I work from home, and our IT team says we are not allowed to work remotely – like from our vacation home on the mountain for a day or two – because they restrict our system access. We can only literally work from “home.”
I have a background in IT, and a basic understanding of VPNs and wifi, but more to do with databases than networks, so I am looking for some expert advice and product recommendations.
Is there a hardware device that I can plug into my work computer ethernet cable, which then presents my IP address to my company from a remote VPN server?
I’m thinking if I can set that up while I’m at home, and get them to allow it into their network, then I could literally work from anywhere in the world and always appear to connect from my “home” IP address (or at least, the same basic location)?
Is my theory correct?
And if so, can someone recommend the products I will need to set that up?
Employers with strict access policies usually have laptops that are: members of an OU, have a Citrix VPN client installed and are fully encrypted. Talk to your IT folks.
It’s not the best solution but, you can always remotely connect your work computer and do your work from it while you are staying in your mountain home.
have a look at keepmyhomeip.com if you are paranoid about vpn and want to use your own home IP address. Also make sure to not use your business phone (!)
please have a look at keepmyhomeip.com - it solves exactly your problem!
What’s keep my home ip? With Keep My Home IP, you are provided with a residential IP address that cannot be flagged as a VPN by anyone. This is because the IP address you are using is your home IP address, which is assigned to you by your internet service provider (ISP). This is different from a commercial VPN service that uses a shared pool of IP addresses that can be easily identified and blocked by websites and services. With Keep My Home IP, you can access geo-restricted content and websites without worrying about being detected as using a VPN.
Wouldn’t it be easier for OP to just get Starlink at his home address. Then when he travels, he can just cary the Starlink antenna with him? IT won’t know where he is based on IP
Do you have 5G type of internet at home? If so then you can not do this easily due to CG-NAT limitations.
Does your current home router have a built-in VPN server?
If so things get A LOT EASIER with setting up a private VPN.
If you have a combo modem/router then most likely you do not have a VPN server built in.
If you have a separate modem and router then you would need to configure a VPN server inside your router if it supports it. If no VPN support is there, it is time to get one that does. ASUS makes really good consumer routers. Of course you can do pfSense or MikroTik or something more elaborate if you want to dive a bit deeper.
But if you have cable/dsl/fiber type connection then you should be able to set up a VPN inside your existing router. If your router does not support this functionality then get an ASUS router (for example).
You can set up a simple OpenVPN server in the ASUS and get a GL.INET travel router and set up the client there. Once you get the client connected properly, any device behind the GL.INET router would appear to be on your home network. Now connect your work laptop to this GL.INET router and you will be up and running.
If you have a combination modem/router, you can port forward to your ASUS router and still be able to do this. Limitations are that you can’t be on 5G type home internet connections.
There are other potential factors to consider but these here are the most common ones that I have to deal with for my customers.