Windows 10: Using VPN inside my home LAN?

Whenever I see VPN, it says that it's used to access your home LAN from the outside when I'm not home (thru the internet), but what if I want to use VPN inside my LAN? Can it be done? The reason I'm asking this is that I sometimes use Wifi for certain devices in my LAN (smartphone, tablet, etc), and AFAIK the data exchanged during wifi sessions is not encrypted (only at user login), opening the door to wifi sniffers.

:)

 

VPN for Windows 10

The answer is a bit complicated....

Yes, Windows 10 has a built-in VPN client.... but that makes the assumption that you're wanting to connect to some corporate/school that already has a VPN server configured.

However, if you're trying to use a VPN at home to anonymize your traffic inside the Internet, then you'll need "both parts" of the VPN solution... both the VPN client part, and a VPN server part that you
will most likely have to pay for.

My personal preference is NordVPN...

 

Windows 10, tapisrv High CPU, and laptop docking with switching networks

It happens when I switch from home to office or office to home.

It also happened today after a reboot. In that case, at home, I opened up my VPN client (Dell SonicWall Global VPN Client), connected to the VPN, disconnected, and then TapiSrv started consuming CPU, even after the VPN was disconnected.

I don't always use the VPN when at home, but there's a chance that is the culprit.

 

You need to turn on WPA2 encryption for your WiFi connection on your router. Most routers from the last 10 years or so should have WPA2.

What Is the Strongest WiFi Encryption? | Chron.com





When you attempt to connect to your WiFi, your computer will automatically detect the encryption and ask you for the password, which you will have to supply to connect. That encrypts the data flowing on the WiFi connection. The alternate way of connecting is with the WDS button - but I personally just use a password.

I have not found a way to even test my VPN within my own LAN. When I want to test my VPN connection, I share the LTE data on my cell phone via WiFi, connect my computer to that which gives me an outside internet connection. Then I test my VPN that way.

 

Hi Navy, yes, I use WPA2 encryption, but the point is, are you sure that it encrypts the data flowing on the Wifi connection or only the data exchanged during login (password)? AFAIK, it only encrypts the password and not the data flowing while you are logged in, but I may be wrong.

 

Did you read the article I linked to? It encrypts the data after the connection is made. Here is more info:
How secure are WPA2 keys? - Information Security Stack Exchange

 

Thanks Navy, I have read similar info elsewhere, and even if all data is encrypted as said in the article, even with WPA2-PSK, the wifi network is vulnerable to attackers. I wonder if using VPN inside the LAN (if possible) would add an extra layer of security to wifi.

 

Using a VPN inside of a LAN is just going to cause huge headaches.

As for wifi signals being looked to be attacked. It is not as big as you think.

It is the connection to your ISP that is always under attack. A Good Gateway with proper Firewall rules, strong Wifi Passphrase, no remote connection over Internet are the key things to remember.

 

And not only the connection to the ISP, but also the corporate servers always under attack too. At home, the biggest benefit to using WPA or WEP is not really to encrypt the WiFi traffic itself - but to keep neighbors from connecting to your router and stealing your internet bandwidth (ever seen The Big Bang Theory episodes and Penny stealing the boys' WiFi?). In order for a hacker to steal your information from the WiFi traffic, the first thing they would have to do is sit within range of your WiFi signal. I just don't see it worth it to a hacker looking to steal information to be parked in your driveway for hours at a time in order to get a couple of your account numbers/passwords or steal a movie you might be streaming. They are more likely to go after the point where a large amount of different persons' information is and that they can hack into from a remote location.

WPA only encrypts the traffic between your WiFi adapter and the router. What you really want to look for for the outside connection is an https:\\ website to transmit sensitive information - the https:\\ traffic gets encrypted all the way from your computer to the destination website - including the WiFi portion of the trip.

 

You mean to say that it's advisable to use a gateway other than the ISP's? If so, which one?

I'm not really concerned about that, I only use wifi ocasionally, plus I have a strong password (16 characters) plus I have auto notifications of devices attached to the wifi router

I agree on that one, a public wifi like airports, starbucks, hotels, etc is more prone to attacks than a private home

I agree on that too, problem is that not all websites are "https", i.e., non encrypted, and that's when you need a solution like VPN. Also, even if you visit an https, if you have no VPN, someone might find out that you visited that website. With VPN all your traffic, including websites visited are encrypted, so your privacy is complete (as long as the VPN server deletes your history)

 

A bit OT bit if you are that concerned about privacy you could consider the Tor Project: Anonymity Online

It isn't a complete solution as some websites will block traffic coming from known TOR exit nodes (this is the IP that your request appears to originate from) but then they also block traffic coming from known VPNs. I certainly trust the open source Tor Project over a commercial VPN provider promising not to keep logs but as I don't have anything to hide I have nothing to fear (thought I'd preempt someone else saying that).

Performance is OK for normal use but it isn't suitable for high bandwidth use (streaming, torrents etc) really and is not recommended for such.

 

It does not necessarily mean you have something to hide, or at least it's not my case, it has to do with privacy and security which should be a right for anyone surfing the net. In my case, I started this thread because I always had a wired home LAN (still do), mostly because I don't trust wifi security (plus the concern over wifi radiation, speed, battery saver, etc). Only recently I added a wifi router to my wired LAN which I use occasionally for convenience in certain circumstances (internet access for my friends/smartphones, etc), so I was trying to see the way to optimize security/safety under wifi.

 

So, let's say you get your plan working and you set up a VPN inside your local LAN at your house. The VPN stops at your router and then the traffic goes through a regular internet connection to your ISP, where it gets sent via regular internet to the destination website. The only thing you have done is add one more layer of encryption to the very tiny part of the entire flow of data that is the most secure part of it already because you should be behind the NAT translation firewall built into your router and a hacker would have to be camped out within range of your WiFi (in your driveway or front yard) to intercept that signal.

Now, if you feel like you need to protect yourself when using public WiFi - that is entirely different. A lot of routers, such as my Netgear R7000 in the Nighthawk series, have built in VPN servers. On public WiFi I can VPN to my home router which then connects me to the internet. However, the built in VPN server on the router (and as far as I know all routers) is only for connections originating outside the LAN.

 

This is going way too far. As far as Packet sniffing, to start off with, your email is sent in the clear over the Internet, unless you encrypt it. Passwords to websites that use https can also be sent in the clear over the Internet.

Unless someone has been able to break your Passphrase to get into your network to sniff the packets. It will not happen if you have a strong password for the SSID. All that it takes for Ethernet is someone connecting to your router to packet sniff, unless you use Radius for Wifi and a Proxy.

As for the Gateway your ISP leases to you. It works for the majority, because they do not want to sink a whole lot of money into infrastructure if the need is not there. I invested in my network with using two Access Points, one a POE business grade, so that we would have not only range, but also that it would stay on while the UPS is up, until I start shutting things down, then it is the ISP Gateway that I would roll over to.

 

Agree with everything you said

True if you're using email clients such as Outlook, but if you use webmail provided by Google, Yahoo, etc, I understand that email is encrypted over https.