Best VPN Routers
2021: The Best Routers to Use With Your VPN Network
AUGUST 11, 2021SAY ADMIN
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A VPN ( Virtual Private Network ) can protect you from
malware, ad trackers, hackers, spies, and censorship. They are worth using. But
instead of installing the software on every computer and device you have, you
can protect your business or family in just one step; using a VPN router. fashionbeautypalace
VPN routers need to be powerful enough to encrypt your
traffic without keeping you waiting. They should allow you to update the firmware
to be compatible with a VPN. And they need to have enough WiFi signal to cover
your home or office and give coverage to the devices you have. techgeeksblogger
So you won't be looking for the cheapest router on the
market!
Updating and configuring the firmware of a router is
something that most advanced users are capable of doing, but some people may
prefer to purchase a preconfigured router to use with a VPN. We will include
several of these routers that give you that option. triotechdigital
And since everyone has different needs and preferences, we
have some winners:
1. A good
all-terrain router that will meet the needs of most people without bankruptcy:
Linksys WRT3200ACM | Asus RT-AC68U
2. A very
powerful option for those who only want the best: Asus RT-AX88U | Netgear
Nighthawk R9000 X10 AD7200
3. An
economical option that will cover smaller areas with fewer devices: the Netgear
Nighthawk R7000 | ASUS RT-AC66U | TP-Link AC1750
In total we will cover 8 leading modems from various
companies. 5 (including our first and third winners above) can be purchased
preconfigured. We will include a list of the benefits and drawbacks of each so
that you can make an informed decision. computertechreviews
What you need to know first.
You need to choose a VPN provider.
A router cannot give you the benefit of a VPN on its own.
You need to encrypt your data and send it to a secure virtual network that
belongs to a VPN provider. Choosing this provider is your first task.
Check out our review to help you make that decision. gethealthandbeauty
• Best VPN
2021
• Best VPN
App For Android
• Best VPN
for iPhone
• Best VPNs
for China
You need to choose a router.
Your second decision will be which router to buy, and this
review will help you make that decision. Your new router will need to be more
powerful than your old router, and it should be able to run a VPN-compatible
operating system. Choosing this operating system will be your third decision.
Why we love Asus-WRT
routers
Asus router ready to use a VPN (easy setup!)
Not only do high-end Asus routers feature impressive
hardware, but they also come preloaded with the simple and powerful ASUSWRT
firmware, which among other things is capable of running a VPN available of the
container.
In other word, if you choose an ASUSWRT router, you
shouldn't install third-party firmware like DD-WRT or TomatoUSB and risk
ruining your $ 200 router. That said, Asus routers are some of the most
compatible with DD-WRT and TomatoUSB, so if you are an advanced user and like to
experiment, the option to change firmware is available.
Currently, only Asus includes this functionality within its
factory software , but many other manufacturers such as Linksys allow custom
firmware such as DD-WRT which is open source and incorporates Open VPN support.
You need to choose a new firmware for your router
When you buy it, your modem will not have the necessary
features to encrypt your traffic and connect to your VPN, you will have to
choose a new firmware and use the update feature of your router to install it.
Make sure you install the correct version or you could ruin your router, and
carefully follow your VPN provider's instructions when setting it up. You may
also want to purchase a router with firmware pre-installed from your VPN provider
or a third party, such as FlashRouters , for an additional fee .
There are many firmware options. These are custom Linux
operating systems for routers and contain a number of useful features such as
bandwidth monitoring and management, access restrictions, and VPN. Not all
operating systems work on all routers, so if you have an opinion of which
operating system you would like to use this will help you in choosing your
router.
Here are three main alternatives.
1. ExpressVPN
ExpressVPN is one of the bests VPN providers on the market
and they offer their own firmware for a large number of popular routers - five
of the routers in this review are supported. It's easy to install, and so far
the simplest to set up and use. You don't smooth have to enter a usernames and
password, just a verification code from the ExpressVPN website. Of course, this
software will only work with Express VPN clients. Users of other VPNs will need
one of the other firmware options. Read our full ExpressVPN review to learn
more.
2. DD-WRT
DD-WRT is compatible with more routers than the other two
options - in fact, all the routers in this review can run it. So if you don't
choose ExpressVPN software, you will probably use this one. It's a bit more problematic
to set up and use, but once it's working you won't have to deal with it
regularly. Detailed orders on how to configure the software on most routers will
be available from your VPN.
