Why you need a home VPN.

When talking about VPN, the first thing that comes to mind is privacy. Indeed, perhaps its best known function is to connect to the Internet as if you were surfing from another country. Well, creating a home VPN will not be useful for this. If you want to make a website think that you are connecting from somewhere else, then you can use a free VPN. Of course, this implies entrusting our data to companies that may not be very trustworthy. However, you can also try a proxy.

Protecting your privacy when surfing the web.

A home VPN is something simpler, and focused on privacy when browsing. It takes care of creating a tunnel for your data. As a result, all the requests you make, such as searches, emails and so on, are encrypted and pass through the VPN server to be sent to the Internet. It will therefore mask your computer’s IP address, preventing applications and companies from being able to track you when you surf the Internet. As a result, websites will not know the IP address of your router when you connect. Instead, they will only know your VPN`s IP address.

A domestic VPN increases the security of your data.

Let’s clarify this point a little: When you connect to a website, you actually connect to the server where it is hosted. This server receives a request from your computer, and uses your IP to find you and send you its content. Consequently, all the websites you visit store your IP. In fact, it works as if it were your postal address on the Internet. Then, your data can be sold to advertisers. They get to collect all the pages that a particular IP’s computer has been to.

In this context, a VPN acts as an intermediary so that you do not give your real IP when connecting to a website. When visiting a website using a VPN server, it is your VPN that establishes the connection with the web server. Consequently, it is its IP address and not that of your router that it will be storing. So, it is more difficult to determine which websites you have visited.

In addition to this, a VPN server also allows you to create a local network without the need for your devices to be physically connected to each other. They only need to be connected to the same network. In any case, it will save on cabling.

How to set up a home VPN step by step in Windows 10

The first thing you have to do is to enter the Windows Settings. With this in mind, press the Win+I combination. Once there, enter the Network & Internet settings.

In the next window, click on Status. Then scroll down and click on Change adapter options.

Configuring the new connection

This will open a window of the old Control Panel of Windows 7 and earlier versions, which is still hidden inside Windows 10. Press F10 to display a hidden menu bar. In this hidden menu, you have to click on File>New incoming connection. With this, you will be telling Windows that you want to create a new connection, which in this case will be the VPN.

In the next window, you will be able to see user accounts that you can add to the computer. There will be both those you have created for Windows logon and those of your Microsoft family group. Therefore, you need to choose which accounts you want to be able to access the VPN. It is advisable to create a new user by clicking on the Add someone button. Consequently, this username and password will be used later.

A new window will open. Once there, just add a username and password. You can add any values you want, but remember that you will use them later to access the VPN.

After confirming the user, you must configure the type of connection. In this case, through the Internet.

In the next screen, you configure the network protocols and software you want to use. Please select the Internet Protocol version 4 option and clicks on Properties. By default, the user will use your IP address. Therefore, let’s change it to assign a different IP range. Consequently, it will behave like a VPN.

In the next window, locate the IP Address Assignment section. Specifically, click on Specify IP address.

Investigating the IP address of the router.

Here, you will have to specify a range of IPs that are within your IP address. Let’s see how to do it. Let’s see how to do it. To accomplish this, you first need to know your IP address. With this in mind, open the Windows Command Prompt application and type the ipconfig command. The console will return a text with several IP addresses. Please copy the Default Gateway IP. This is the IP address of your router.

Returning to the previous screen, you must type a range of numbers within your IP. Therefore, the first three sets of numbers must be the same as your router’s IPs . For example, if the IP of my router is 192.168.31.1, then the IPs of the range you have to type must start with 192.168.31. Finally, in the last value you can enter as many as you want, depending on the number of IPs you want to give to the VPN. In this case, you can set it from 192.168.31.20 to 192.168.31.30 to assign 11 IP addresses.

After configuring the IP address range, just click OK and you will return to the Network Software screen. Consequently, just click on Allow access to create the VPN.

After a few seconds, the process will be finished.

Open ports in the router.

First, let’s open the VPN port of your router. To complete this, you have to enter your router’s configuration using the default Gateway IP. Just copy it from the previous section and paste it into the browser. In my case, it is 192.168.31.1, but it can also be 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1. The password usually comes in the router, but it is advisable to change it, once inside you have to open the port 1723 in your router.

The configuration screen will be different for each router. What you have to do is to add a rule by typing the IP of your computer and port 1723 to open it. I would like to point out that your computer’s IP is not the same as the router’s IP. Back to the ipconfig command, your computers will be where it says IPv4 Address.

Granting permissions in Windows Firewall

Once again, you must log in to the Control Panel. Once there, follow the path System and Security>Windows Defender Firewall. Then click on Allow an application or feature through Windows Defender Firewall.

In the next window, please click on Change settings. Next, scroll down and check the Private and Public checkboxes of the Routing and remote access option.

Connect to your VPN

After you have done this, you have your VPN connection created. Now you just have to connect from your Android or iOS device. With this intention, use the IP that appears in the IPv4 Address as the VPN server name. Remember to use the ipconfig command.

To connect to the VPN from Windows, you have to go to the settings and enter Network and Internet. Once there, click on the VPN section. Please click on the Add VPN option to proceed to add the one you have configured.

A configuration window will open. In it, under VPN Provider, you have to choose the Windows option. Then, you must give the configuration the name you want so that it can be identified in Windows. Next, under Server name or address, enter the IP that appeared as IPv4 Address two steps back. At the end, you will also have to write a name and password, which will be of the user to whom you have given access.

That’s it! From here you can connect from any device. They just have to be connected to the same network. Furthermore, you must enter the exact IP address along with the configured username and password. Finally, we have seen how to create your own VPN in Windows 10. Bye!

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