How to Connect an Asus RT N-16 router to Hide My Ass VPN

Here is a guide for connecting an Asus RT N-16 to Hide My Ass VPN server. In this tutorial you will learn how to flash your router with new firmware and set it up to connect to a Hide My Ass server in a country of your choice.

As an alternative to flashing your router you can also simply share your VPN connection from your computer: Fake Location on Any Device. If you prefer to use the method with the router then go ahead and continue with the tutorial below.
Don’t be afraid of the length of the tutorial – it’s long because I have decided to describe, as many steps as possible in order to make sure you don’t get lost along the way.  As an alternative to this tutorial, Hide My Ass has now made an installer for Open VPN and DD-WRT routers. Once signed up login to the account panel of Hide My Ass and follow instructions. Alternatively write Hide My Ass support and ask for LT2P server info – can be more reliable than PPTP.

Preparation

Before we start lets make sure that you are well prepared. You need the following:

• An Asus RT N-16 router
• An account with Hide My Ass
• Your username and account password for Hide My Ass PPTP servers. This info IS NOT the same as the one you use to log into your Hide My Ass account. In order to find this info log into Hide My Ass and then click PPTP servers on the left hand side. Scroll down and your login details will be listed.
• Find out what server you want to connect to from the server list under PPTP servers. Write down the IP address.
• Lastly you need to download firmware DD-WRT firmware for the router. You can download the firmware here: dd-wrt.v24-14929_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_RT-N16.trx

Make sure that everything above is sorted out before you proceed.

Flashing the Router

In this step you will be installing new firmware on the router. This is needed as only routers with the open source DD-WRT firmware can connect to VPN. The powerful Asus router is great at running this firmware.
First of all you need do download the DD-WRT firmware for the router (see above).

• Insert the Ethernet cable in the LAN1 port of the router and connect it to your computer. If you have other Ethernet cables connected to the computer disconnect them now – also disable Wi-Fi on the computer.
• Open your browser and go to 192.168.1.1 and input admin/admin if you are asked and have not set another combination before. If this is the first time you are using the router please follow the setup steps.
• On the dashboard click on advanced settings then firmware upgrade. Click choose file and select the dd-wrt.v24-14929_NEWD-2_K2.6_mini_RT-N16.trx that you have downloaded before. Wait for the setup to complete.
• Once the flashing is complete you will be meet with a screen asking you to give the router a username and a password. Fill out the info as you please.
• You should now be at the main dashboard of your router with the new firmware. The hard part is done.

Making the Asus Router Connect to Hide My Ass

This step is when the router will actually connect to the VPN network.

• Since you have completed the firmware flashing you should now be at the main dashboard of the router. If not write 192.168.1.1 in a browser
• Click setup in the top of the dashboard. You are now at the basic setup screen
• Under WAN Connection Type choose PPTP
• Choose DHCP
• Under Gateway (PPTP server) enter the IP-address of the server you want to connect to
• Enter your Hide My Ass username for PPTP
• Enter your Hide My Ass password for PPTP
• PPTP Encryption: Enable
• Disable Packet Reordering: Enable
• Additional PPTP Options: mppe required,stateless
• STP: Disable
• Everything else leave as it is
• Save and Apply

Now connect the Asus router to the Internet by plugging in the Ethernet cable in the WAN port and connect the other end to where ever you get your Internet from. In my case I have the Asus router connect to My Airport Extreme router (extra router is not needed), which again is connected to the router from my Internet provider.
Now connect to the Asus router via Ethernet or wirelessly and you are now connected via the Hide My Ass VPN server.
You might also want to go to Wireless>Wireless security and set up a password for the wireless access to the router. Otherwise the whole neighborhood will be surfing for free.

Troubleshooting

Here is a small list of things you might want to check if you run into problems.

• Make sure that you are using your PPTP username and password and not your regular Hide My Ass username and password.
• Wait a minute or two to connect to the router once it has been set up. It needs a little time to connect to the VPN.
• If you get an empty page once you load http://192.168.1.1/apply.cgi make sure that you are logged into the router with the router password and username. If you did not set a new username and password then it is root/password.
• The server you are trying to connect to might be experiencing problems. Then try with another server from the PPTP list.
• Update: Alternatively write Hide My Ass support and ask for LT2P server info – these servers can be more reliable than PPTP – for some reason the server info is not in the Hide My Ass control panel yet.