[SOLVED] New Router VPN

[gderreck]

Greetings,

I have just purchased an Asus RT-AC86U router. I had the ISP router bridged to a modem only configuration. I have upgraded to the latest firmware and activated AiProtection. I am considering getting a VPN service. I read that there is OpenVPN which can be installed in the router. Is that advisable, or should I just sign on with eg NordVPN as a client. I did notice that Asus routers support OpenVPN. However, it seems that 87U and 88U are in the supported list, but not 86U.

I am really showing my ignorance and I ask for the patience of the forum members who actually understand the issue (like everyone except me I suppose the logical response would be "if you don't know, don't do it". Fair enough; but I 'd like to learn.

If someone would be willing to give me a quick primer on the direction to take or could direct me to a resource where I could educate myself, I'd certainly be grateful.

All the best and Happy New Year,
Graham

 

[failboat]

openvpn is a vpn software. nord is a 3rd party service.
You would have to research what is compatible. PIA does allow openvpn. Not sure about nord.
IPsec is the other type that's very common. It uses less resources so more likely used on 3rd party ones.

If it's on your router it's the best way to make everything go through it. There can be downsides though. For something like gaming it will increase latency by needing to encrypt/decrypt all the traffic and it's route might be less efficient.

Another option is forcing only certain clients through it. It's much more difficult to setup. You would have to research if it's possible on that router.

Try and find specific step-by-step instructions on how to do it.

 

[gderreck]

Thanks failboat

 

[bill001g]

I would load the merlin firmware to you router. It has more vpn abilities than the stock asus image. Merlin is third party firmware that the asus company unofficially supports. They "steal" features to integrate into the factory image.

With the 86u in particular has OpenVPN accelerator function built into the chipset. This greatly increases the performance.

I know when it first came out the factory image did not support the acceleration feature but merlin did. They may have integrated this into the factory image but I always have merlin images on my asus routers so I don't know