I've moved my Plex server to Truenas Scale, and I'm about to get Sonarr/Radarr/Ombi/etc setup, but first I need to get VPN going. Truenas Scale uses OpenVPN and my current VPN service is ExpressVPN (which I've been very happy with). Setting up ExpressVPN with Truenas has proven challenging because of certificate import issues.
Previously I've always run ExpressVPN locally. Do you think it's a good idea just to put it on my router (PfSense) and call it a day? They do provide specific instructions to set it up on that specific router OS. I imagine I could always use a custom route to bypass it if needed (ie local sports on Fubo TV).
Depending on your routers capabilities. I have my VPN on my router and chose which device gets behind it or not. Works like a charm. If you want to access your server from outside your local network, you have to see if express vpn offers port forwarding.
I don't put it on my router because there are certain things it would kind of mess with (for example: Netflix on the TV would get all weird and restrict content if it goes through a VPN, I assume it'd slow down online gaming on the Playstation and I don't really care if that's anonymous or not and so on.) I could probably split tunnel that stuff, but for me it's just easier to run it locally on the things I think need it (my laptop, phone etc.) than figure all that out.
That's just me though, it really all depends on your preferences/threat model I guess.
What are you trying to accomplish? Hide/anonymize your Internet/torrenting activity? Or access your LAN devices from the Internet? Because those are two different use cases for VPN. One requires paying a third party provider, the other - hosting a VPN server on your network.
LibreCMC R1400 router from ThinkPenguin with MullvadVPN (Wireguard) configured. High speeds all day and honestly can't complain, only costed around like $120. You can pay in Bitcoin too.
