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I have been wanting to build a POC of a vpn product where you buy a kit with two little boxes that are plug n play: One you plug into the network in the locati

I have been wanting to build a POC of a vpn product where you buy a kit with two little boxes that are plug n play: One you plug into the network in the location you are supposed to be, and the other you bring with you on your travels and plug your computer into over ethernet port. The one you bring with you can connect to any wifi or be hard wired. It has one job: tunnels all your data through vpn to the other box you left behind. Does this exist? Seems like there could be a market for it now.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]
mdrzn 4y ago
Seems like a VPN with extra steps? It allows me to travel but I also have to have an apartment in the place "I'm supposed to be" to leave a little box plugged in?
- chrisseaton 4y ago
  Everyone knows the address range commercial VPNs use. Plugging into an internet connection in a house or something bypasses that.
  - mdrzn 4y ago
    There's plently of VPNs that offer unique IPs, or mobile/LTE IPs to connect to, you don't necessarily need to connect to a datacenter or an "abused" residential address. But there's a potential for a business here: rent small spaces and offer to set up the small boxes for a fee.
    - galangalalgol 4y ago
      These exist. They will scan your physical mail and email it for you too. People who RV all the time use it.
      - itsyaboi 4y ago
        This is interesting and it sounds like you have experience in this area. Can you share specific examples of these services?
        galangalalgol 4y ago
        I cannot, a coworker who retired to do the RV thing was telling me about it. I think the one he was going to use was in one of the Dakotas
rschachte 4y ago
I don’t think you need a box of any kind. Just tunnel into a server that is in the location you want it to be in and proxy traffic through that?
- galangalalgol 4y ago
  I think the assumption is that the work laptop has bossware or at least logs that get audited for that stuff.
  - dangero 4y ago
    yes this was my assumption
- Nextgrid 4y ago
  The problem with a server is that it's detectable based on the source IP - if your employee suddenly starts appearing from a datacenter IP you might have to ask questions. This box allows them to build a virtual network cable back to their usual, residential connection - completely invisible from the other side (besides latency, but this can be explained away).
  - huimang 4y ago
    You can simply run wireguard yourself, no devices needed other than your laptop and a server in your home. You can run wireguard on a raspberry pi (which are hard to source these days) or something like an HP SFF workstation which will run you ~$50 on ebay. Both of which are useful for other things asides from vpn tunneling.
  - Melatonic 4y ago
    I have messed around with this just using some simple routers. Works fine. You could also just leave the router at a friends house or family
ElevenLathe 4y ago
> Seems like there could be a market for it now. It would be easy enough to test it out if you had a sales channel in mind: give it a shot and if somebody wants to buy one, slap together something with Wireguard and two Raspberry Pis and build from there. The main problem I see is getting steady access to qualified leads, since I would assume "remote workers who are trying to hide that they are in the wrong country" is a particularly difficult cohort to track down reliably to market to. Honestly, if you could detect such people at scale, selling your system to HR departments may be a better business.
- BWStearns 4y ago
  Tbh, there's probably a reddit for stealthy digital nomads and you could advertise there. Like r/overemployed but for unauthorized remote work.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  Or just do Instagram ads to Millenials.
seba_dos1 4y ago
You have described a router with Wireguard on it, a pretty common configuration.
jabroni_salad 4y ago
Not quite as simple as "two boxes" but there are a bunch of 'travel routers' that have vpn clients on them. They're totally transparent to your devices and your home router probably has a compatible vpn server on it.
suzzer99 4y ago
Pretty sure online poker players did a reverse version of this after it was made illegal in the US. They have a proxy out of the US, which they log into to play from inside the US.
gregcrv 4y ago
https://www.gl-inet.com/ https://www.gl-inet.com/
0x457 4y ago
Amplify Teleport was (is?) just that: https://amplifi.com/teleport https://amplifi.com/teleport . I think it's now software only. What you're describing is just a router + WireGuard. I have a server with WireGuard that acts as an exit node in tailscale network and RPi with WireGuard that acts as SoftAP that routes the entire WiFi network through that WireGuard connection. For this solution to be truly plug'n'play you need to figure out how to punch holes in NAT. Tailscale has ways of connecting two nodes even if both behind NAT and block UDP.
hnov 4y ago
Yes, the easiest way to do this is buying 2 routers that support a VPN server and a VPN client. Any OpenWRT capable router should be able to do this for you, gl-inet built a business by selling routers with custom OpenWRT-based firmware with a streamlined UI for exactly this: you log-in go to the tab for configuring the OpenVPN/Wireguard server/client and you have yourself a private tunnel.

