[SOLVED] Linksys WRT3200ACM - No native OpenVPN (client)

[pure64]

I subscribed to a VPN service and (rather ignorantly) got the WRT 3200 understanding that it had OpenVPN capabilities. Now I understand that it can only operate as an OpenVPN server, and not connect as a client. If I want to do that, then I can flash new firmware.

From what I understand, this isn't an issue specific with my router, but seems to be quite a common situation..

I just don't understand why, surely this isn't difficult for the manufacturers to implement, and is of particular interest to a growing range of people, and thus a selling point that is being neglected.

Can anyone enlighten me, so that the little voice in my head will stop screaming "whyyyyyy"

Happy Monday!

 

[failboat]

What throughput are you trying to get out of it? Are you trying to route all your traffic through it and what throughput?

Low watt routers aren't great at server or client. Some have implementations with hardware offloading.

Routers like pfsense have great docs. PIA makes a set-by-step guide on how to set it up. They have guides for various routers. You can check if there is one for ddwrt or openwrt. You can flash to one of those. You have to look up what speeds you can expect with different encryption types. openvpn 256bit on a brand new intel with AES-NI can only get about 600Mbs. Some of the <1W routers can only do 1% of that.

 

[pure64]

I don't really mind, 10Mbps would have been fine. And yes for additional security on connected devices.

It just seems odd that these devices offer OpenVPN server functionality but not client connections. And even then with something like OpenWRT you need a degree in networking to set it up. I guess I assumed the market was more mature by now

 

[bill001g]

A huge number of consumers are lucky if they can find the ON switch for a router. Router manufactures no longer cater to the tech geeks really.

If I remember correctly the WRT line of routers just means it can run dd-wrt. They did not actually install dd-wrt on the box at the factory they installed their fairly standard image. It has been many years since I had a linksys box.

You should be able to load dd-wrt on your router.

Most asus and tplink routers have open vpn clients. Linksys has really gone downhill since cisco sold them to Belkin.