Posted: Sun May 07, 2017 19:54 Post subject: DD-WRT Travel Router, wisp and VPN capable
So my close friend is moving to China for some time for work and is going to be put up in a hotel which will either have wifi or an Ethernet port. As such I would like to get her a cheap travel router that is DD-WRT capable for the following use cases:
hotel wifi---------->dd-wrt router---------private WLAN------> devices
hotel ethernet --->dd-wrt router--------private WLAN-------> devices
However, here's the curveball, as it is china I would like the DD-wrt to act as a VPN client as well, ideally with several different configurations that can be switched between easily, (my friend is not very tech-savvy). Unfortunately the above flash does not include any clients apart from PPTP.
Do any of you kind souls know of a travel router/DD-wrt combination that would be capable of this.
I believe you know that you need a more expensive router to support openvpn on dd-wrt, one with 8M or more flash. This wiki will help you in determining which router is best to meet your need: http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Supported_devices
However, I would suggest you go for one with a Broadcom platform as it gives you more choices besides dd-wrt such as Tomato as it allows you to setup two configurations for openvpn which you can choose from the GUI. As for dd-wrt, the GUI only allows you to setup one configuration and some members have successfully use different configurations by using the command control instead of GUI setting. It involves killing the running process and start another one which of course is not as straight forward as you may think so it is not easy even for the tech savvy. Hence, I think it may be too much for your friend.
I don't know how many devices your friend need to connect to the Internet. I would guess, cellphone, laptop and/or tablet. If the hotel has wifi then I believe all the devices should be able to connect to it without the travel router. Have openvpn client setup on the individual device may be easier and more straight forward for your friend.
Posted: Fri Feb 23, 2018 22:08 Post subject: Travel router options
I too would like some options for modern and fast "travel" router hardware that can run the latest dd-wrt software.
My hardware wish list would include....
Dual core - 800 Mhz - 1Ghz
256 /128 memory / storage
1x USB 3.1
USB-C based power and power port ( and USB-c power cable and power adapter) like Google wifi is.
3 or 4 Ethernet ports. _________________ Location (urban) - 1x Linksys EA8500 (AP wlan0 & wlan1 enabled)
1x Asus 68u (Repeater Bridge w/VAP) - wl0 disabled
1x Asus 87u (Client Bridge) - wl1 disabled