deleted 4y ago

[deleted]

mdrzn 4y ago

Seems like a VPN with extra steps? It allows me to travel but I also have to have an apartment in the place "I'm supposed to be" to leave a little box plugged in?

chrisseaton 4y ago
Everyone knows the address range commercial VPNs use. Plugging into an internet connection in a house or something bypasses that.
- mdrzn 4y ago
  There's plently of VPNs that offer unique IPs, or mobile/LTE IPs to connect to, you don't necessarily need to connect to a datacenter or an "abused" residential address. But there's a potential for a business here: rent small spaces and offer to set up the small boxes for a fee.
  - galangalalgol 4y ago
    These exist. They will scan your physical mail and email it for you too. People who RV all the time use it.
    - itsyaboi 4y ago
      This is interesting and it sounds like you have experience in this area. Can you share specific examples of these services?
      - galangalalgol 4y ago
        I cannot, a coworker who retired to do the RV thing was telling me about it. I think the one he was going to use was in one of the Dakotas

rschachte 4y ago

I don’t think you need a box of any kind. Just tunnel into a server that is in the location you want it to be in and proxy traffic through that?

galangalalgol 4y ago
I think the assumption is that the work laptop has bossware or at least logs that get audited for that stuff.
- dangero 4y ago
  yes this was my assumption
Nextgrid 4y ago
The problem with a server is that it's detectable based on the source IP - if your employee suddenly starts appearing from a datacenter IP you might have to ask questions. This box allows them to build a virtual network cable back to their usual, residential connection - completely invisible from the other side (besides latency, but this can be explained away).
- huimang 4y ago
  You can simply run wireguard yourself, no devices needed other than your laptop and a server in your home. You can run wireguard on a raspberry pi (which are hard to source these days) or something like an HP SFF workstation which will run you ~$50 on ebay. Both of which are useful for other things asides from vpn tunneling.
- Melatonic 4y ago
  I have messed around with this just using some simple routers. Works fine. You could also just leave the router at a friends house or family

ElevenLathe 4y ago

> Seems like there could be a market for it now. It would be easy enough to test it out if you had a sales channel in mind: give it a shot and if somebody wants to buy one, slap together something with Wireguard and two Raspberry Pis and build from there. The main problem I see is getting steady access to qualified leads, since I would assume "remote workers who are trying to hide that they are in the wrong country" is a particularly difficult cohort to track down reliably to market to. Honestly, if you could detect such people at scale, selling your system to HR departments may be a better business.

BWStearns 4y ago
Tbh, there's probably a reddit for stealthy digital nomads and you could advertise there. Like r/overemployed but for unauthorized remote work.
Melatonic 4y ago
Or just do Instagram ads to Millenials.

seba_dos1 4y ago

You have described a router with Wireguard on it, a pretty common configuration.

jabroni_salad 4y ago

Not quite as simple as "two boxes" but there are a bunch of 'travel routers' that have vpn clients on them. They're totally transparent to your devices and your home router probably has a compatible vpn server on it.

suzzer99 4y ago

Pretty sure online poker players did a reverse version of this after it was made illegal in the US. They have a proxy out of the US, which they log into to play from inside the US.

gregcrv 4y ago

https://www.gl-inet.com/ https://www.gl-inet.com/

0x457 4y ago

Amplify Teleport was (is?) just that: https://amplifi.com/teleport https://amplifi.com/teleport . I think it's now software only. What you're describing is just a router + WireGuard. I have a server with WireGuard that acts as an exit node in tailscale network and RPi with WireGuard that acts as SoftAP that routes the entire WiFi network through that WireGuard connection. For this solution to be truly plug'n'play you need to figure out how to punch holes in NAT. Tailscale has ways of connecting two nodes even if both behind NAT and block UDP.

hnov 4y ago

Yes, the easiest way to do this is buying 2 routers that support a VPN server and a VPN client. Any OpenWRT capable router should be able to do this for you, gl-inet built a business by selling routers with custom OpenWRT-based firmware with a streamlined UI for exactly this: you log-in go to the tab for configuring the OpenVPN/Wireguard server/client and you have yourself a private tunnel.