HTML5-Powered Web App

People have been complaining about the command line interface (CLI) of NeoRouter server, when they want to manage and setup their domains. Most of them are Linux/Unix or Mac users and some of them never use Windows system, therefore they don’t have a chance to use the Windows based Configuration Explorer tool. Though the NeoRouter client CLI tool on a non-Windows platforms seems acceptable, people wish they could have a GUI client. Not to mention the mobile users, who want to access the remote machine from their smart phones. How? It’s been a challenge for us and it also means a lot of work to port NeoRouter software to other platforms.

Here is the answer – HTML5-powered web applications. More specific, we are moving towards to the innovative development model – HTML5 + Javascript. With the latest NeoRouter Free v1.7.0 release, the web based Network Explorer and Configuration Explorer are available online. One can simply run it online (no installation and no permission required) or install the Chrome extension on your local machine. With the new interfaces, one can run it from any HTML5 based browsers, such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari and IE 10+. It’s also cross-platform.

* Configuration Explorer

The web based Configuration Explorer has the same feature as the Windows based application. It means one can easily manage the NeoRouter servers running on any platforms, no matter it’s Linux, Unix, Mac or in-a-box devices.

 * Network Explorer

The web based Network Explorer has the similar features as the NeoRouter Portable application. It comes with several add-ons:

•  VNC client, which supports all VNC servers running on any platform.
•  Telnet/SSH client, which allows you to remotely connect to any computers in the NeoRouter virtual LAN. Besides the standard SSH server on Linux/Unix/Mac, it also supports FreeSSHd for Windows.
•  SFTP client, which give you a way to exchange files between your client machine and the remote SSHd servers. You can easily upload/download files, create new folders, delete files or rename files.

What’s the next step? RDP Client support and mobile versions.

Stay tuned and it’s coming soon!

IPv6 Welcome

IPv4 address pool has depleted on April 15, 2011 and IPv6 is the only available long-term solution to this crisis. IPv6 adoption has been painfully slow, because the protocol is not interoperable with IPv4 and Internet providers and users are forced to make very expensive hardware and software upgrades.

In the coming years, the Internet will likely become more divided and chaotic as various ISPs and corporations ramp up the efforts to deploy IPv6. It is impossible to coordinate all ISPs around the world to make the transition at the same time. If one ISP upgrades to IPv6, stops IPv4 service or reduces to NAT’d IPv4 service, but another ISP is still providing IPv4 only, computers/devices at these two ISPs will lose direct connectivity.

Besides ISPs, businesses and users also need to take part in the transition. Most SMB and home routers in use or selling in store are not IPv6 capable. Windows XP and other legacy OSs still have a significant market share. Many popular software that we rely on daily will cease to function over IPv6. It will be costly and time consuming to fix everything. It could take years or even decades before we can reach the IPv6 utopia.

NeoRouter can connect your computers at various locations into a virtual LAN regardless of their physical connection types. Each computer is assigned a virtual IPv4 address and can connect to other computers in the VLAN. You do not need to worry when the ISPs will upgrade to IPv6, and your existing IPv4 software will continue to function. It is as if NeoRouter provides a shelter for your network and shields you from the storm brewing over the Internet.

If you are a NeoRouter Mesh user, you do not need to perform any additional configuration to enable IPv6 support.

If you are using NeoRouter Pro or Free, please install NeoRouter server on a computer with both IPv4 and IPv6 public addresses. If your ISP does not provide IPv6, you can use a Tunnel Broker like SixXS, gogo6, or Hurrican Electric. No changes are needed on NeoRouter client computers.

NeoRouter supports both IPv6 for underlying client-server connections and peer-to-peer connections. Direct P2P connection can be established between two IPv4 computers or two IPv6 computers. Connection between an IPv4 only computer and an IPv6 only computer is relayed through NeoRouter server.

References:
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IPv4_address_exhaustion
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/6to4
• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunnel_broker

Mobilize Your Office with NeoRouter

What’s the hot technology this year? Android device! Not only Android smartphones, but also tablet/pad and netbooks will have Android OS installed. With the 3G or WiFi support, we can be on the Internet anywhere, anytime. A lot of NeoRouter users asked for the mobile version. We’ve been working hard and it’s under beta testing now!

