I’m a remote employee and I live in Country A but would like to stay in Country B and VPN into work from Country B. I’m considering buying a VPN router but I’m worried that, while in Country B, my mobile or laptop could accidentally connect to Country B’s ISP, I wouldn’t realize it and work IT would get an alert that their employee is working from another country. What’s the best route to ensure that my employer would never discover that I’m working from country B?
UPDATE: I think I have a game plan based on your comments below. The lad who recommended piVPN is what I’m going to go with. The problem with this setup alone though was that I would have to download the OpenVPN client to my work laptop in order to connect the VPN server I set up in Country A. Instead, while in Country B, I will download the OpenVPN client to my personal computer, connect to the OpenVPN server in country A, and then share that connection with my work laptop. Is there any reason why this wouldn’t work?
Its called a kill button… Most good VPN has it. Assoon as your VPN drops connection/encyption it completely quits the internet/connection. Furthermore good VPN fail less often… Look out for the Kill switch feature before buying a VPN.
It’s hard to say “never”. There are other location indicators besides IP addresses. For example, GPS, mobile signals, WiFi signals, timezone settings etc.
To hide your IP address, you can use a VPN router to tunnel back to country A, but need to make sure that the router does not accidentally route you through an ISP in country B when the VPN connection is down.
Also, avoid commercial VPN services if you can. A connection from a commercial VPN IP address might raise a red flag for your company’s IT dept (just like Netflix’s blocking of VPNs). A better option is to have a friend or family member to host your VPN server in country A.
Its going to depend on your individual company. If they don’t particularly have good security or care, you should be fine, but if that were the case I suspect you wouldn’t be here asking.
At some companies even so much as logging in from two different IPs (even in the “correct” country or area) is enough to trigger a security alert and potential look see. So getting a VPN and having it login from a different IP than what you do at home will be enough to potentially raise an eyebrow, particularly if it becomes irregular. Eventually you will be caught.
At other companies they just don’t care, even if they say they do. Nothing is blocked by policy and its the wild wild west.
I’d highly suggest being honest, most places won’t care if you are honest. If you do try to hide it, dont double down on the lies to IT but just confirm that it was you who signed in. If its me, I really dont care to bring it up with your boss as long as I have written proof the person who logged in with your credentials was you.
There’s many reasons why a company would ask employees to work from a specific country, labor laws, PC repair services, insurances, … , so now that what you are doing might be a breach of contract and that you can (and probably will) get fired if they find out you are in fact, not in the country you say you are.
If there is a timezone difference, take that into account when your cam is on, you are sitting in a dark city while your colleagues are in daylight or vice versa, you’re sweating like a pig and look tanned while your coworkers are wearing sweaters.
If some calamity happens in your hometown, like a blackout and you are unaffected that might be odd;
If your boss asks you to come in for a physical meeting and you can’t find a flight…
If your laptop crashes and you need technical support…
If you get into an accident and have to spend the next two weeks in hospital…
if you need to make a phone call or get a phone call from work, and they notice they are calling to a different country…
You would have to leave your work pc in the country you want to work in and then remote into that PC from another PC in the country you’re in. Only way it will work 100%
Just don’t do it, too risky, if for any reason something will happen, you will be fired.
technically it is possible. setup your own vpn directly from the router from both end, one server, one client, and make sure to enable the kill switch in the client. all the traffic will come from the server isp. remember to test for dns leaks too. don’t go for a commercial vpn, they will clearly see the vpn name as isp, quite suspicious
I have not done it yet, but I would consider two vpn-devices/routers. One at home in country A and one mobile in country B. Or maybe a cheap Vps in country A.
That way, you do not need any further software on your notebook, that might be suspicious and also get no suspicious IP from a Vpn provider.
Set up the router in country B to tunnel all the traffic of one port through your vpn.
If you have to solve captive portals, use another device on another port. Or a seperate wifi and your phone. Should be possible with OpenWrt.
Hi to both of you, I am not very tech savvy but my wife is very sick and want to be able to spend some time with her in colombia. I am starting a job similar to yours answering calls to an insurance company. I do not understand exactly what the steps are. The company gives me the computer. How would I use this as a vpn? I’m so sorry if I sound very ignorant. I just don’t know much and maybe you can kindly outline the steps or somewhere for me to start. Thank you so much already
You’ll need a public IP address to host a VPN server (dynamic IP is OK). This is usually not a problem, but check before you move forward. And you need the hosting connection to have decent UPLOAD speed.
