VPN web browsing setup desktop to desktop in another country

[pr1970]

Hi all

I'm living abroad and would like to use my pc back home in the uk as a link to the web for bbc iplayer, web shopping,news,etc via proxy setup on Firefox.
I've had a look at some tutorials but they either require a degree in networking to understand or are more for file serving rather than web browsing.

Anyone have a good tutorial for this ? Or any software that makes it easier to setup.
i dont want a free or paid vpn service as i want to use a fix ip that my desktop has in the uk.
Thanks alot

 

[Shadowjk]

The BBC is a British broadcasting service and is to service people who pay for a TV license. This restricts BBC content to the UK only. They do other UK citizens then ability to download content onto their machine for 30 days which can then be watched anywhere however first needs to be downloaded within the UK. BBC iPlayer - Install BBC iPlayer Desktop - See this for more information.

In order to establish a VPN connection easily you need a client and server to handle the request. In this case your desktop in UK would need a server software (agent) which will then allow you to remotely connect to the machine via the internet. I am not very experienced in VPNs so I cannot recommend any possible solutions however I can say that if you plan on browsing the web you may find that you will receive major performance issues.

Although you may have a 50Mbps download speed abroad the maximum speed at which you can transfer data is limited to your upload speed in the UK. Therefore if your upload speed is slow (1Mbps) then the maximum speed you will get is 1Mbps.

Overall I would say avoid VPN connections since they were designed for connecting to LAN resources rather than an exploit to use a different public IP address and avoid website region restrictions. For example when connected via a VPN you can send a print job to your home LAN.

Josh

 

[pr1970]

Thanks. Yes my PC is at my parents who pay a license fee so I'm not doing anything illegal.

The main reason is my ip there is linked to work accounts and the ip is uk based and secure. It won't be used much just the odd bit of web surfing.

 

[Shadowjk]

Thanks. Yes my PC is at my parents who pay a license fee so I'm not doing anything illegal.

The main reason is my ip there is linked to work accounts and the ip is uk based and secure. It won't be used much just the odd bit of web surfing.

Do you mean your public IP address? (For example: 207.88.56.123)

Also is your ISP provided by work or through a public ISP (BT,Sky,Virgin Media)?

Josh

 

[pr1970]

Yes it's a static ip that I use to connect to a work PC . Currently I use teamviewer to connect but want something more automatic and seamless than using that.

 

[Shadowjk]

What you need then is a Remote desktop connection rather than a VPN connection. As long as you can retrieve your public IP address from your home router in the UK as well as have a static IP address on the machine that you would like to connect to you should be fine.

This link should help - Allow Remote Desktop connections from outside your home network

Could you also post a picture of your ipconfig for the machine that you want to connect to and I can then show you how to setup a static IP address otherwise set one up yourself - http://www.sevenforums.com/network-sharing/144365-network-posting-tips.html - Follow the first part and don't run the file attatched

   Warning

There may be security implications if when opening your computer up to the internet for remote desktop connection therefore it is advised that you have a strong user account password

Hope This Helps,
Josh

 

[pr1970]

Thanks. Would that allow me to use the Internet of the remote PC. I'm not interested in files on that PC just using online services through it.

 

[Shadowjk]

If the remote PC has an established internet connection which it should do otherwise you wouldn't be able to connect to it in the first place then yes you can. This will simulate the desktop as if you were there locally yourself.

The remote PC must have Windows 7 Professional,Ultimate or Enterprise installed for it to work otherwise the only other option is Teamviewer

Josh!

 

[pr1970]

Yes but I really don't want to simulate the desktop which is what I'm doing now as its slow. I want to setup a proxy in Firefox remotely at link into my uk desktop.

 

[Shadowjk]

If you want to setup a proxy then you don't need the remote PC at all. You would need a proxy server and then once setup all the traffic will get sent to that proxy server and then the proxy will request whatever data you want. Typical reasons for doing this is to hide/change your IP address to make you appear as though you are in a different country. This in turn would allow bypass of security filters. In terms of what proxy servers to use then you will have to find that out yourself. I will tell you now though that some proxy servers are good and others are bad with impact on speed varying between them.

Firefox is a browser and not a proxy server. You need a separate machine in the middle of yours (Could be your remote PC however will require specialist software and security problems may well be prevalent. Also if your remote PC is currently connected to a works proxy then you would be unable to set it up as one.) and the website you want to view.

 

[pr1970]

Ok perhaps I'm confused but I just want to be able to setup an ip of my remote PC on my local PC so when I'm browsing locally I'm actually using the ip of the remote, so i can use web services of the remote I'd iplayer,etc

 

[Shadowjk]

To do that you need to turn your remote PC into a proxy server and then connect your machine to that proxy server in internet properties. Equally you could pick any hosted proxy server in the UK and it should also work. I can't tell you the hosted proxy servers since I don't know them. You must either, setup the remote PC as one and configure your firewall on the router to allow proxy communications or pay to host your own.