NeoRouter for Android allows you access and manage remote computers using your Android phone. You can see the computer list, computer status, and you can connect to your desktop PC/Mac from your cell phone. Linux users can use ConnectBot to ssh to the computer over the NeoRouter virtual network; Windows uses can use any third party RDP/VNC client software to see the desktop; with some file sharing software, you can also download files to/from your cellphone.

Why NeoRouter?

Though Android gets more popular, there are a few VPN solutions on it. By default, Android comes with PPTP and L2TP client support. Needless to say, those are pretty old protocol and not secure enough. OpenVPN is a good option. However, there is no official support. To be able to use OpenVPN, users have to root the phone. Though it’s not too difficult for a technical guy, there is still risk causing your $500 phone brick. Why need to root? Because OpenVPN requires the tun/tap devices. By default, Android does not enable the drivers. So some smart guys customize the Android and add those drivers to make it work. What is I don’t want to take the risk? Try NeoRouter.

NeoRouter does not require root the device because of its unique technology. Most NeoRouter users know about the NeoRouter portable version, which using the same technology. It works as a bridge or proxy and redirect the connections from third party software to the remote computer in the NeoRouter virtual network. Almost all TCP based software can run over the NeoRouter network in this way. While running, the NeoRouter software does not require admin permission and run just like a normal application.

Advantages:

* Make your connections encrypted
* No need to remember the computer IP address and expose the port to the Internet
* Monitor computer status in a click
* Support various third party software

Feel free to download and give it a try!

Thanks,
NeoRouter team

Mac GUI for NeoRouter Ready

We’re very excited to announce that NeoRouter Free v1.1.1 is now available for download. Since the NeoRouter official build has been released two months ago, we’ve received a lot of good suggestions and feedbacks. So we work hard and try our best to meet those requirements. Now, we have the latest build of NeoRouter Free.

One of the most popular requests is the Mac GUI for NeoRouter support. We have released CLI for Mac for a while, we also have the third party GUI tool – NRClientX, but it’s still a pain for most Apple users, who want to use NeoRouter on Mac OSX just like on their Windows machine. Now we ported the NeoRouter Network Explorer to Mac OSX. Though it’s the first version, it supports the same features as the counterpart on Windows, including computer list, add-on support, add/delete computer, add/edit/delete category, add-on manager, add-on quick launch pad, connection option settings and etc.

Mac GUI for NeoRouter

Another pain we solved in this build is the OpenSSL lib dependency issue on some Linux distros. We received reports that NeoRouter complains about the imcompatible OpenSSL libs and our users have to either create symbol links or find out/install the proper libs. We improved the libraries in this build and there is no need for the dyanmic OpenSSL libraries anymore. It means you can install it on almost any Linux distros.

We also fixed a couple of bugs and issues, such as hair-pin issue and so on.

Next step – we are busy on the smartphone support. The Android version will be available in a couple of months. iPhone version is in our schedule as well.

Thanks for everyone’s continued support for NeoRouter! Let us know what you need and we will do it.

Run VPN on a 64-bit Linux

As the 64-bit computers (amd64 architecture) get more popular, more Linux distributions provide the 64-bit support. However, there are a few VPN vendors provide the product for 64-bit Linux.

As we promised, NeoRouter has just released the NeoRouter Free v0.9.8.1485 for 64-bit Linux, which is a full package, including both the server and client software. It’s fully tested on the popular 64-bit Linux distributions, such as Redhad/Fedora, SUSE and Ubuntu. It’s completely compatible the 32-bit NeoRouter software running on Windows, Mac, Linux and devices.

Thanks NeoRouter team and their professional expertise!

Enjoy it!!

Create your own virtual private cloud

Have your own VPN cloud yet? Now, you can build your virtual private cloud using our latest NeoRouter Free v0.9.8. With this release, NeoRouter becomes a cross-platform remote access and VPN solution. You can easily create a seamless virtulal network across Windows, Mac, Linux and devices (supporting OpenWrt, Tomato and FON firmware), so you can share printers and files across all of your computers or access them remotely from anywhere. Check out the following screenshots.

