Previously, businesses primarily used VPNs to connect remote branches or roaming employees to the company network.
VPNs have become extremely valuable for everyone, including customers, in recent years, owing to the increase in cyber-attacks.
Businesses with sufficient resources have already invested more heavily in emerging technologies.
However, what about low-budget companies?
This is a significant issue given their resource constraints.
As per the report, 43% of all cyberattacks direct at small-to-medium-sized businesses.
As a result, SMBs must use whatever resources they have to secure their internet connection, digital content, and the company network. VPN is the best tool to add to their toolbox for this purpose, as it is a robust, efficient, and cost-effective solution.
Contents
What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
Self-Hosted VPN for Small to Medium Business
- WireGuard
- OpenVPN
- Pritunl
- SoftEther
- Algo
- Hamachi
Conclusion
What is a Virtual Private Network (VPN)?
A Virtual Private Network (VPN) is a stable connection that allows for online browsing.
This technology conceals your device’s identity and encrypts all online footprints left by your Smartphone or PC.
By placing an encrypted and secure connection between the server and your device via a VPN, you can set an encrypted and secure connection.
Using a VPN could be one of the most effective ways to secure data entering and leaving your network.
To ensure the security of all online traffic between a VPN server and a smartphone or laptop, it encrypts it.
It accomplishes this by concealing your device’s identity and establishing a secure connection through which you can browse the web securely.
As a result, hackers will have a difficult time gaining access to your personal information.
Commercial VPNs are excellent in terms of features and offerings, but they can be pretty expensive for many small businesses.
As a result, you can experiment with open-source or self-hosted VPN solutions.
Self-Hosted VPN for Small to Medium Business
WireGuard
WireGuard, well-known VPN software, is a straightforward but high-speed and cutting-edge solution that uses advanced cryptography.
This general-purpose solution is suitable for both embedded and supercomputer interfaces.
WireGuard is suitable for various situations and was initially released for the Linux kernel. Still, it ports platforms such as Windows, BSD, and macOS.
WireGuard is simple to install and configure and the connection is established simply by exchanging public keys.
It can even roam between multiple IP addresses without requiring you to manage connections or state.
It uses advanced cryptography such as Blake2, the Noise protocol framework, and the HKDF algorithm.
Additionally, WireGuard includes Crypto key Routing, which uses tunnel IP addresses to associate public keys.
Also, it has integrated roaming and enables creating a WireGuard interface within the primary network namespace with internet access.
OpenVPN
Access Server by OpenVPN is a well-known VPN solution specifically tailored to the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.
It’s available on-premises or in the cloud and secures your entire business network.
It is entirely free to use and allows for the simultaneous use of up to two VPN connections.
It’s simple to manage via its admin portal or command-line interface. You can restrict access based on IP addresses, protocols, and ports.
Access Server is compatible with iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, and Linux.
Additionally, you get various authentication methods, including two-factor authentication, PAM, LDAP, and Active Directory.
Also, comprehensive reporting includes the ability to download, search, and view detailed access logs. Also, the server cluster can access.
You can share keys between servers and quickly scale up or down your connections. The Access Server component of OpenVPN enables site-to-site connectivity, secures remote desktop interactions and screen sharing through strong access authentication and authorization.
OpenVPN is a layer-3 VPN that employs TLS/SSL and mutual authentication and key exchange via server and client certificates.
Its servers are scalable to support up to 1500 concurrent connections. You can also choose between split-tunnelling and full-tunnelling.
Access Server’s pricing model is based on the number of VPN connections you require concurrently, which means you will only pay for the connections you need.
Pritunl
Pritunl provides a high-performance VPN with complex gateway connections and site-to-site connections that enables remote users to connect to local networks.
Protect network traffic and users when they connect to public networks using secure encryption.
It is one of the best open-source VPN alternatives.
It can handle thousands of concurrent users and gives you more control over your server without charging per user.
All Pritunl source code is publicly available on Github, allowing for complete customization and transparency. It’s simple to manage everything because the configuration is done via its web interface.
Along with two-factor authentication via Google Authenticator, Pritunl encrypts traffic between the server and clients for added security.
It supports both WireGuard and OpenVPN clients and uses IPsec for peering between VPCs and site-to-site connections.
On AWS, GCP, and Oracle Cloud, VPC peering is available. It includes comprehensive documentation and is scalable. Pritunl enables interconnection and communication via MongoDB, resulting in faster service and the avoidance of firewall modifications.
SoftEther
SoftEther VPN is a powerful, easy-to-use, and multi-protocol VPN solution.
It is likely the only VPN software on the market that supports SSL-VPN, L2TP, L2TPv3, EtherIP, IPsec, and OpenVPN.
SoftEther is a free and open-source network protocol stack that runs on FreeBSD, Solaris, Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows.
Additionally, it includes an OpenVPN server cloning functionality. If you’re running Windows 8/7/Vista, it supports SSTP VPN, which saves you money on the server license for Windows.
Also, the VPN protects your remote workers by authenticating their devices and enabling them to connect to the VPN from outside your network.
Due to the VPN’s robust and unique SSL-VPN protocol, it can pass through various firewalls. Also, the protocol is fast and has low latency.
SoftEther conceals the transport packets of your VPN using Ethernet rather than HTTP, which means that inspection firewalls will miss them. Additionally to interoperability, it has high compatibility with popular VPNs.
Algo
Algo VPN is a collection of Ansible scripts that automate setting up an IPsec and WireGuard VPN for personal use.
It integrates seamlessly with cloud providers and comes preconfigured with secure defaults. Algo VPN for macOS, iOS, and Linux supports IKEv2 with enhanced cryptography, including P-256, AES-GCM, and SHA2.
It also includes WireGuard support for the aforementioned operating systems, as well as Windows 10 and Android.
It can generate QR codes and .conf files, and Apple profiles to automatically configuring macOS and iOS devices for IPsec.
Hamachi
Create VPNs on demand by partnering with Hamachi by LogMeIn.
This VPN hosting service enables you to rapidly expand the security of your network to distributed teams, remote employees, and mobile workers.
Manage virtual networks and restore them to end-users with a few simple clicks, regardless of your location.
Provision your client software to new systems easily and quickly without visiting the site.
Run it in the background of your network computer to gain access whenever you need it.
It is available in three subscription tiers: Premium, Standard, and multiple networks.
Empower your remote users by securely connecting them to your entire private network via a centralized gateway without modifying your routers or firewalls.
You can create a virtual and straightforward mesh network that enables remote systems to communicate directly with one another.
It ensures that your remote employees have access to all necessary resources. Hamachi protects your communications over private and public networks with AES 256-bit strong encryption.
You can control network usage and access through its centralized controls, including network authentication, password management, network membership, and network locking.
Individual default settings can be configured for clients and networks, supporting restricted, minimal, and complete interface modes.
Conclusion
Suppose you’re looking for a secure network and data storage solution that’s both reliable and affordable. In this case, you should consider investing in a high-quality VPN.
The solutions listed above are all self-hosted, so pick up one and experiment to determine which one works best for you.
