Having lost my first remote job due to an improper VPN setup, I want to share the lessons I learned and hopefully this gets pinned so that anyone else getting started in the digital nomad’s lifestyle does not have to go through what I did and lose a job.
I do now have a better-paying remote job that I have been able to keep due to this setup.
Get a Dedicated Residential VPN, the VPN service provider that you choose depends on your job location. I use RapidVPNwhile it is an underdog it does have way more locations for its Dedicated IP than the likes of NordVPN or CyberGhostStarVPN great locations at an affordable price providing excellent customer service and router support. Make sure that your VPN supports OpenVPN or WireGuard as this is the default set up for the MT300N-V2 from GL.Inet.
with these two steps your good to go, travel anywhere you like in the world and appear as if your are at your designated workplace location without any worries. Even if you are at a fixed location setting your VPN up through your router can prevent your ISP from leaking especially if you are using company equipment in which they can log your IP on startup.
Pro Tip: If you do not have a residential address in location in which your job is located you can always get a virtual mailbox from the likes of PostScanMail.com or others depending on the state in which you are needing one from.
I wouldn’t recommend RapidVPN nor would I recommend Cyberghost at all since they are quite shit VPNs. You should look at Mullvad, Proton or IVPN for security and privacy since they don’t gather any logs.
Just FYI, the Mango does not appear to be able to handle a 5G router signal, so those beastly 100+mbps internet speeds may not be repeatable. At least this is what support told me. Anyway around this without needing to buy a new travel router?
Great write up. The only remaining danger is that the VPN service provider’s IP address could be on a list of known VPN providers and your employer could find out. (I know Netflix for example does this to block the VPN region trick).
I would recommand running a VPN server (Wireguard) on a low cost/low consumption device such as Raspberry Pi. Leave it at your parents/family/friends place and use it to always have the same location.
I use my own VPN. You can run your own VPN server in AWS cheaper than you pay the vpn companies for and you have the added benefit that it doesn’t get flagged as a vpn service. I can also operate my own VPN anywhere AWS operates which is all over the globe.
Another point to highlight here is making sure all devices are connected to that VPN router, like your phone with company email/multi-factor authentication, etc.
If you forget and access email on phone with ip address outside the country/location - you might have consequences!
I guess you need a dedicated IP VPN to avoid IT alerts. But connecting from a commercial VPN IP address might still be triggering alerts (e.g., Netflix). A better option is to host the VPN server at your parent’s or friend’s house, saving VPN costs too :). C.f., https://www.reddit.com/r/VPNAdvice/comments/l2e2f4/can\_vpn\_help\_my\_situation/
That’s pretty sweet thanks. Just ordered. Is it easy to figure out the different configurations? I’d intend to use it either wired WAN to wired LAN (to just use the VPN abilities) or wired WAN to it’s own wifi.