Thanks to our users and testers for providing so many good suggestions, and thanks to the NeoRouter team for their hard work. The NeoRouter software already has a rich feature set, which meets most requirements from our small business and home users. The more importantly it gets more stable and more mature after the improvement in the past year. We would plan to provide professional services and cusmonized solution in the near future.

Tell your friends about NeoRouter. And tell us what you need, we will give you the most useful VPN solution.

Thanks to our users and testers for providing so many good suggestions, and thanks to the NeoRouter team for their hard work. The NeoRouter software already has a rich feature set, which meets most requirements from our small business and home users. The more importantly it gets more stable and more mature after the improvement in the past year. We would plan to provide professional services and customized solution in the near future.

Tell your friends about NeoRouter. And tell us what you need, we will give you the most useful VPN solution.

NeoRouter client for Linux comming soon

We are really excited to announce that we will have NeoRouter Client CLI for Linux release soon. So far, it’s still under the alpha test. Check out the screen shot.

We plan to develop and publish NeoRouter for Linux, Mac OS and Mobile phone version. Thanks for the  hard work of NeoRouter team, we can start testing the Linux client now. Thought it’s just a CLI client, it supports all basic features, such as built-in firewall, computer list and so on.  It still has two components, one is running as a service under root permission and another is dealing with UI. It provides the same list as Windows version and keep the list automatically updated whenever changes happen to your virtual network like a computer goes online/offline, instead of just a command line tool. Since most Linux boxes would be running in the passive mode, it’s easy for users to remotely manage the Linux boxes using VNC, ssh, Samba, Xmanager and so on.

Moreover, we have already ported it to support OpenWrt, Tomato and FON firmwares. Can you imagine that you can make your Linksys router or Asus router a small computer and remotely access the NAS or printer attached to it?

BTW, the Mac version is on the way and would be finished pretty soon, as the most hard issues have been solved.

Stay tuned!

NeoRouter user base continues to grow!

After lots of hard work, the latest version of NeoRouter v0.9.6 has been released recently. At the moment, the first thing comes to my mind is want to say “thanks” to our users for their great feedback and bug reporting. Without your support, we cannot make NeoRouter perfect.

Luckily for us, the overall sentiment for NeoRouter is great. From our statistics, more than 50,000 copies of NeoRouter software have been downloaded and installed by our users, who are from 118+ countries and territories around world. We are very happy and excited that NeoRouter actually fill a need in people’s life, when they want to remote access a computer from anywhere easily and securely.

That’s our goal as well. In the passed few months, we did a lot for this goal and now we’ve a big feature list (http://www.neorouter.com/). Besides remote desktop and sharing files, some features are really useful and unique, for example:

• User management and built-in firewall and access control list (ACL)
• Portable –  download and run, without installation, no admin permission required
• Plug & play – auto activate network and run application
• In-a-box – convert your router to a zero-config SSL VPN box
• FON plug in support –  http://blog.fon.com/nl/archive/technology/neorouter-lanceert-fon-server-editie.html

and more…

However, it’s just a good start. We still have some work ahead of us before great software. We’ve been working on the Linux version and OS X version and the mobile version has been scheduled in our plan.

Please leave any questions and feedback in our community forums. NeoRouter is designed just for you once we hear of you. Thanks for supporting NeoRouter!

NeoRouter – the network revolves around you

Welcome to the NeoRouter blog. We are really excited to announce that after many months of long hours and really hard work, we have launched the latest version 0.9.4. Thousands of users have now downloaded and tried our betas since the first version is published. We are very happy with the response from users and it is a great achievement that demonstrates the interest among users for this new product line.

NeoRouter is a cool VPN and remote access software that offers a FREE, SIMPLE and UNLIMITED way to bring you a cozy Internet life.

With NeoRouter you can remotely control your computers, access your files, photos, videos, printers from anywhere just like at home. NeoRouter helps you create an encrypted virtual network over the Internet that you can get in from anywhere by couple of clicks.

Check out NeoRouter at www.neorouter.com to learn more and begin creating your own network.