across their 1Mb link. If your not too familiar with the concept, google Microsoft RDP for a better idea . . .
oh thats a bit dissappointing as i already have a 1 mb connection at my parents so won't really be gaining anything. They live too far from exchange to ever get higher than 1mb.
putting the 20mb to one side as that avenue is looking pretty much dead now.
Is there any other way of connecting to broadband without a phone (as I will never get higher tah 1 mb) I cannot get cable at my parents house so thats out. I pretty much need a miracle if there is one. I am not greedy 3-5 mb would be fine but I need just an alternative - if anyone has any ideas - Money no object
Sir John Luke
22-03-2009, 20:47
It depends what you are trying to do with the connection. For example, if you want to download stuff to YOUR Pc @ 20Mb, you could connect to your PC from your parents @1Mb, then download to your PC @ 20 Mb. What you would not be able to do is to download to your parents PC @ 20 Mb. Hope that makes sense. (NB you wouldn't need VPN).
Have you looked at any of the mobile broadband options available. Might be worth a look if you are in a reasonable reception area. Some boast up to 7Mbps
http://shop.vodafone.co.uk/shop/deals/usb-modem-stick-pro-5gb-24-months-25
oh thats a bit dissappointing as i already have a 1 mb connection at my parents so won't really be gaining anything. They live too far from exchange to ever get higher than 1mb.
putting the 20mb to one side as that avenue is looking pretty much dead now.
Is there any other way of connecting to broadband without a phone (as I will never get higher tah 1 mb) I cannot get cable at my parents house so thats out. I pretty much need a miracle if there is one. I am not greedy 3-5 mb would be fine but I need just an alternative - if anyone has any ideas - Money no object
Mate, you're asking if you can fit a quart into a pint pot - it simply can't work. You can connect into your home PC from your parents house, but you can only do that at the speed of the slowest part of the network, and in your case the slowest part is the 1 meg link into your parents house.
Cheers for the mobile tip and and tried the vodafone mobile already and just outside the area which is a bit of a bummer so no joy there... There will be an answer somewhere - someone will have an alternative !!!
---------- Post added at 21:07 ---------- Previous post was at 21:00 ----------
Thanks Chris and Sir John luke.
I now know that downloading at 20 mb at my parents house is not possible, but Sir john luke hit on a brilliant point and if possible will save all the problems...
Could I access my computer at my house (where the 20mb is) and download a movie using the 20 mb connection so it will be downloading at my house pc not my parents and then when its finished could I access it on my partents pc using one of thse access my pc programs... I think sir john liuke knows what i mean?
AndyCambs
22-03-2009, 21:12
If you want to connect remotely to your own pc - then have a look at www.logmein.com (http://www.logmein.com) I use it to connect to my home pc from the laptop when away.
LOL ;)
Thats exactly what I described a little earlier only sir John suggested no need for vpn which is quite right however, you then need to consider nat port forwarding which ultimately is not as secure as an 'on demand' dial up vpn.
Read my earlier post again . . slowly :-)
Andy is also right on with Logmein although I believe there is usually a charge asociated . . .
Cheers for that Andy will check it, and will it let me download movies etc.. from my home pc where my 20mb is @20 mb and then I can view it when downloaded on my laptop at my parents house...using logmein....
Zhadnost
22-03-2009, 21:22
At your parents house, the maximum speed you will be able to download at is either the upload speed of your VM account or the download speed of your parents internet connection, whichever is slowest. (well, you may gain a little bit if you use LZO compression on the VPN link, but not much).
If you remotely control your home machine from your parents house (VNC, RDP, xterm etc.), it will still get the 20Mbit service although it may become a bit unusable if you don't have QoS properly set up.
Cheers Patriot
You have been helpful did not mean do diss your earlier idea it jjust sounded pretty technical for a novice like me but i think I could get my head round remote access program like log me in as long as it does th job.
But thanks everyone for your help you have been very patient cheers
Cheers for that Andy will check it, and will it let me download movies etc.. from my home pc where my 20mb is @20 mb and then I can view it when downloaded on my laptop at my parents house...using logmein....
You can remotely command your home PC to download a movie, and it will do that download at 20Mb, but if you then want your PC to serve it to you at your parents house, it will only be able to transfer it to you at 768Kb as that is the upstream speed on your Virgin 20-meg service. This is a little slower than the 1Mb download available at your parents house. As I said eariler, you will only be able to do anything at the speed of the slowest point in the network and in this scenario the slowest point is your own computer's upstream speed.
768kb I would guess is unlikely to be sufficient to view a movie or TV programme in real time.
If you remotely control your home machine from your parents house (VNC, RDP, xterm etc.), it will still get the 20Mbit service although it may become a bit unusable if you don't have QoS properly set up.
Cheers for that - sorry for appearing thick but what is Qos setup, and will I be able to view video content downloaded at my house remotely at my parents house
---------- Post added at 21:48 ---------- Previous post was at 21:42 ----------
Cheers Chris I don't know its like one step forward and two steps back aint it.
I did not realise that remote viewing wouyld mean using meaning uploading just 768kb I just figuered that i can view my slingbox from my house on my parents laptop quite comfortbaly at 400kb so I figured a movie thats already been downloaded would not be a problem
---------- Post added at 22:04 ---------- Previous post was at 21:48 ----------
Cheers Andy
I have had a look at logmein but it does not support video playback so if I downloaded a video remotely, I would not be able to view it on my parents laptop, unless I converted it to Windows display which i did not understand
It all depends on the bitrate of the downloaded movie a lower quality file would be more likely to be viewable over a limited connection; a ripped HD TV programme certainly wouldn't be.
It all depends on the bitrate of the downloaded movie a lower quality file would be more likely to be viewable over a limited connection; a ripped HD TV programme certainly wouldn't be.
Well if he is using a Remote viewer, then won't the movie lag as the fps is alot lower.
Graham M
23-03-2009, 08:41
Well if he is using a Remote viewer, then won't the movie lag as the fps is alot lower.
:rolleyes:
Why would you even try and do it that way?
Zhadnost
23-03-2009, 10:00
Cheers for that - sorry for appearing thick but what is Qos setup, and will I be able to view video content downloaded at my house remotely at my parents house
QoS is a method by which you can decide how important different types of network traffic is.
In this case, if you are remote controlling a machine that is downloading heavily, then the download process may swallow up a lot of upstream bandwidth and without traffic shaping, the machine you are viewing it from will have difficulty being able to talk to it at any speed. (as network traffic queues up to leave your home machine at your modem).
You will not be able to view video content like this. (well, not really).
sammyjayuk
23-03-2009, 14:01
For the specific case of wanting to watch video at your parents' home that is stored at your own home, remote desktop programs are completely inappropriate (especially VNC, which is always inappropriate over the public internet as it has no encryption). I would recommend using something designed for the job, like VLC, to stream the video from your home PC because it can transcode the video into a lower bitrate. You will still need remote desktop software to set up the stream, for which you'll need a little patience if you're using VLC, so make sure you use something with encryption - or of course tunnel VNC through SSH.
With the right software, a little knowledge and a fair bit of patience you can come up with a completely free point and click system. VLC, SSH and VNC are all quite complex but there's tons of information about them - Google is your friend!
Sam (who misses his Mac something awful but realises he's still fairly comfortable with Linux, even after all this time)
---------- Post added at 14:01 ---------- Previous post was at 13:56 ----------
Ohhh, you have a Slingbox? If your home computer has a TV output, and your Slingbox has a free input, then just connect them up and you'll be away! No faffing around with VLC, etc...
Sam
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