Posted 11 December 2023

Best and cheap OpenVPN router?

Hi All, I had been trying to find a router which is cheap to run and has OpenVPN which I configure with Nord VPN. My old router doesn’t support.
Any suggestions would be helpful so that I can buy that during Christmas/New year deals .
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  1. AndyRoyd's avatar
    Drifting out of bargain/comfort zone but if running with Asus+CEX:
    arguably best to go all-in on £40 budget for the Asus Wireless AC3100 via CEX to obtain capable 1.4GHz dual core processor, 512MB of RAM & 128MB flash
    uk.webuy.com/pro…00b
    No obvious VPN benefit to throw an additional £5 at the very similarly-spec'd ASUS AC88U.
    AC3100 is still marketed with "double gaming boost" / WTFAST on Asus US site:
    asus.com/net…00/

    Best-effort comparison (but pls check):
    £8: AC51U = SC 0.58GHz 64MB / 16MB
    £15: AC1200G+ = SC 0.9GHz 128MB / 16MB
    £40: AC3100 = DC 1.4GHz 512MB / 128MB
    vt_yo's avatar
    Author
    Thanks for all the suggestions
    I just bought AC 3100 paid 45+2.95 delivery. It didn’t say anything about what grade it is. So let’s see what condition it will arrive with. Will update here when it arrives.
  2. AndyRoyd's avatar
    No budget stated, but sweetspot for combination of best+cheap+CEX+24mwarranty is likely
    £15 ASUS RT-AC1200G+
    uk.webuy.com/pro…692
    but obviously almost twice the cost of the AC51U.

    Both stated models and most other similar age & later Asus routers (pre Fusion) offer VPN client supporting OpenVPN profile,
    plus up to total qty 10 pre-configurable & selectable PPTP / L2TP connection profiles.

    51722186-zFjW4.jpgLater models permit more profiles & protocols to be stored.

    Reasonably straightforward How-To Asus page was updated few weeks ago Oct 2023:
    asus.com/uk/…32/
    jameshothothot's avatar
    thanks! i was watching youtube on the first one and it said you can connect your phone via usb and it will load balance your simcard? that's awesome. i had some program for that on my pc but it's stopped working now but wonder if this works well especially for steam games!
  3. Moss.b's avatar
    I'm looking for one to, to stop ads. But worried it might affect cashback sites. Yes I know I can add to sites to exempt but who family use it and who knows what sites they use.
    r4w80's avatar
    If you can change dns servers on your router, controld.com offer traditional dns servers with filters.
    I personally use a zyxel wsm20 or multy z1 (I think) with openwrt. It supports openvpn on that but I would recommend wireguard instead for better performance.

    Edit: to use cashback websites or quick unlock, you can use dns over https or doh. Both chrome and Firefox use that and does bypass your normal dns settings. (edited)
  4. crazydealhunter's avatar
    bt hub5 with openwrt?
    vt_yo's avatar
    Author
    I am on Virgin Media Hub will be another one to do the VPN and will use Virgin router as modem.
  5. AndyRoyd's avatar
    Best for £8 with 24m warranty?
    Probably the Asus RT-AC51U
    uk.webuy.com/pro…209
    jameshothothot's avatar
    Wow that's very interesting. I managed to flash DD wrt on an ancient Netgear router of mine but it is very slow. Would have to research how modern this one is and what it can do!
  6. melted's avatar
    Wouldn't wireguard be a better choice than OpenVPN, it is supposed to be faster and use less memory.
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