NeoRouter
I was a Hamachi user and a small business owner. I stopped using Hamachi because I could not shell out 20 bucks a month just to pay for its service. I have been looking for an alternative VPN solution. I tried to setup OpenVPN on my router running OpenWRT, but as a newbie, it was just too difficult for me. Finally I found NeoRouter and it=92s a very neat solution and very easy to setup.
It took me merely a few minutes to setup its server program on my Linksys WRT54GL running the latest Kamikaze and its client program on my PCs and laptops. As a network newbie, I did not have trouble setting it up following the instructions
NeoRouter has a very nice user interface for its client program called Network Explorer. It=92s probably the most user-friendly client program among all the VPN products I have tried, better than OpenVPN and Hamachi. I love the roaming user profile so that my preference is always remembered no matter where I go.
NeoRouter can establish direct P2P connections just like Hamachi, but it is much faster. I transferred a 30 MB video file from my home in San Jose to my parents=92 in Boston in about 3 minutes using NeoRouter while Hamachi would usually take 5-6 minutes. NeoRouter establishes P2P connections only when I try to connect to the remote computer, while Hamachi establishes an exponential number of connections at launch time. I used to have >30 computers in my Hamachi network, and all these unnecessary TCP connections sometimes bog down my computer and network. I am glad NeoRouter solved the issue.
NeoRouter also works better from behind corporate network when direct P2P connections are not possible. Hamachi=92s relay service is painfully slow during =93rush hours=94 because I have to share the limited resources on Hamachi server cloud with thousands of users. Yuck!!! I cannot even use remote desktop or VNC. With NeoRouter, I have my own server running on my home router, and the connection is always stable and fast.