3. Tomato
Tomato is much easier to use, but so far it is compatible
with far fewer routers. Only three of the eight Reuters in this review can run
it. The software offers two interfaces, one suitable for advanced users and the
other for more casual users. Also, it has better functionality with OpenVPN,
which gives it the edge over DD-WRT when used for VPNs.
Encryption consumes a significant amount of resources
The main reason most of us use a VPN is to keep our internet
activities safe. VPNs do this by creating a secure tunnel between our device
and a secure server. It also encrypts the data that travels through that tunnel
to keep it safe.
The encryption process is the main reason why having a VPN
on a router is a bad idea.
Most of today's VPN users choose OpenVPN as it offers the
best combination of security and speed available. It is much more secure than
the old PPTP protocol and for the most part more secure than IPSec.
Unfortunately, the developers have not made OpenVPN a
scalable protocol. This makes it very unique, and not capable of using
multi-threaded processor. For examples, if your computer or router claims to
have a 1.5GHz quad-core processor, OpenVPN can only run on a single core at
that speed.
To see this from another perspectives, let's take a look at
256-bit encryption.
256-bit encryption means that each piece of data that comes
out of your computer is encrypted with a key which is made up of 256 binaries
(1s and 0s). This is why a computer or router needs significant processing
power to handle VPN encryption.
A VPN on a router can
be slower than on a computer
Encryption consumes system resources since you are basically
using the computer to encode and decode the data. The average speed of a
computer's processor today varies between 2.4 GHz and 3.4 GHz and is equipped
with between 4 GB and 16 GB of STRIKE.
On the other small hand, the average consumer-grade router
is equipped with between 600MHz and 1 GHz of processor and with 128MB to 256MB
of memory.
Since routers are less powerful than computers, your
Internet connection could be noticeably slower, especially if you choose the
wrong router.
So choose one that has a CPU of at least 800 MHz. All the
routers in this review have processor speeds of at least 1 GHz. Multiple cores
do not help with encryption, so only look at the numbers for one core. Do not
skimp on the power of the router, or you will complain every day about the
speed of your internet.
Let me show you what I mean, using my knowledge with the
Asus RT-AC1300UHP wireless router .
With the TorGuard VPN client running on my Windows 10
laptop, I am able to reach the maximum speed of 50 Mbps allowed by my Internet
provider.
However, when running the same protocol on my router, the
speed drops to 13-15 Mbps . In the images below, you will notices that, to
reach this speed, one of the processor cores of my router is running at 80%
capacity.
Just to make it clear that this was not caused by TorGuard,
I ran the same tests with ExpressVPN and NordVPN , which similarly gave me
slower speeds on my router.
* Performance of ExpressVPN on a router.
* Performance of
NordVPN on a router.
The traffic amid your device and the router is not secure
This is another consequence of your router doing the
encryption: The traffic between the device and the router will not be
encrypted. So make sure your home network is secure using WPA2 and a strong
password so strangers can't connect.
How we perform the tests
Powerful processor
A VPN router should have a CPU with a minimum of 800 MHz so
that it can encrypt your traffic without making you wait. All units we tested
have a clock speed of at least 1GHz
High wireless speed
You should also make unquestionable that you get the best
possible speed between your wireless device and your router. Currently this
means getting a router that uses the wireless AC standard (802.11ac), which is
6 times faster than the previous standard (802.11n). The newer AD standard is
even faster, but not many of the newer models support VPN. Most of the routers
in this review are AC, but one (the most expensive) is AD.
For the best wireless transfer make sure the router uses
MU-MIMO (multiple user, multiple input, multiple output, multiple users,
multiple inputs, multiple outputs) so that it is able to communicate with
multiple devices simultaneously. All the routers on this list except two of
them use MU-MIMO.
Compatible Firmware
We have already talked about the three firmware options for
running VPN software on your router. ExpressVPN is the easiest to set up and
use, but it requires you to use its own VPN service. Both DD-WRT and Tomato are
reasonable alternatives, and most VPN providers offer detailed instructions on
how to configure them. We will mention which firmware option is compatible with
each router.
Available Preconfigured Routers
Not everyone will want to install new firmware themselves,
so we mentioned which routers can be purchased pre-configured for an additional
fee. Many VPN providers sell pre-configured routers, and FlashRouters is a
third party that can provide a variety of popular routers with ExpressVPN,
DD-WRT, or Tomato pre-installed.
Price
VPN routers can cost between $ 150 and $ 500 (recommended
retail prices), but you can often find them cheaper if you do a little
research. Keep in mind that in addition to this, you will also have to pay for
the VPN subscription.
And now we present you the list of the best VPN routers
