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The best OpenVPN travel router?

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Yota

Very Senior Member
The pandemic is coming to the end and I am preparing for my trip.

I wish to purchase a router for my future trips:

It must:
It can be wirelessly bridged, so I can connect it to the hotel WiFi.
It supports OpenVPN Client function, so I can protect my traffic.
It supports wireless, so that both my computer and phone can access the Internet through OpenVPN.
It must be small and can share the same power adapter with the phone.

Not necessary:
Supports 5GHz.
A Gigabit Ethernet interface.
OpenVPN speed is higher than 50Mbps.

However, I don’t seem to find any eligible routers. I think the Raspberry Pi maybe able to do that, but I don't like to build a router by myself, I like to buy one.
 
router.png
router2.jpg


A router like this will look great. But they have been discontinued and do not support OpenVPN. There doesn't seem to be a similar product now.
 
It must:
It can be wirelessly bridged, so I can connect it to the hotel WiFi.
It supports OpenVPN Client function, so I can protect my traffic.
It supports wireless, so that both my computer and phone can access the Internet through OpenVPN.
It must be small and can share the same power adapter with the phone.

Not necessary:
Supports 5GHz.
A Gigabit Ethernet interface.
OpenVPN speed is higher than 50Mbps.

GL-Inet...



OpenVPN and Wireguard...

gigabit support on the wire - can support WiFi for bridging, 4G/5G mobile hotspot support

firmware is openWRT based
 
I haven't seen the new Beryl, but I have the Slate and it works well. It was also cheap at about $60 on Amazon. Older OpenWRT version firmware and weak Wi-Fi, but it doesn't matter. It's a travel router made for use in a single room only or right next to your laptop. Can be powered off standard power bank.
 
GL-Inet...



OpenVPN and Wireguard...

gigabit support on the wire - can support WiFi for bridging, 4G/5G mobile hotspot support

firmware is openWRT based
thank you very much guys. I have never heard of this brand of routers. but looks good, hope the performance of MT7621A will not be bad.
 
I haven't seen the new Beryl, but I have the Slate and it works well. It was also cheap at about $60 on Amazon. Older OpenWRT version firmware and weak Wi-Fi, but it doesn't matter. It's a travel router made for use in a single room only or right next to your laptop. Can be powered off standard power bank.
Only 86 gram impressed me. How is its OpenVPN performance? and I saw that the latest firmware has even been updated to OpenVPN 2.5.0, which looks good.
 
How about GL-MV1000W? Although it does not have 5GHz, but provided better openvpn performance.
 
How is its OpenVPN performance?

Did you check the links above? OpenVPN is up to 17Mbps, WireGuard is up to 68Mbps. I would still prefer Slate because of Qualcomm SoC. Why do you need >50Mbps OpenVPN and Gigabit port on a travel router? Travel routers are made small, power efficient and usually connect to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi in a hotel.
 
I’ve tried a few Wi-Fi devices like anonbox that connect and to a network and have tor and or a vpn established when you’re connected to it the idea being if that goes down you are on and ok when you connect since it’s already being handled.

I paid for each of these to see how they worked and implemented what they have - the anonbox stands out as the one sold as the pro version but was the poorest quality in the device itself and in working for more than an hour or two.

I travel now with something I made myself similar to these using a prepaid hotspot since the ones I looked at assumed being connected to your router or dhcp if wireless which was an issue if the place required being asked for anything to connect.

you can do the same with a lot less work and may not have to use the idea of the connection being established prior to you coming in - using it to connect then connecting would still keep you off any hotel network or coffee shop network.
 
Did you check the links above? OpenVPN is up to 17Mbps, WireGuard is up to 68Mbps. I would still prefer Slate because of Qualcomm SoC. Why do you need >50Mbps OpenVPN and Gigabit port on a travel router? Travel routers are made small, power efficient and usually connect to 2.4GHz Wi-Fi in a hotel.
Thank you, I saw it, but I don‘t know if I should believe this marketing term. I hope this router has complete functions so that when I am trapped in another country while traveling, it can provide me with complete usage needs. And I think you have used it, so can you share your experience?
 
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I’ve tried a few Wi-Fi devices like anonbox that connect and to a network and have tor and or a vpn established when you’re connected to it the idea being if that goes down you are on and ok when you connect since it’s already being handled.

I paid for each of these to see how they worked and implemented what they have - the anonbox stands out as the one sold as the pro version but was the poorest quality in the device itself and in working for more than an hour or two.

I travel now with something I made myself similar to these using a prepaid hotspot since the ones I looked at assumed being connected to your router or dhcp if wireless which was an issue if the place required being asked for anything to connect.

you can do the same with a lot less work and may not have to use the idea of the connection being established prior to you coming in - using it to connect then connecting would still keep you off any hotel network or coffee shop network.
Thank you very much, this is a lot of experience!

But does this mean that you need to install a vpnclient on all devices. if so it's difficult for me, I don't know how to install openvpn client on my watch.
 
And I think you have used it, so can you share your experience?

You are not going to like my experience. I think I used it only once as a test; it was purchased because it was cheap and I wanted to see what it does. Not very useful when wired to a laptop because the laptop can run much faster VPN. May have some use sharing Internet to other devices without VPN capabilities in the same room through it's own VPN and 5GHz Wi-Fi. The 2.4GHz radio connects to the existing guest network and gets re-transmitted on 5GHz. There are a few working modes available, all described on their web. It works, but it's a toy I can easily go without. May have some connecting issues if the guest network uses web portal authorization. It's currently somewhere in a bin along with 15 other routers, long forgotten device.
 

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