It is pretty, but most routers do not declare which VPN speed they can handle… This why I am asking here… Will use it with ProtonVPN, an OpenWRT flashable router is preferred… Thx
If you can get hold of an old PC with 2 NICs you could setup PFSense which runs Protonvpn and then just use your standard router you have as a wireless access point for the network.
OpenVPN is very CPU intensive, i’m not sure what speeds it can hit, but without a dedicated crypto chip on a router i’d say 20-30mbps only
Cheap but 100Mbps… as you stated yourself, it is very CPU intensive. I don’t know any device which provide high CPU capacity under 100$. Rpi4 aren’t anywhere close to 100 as the Archer C7 from a quick Google search. I think you need to revisit your arbitrary 100$ limit.
I personally use a Qotom Core i5 for OpenVPN and I max out my ISP service (400Mbps). Maybe the protectcli suggestion is the happy solution in between my Qotom and the Archer?
Remember that openVPN is CPU intensive and requires ARM CPU (better if multicore and ARMv8.2+). You can buy a router that already support various VPN. Otherwise you can flash openWRT on a supported device.
You should look into the protectli (or equivalent) gear. A bit more robust than *-wrt if I may say so.
Protectli: Trusted Firewall Appliances with Firmware Protection
I’ve recently discovered TP-Link Archer C7 AC1759
It has 5 gigabit Ethernet ports and even the manufacturer advertises it “supports Open Source” on some online stores, presumably meaning OpenWRT, which is true.
In my experience it is superb. I read somewhere that due to the older mips cpu core, the Archer C7 will be struggling to exceed speeds over 300mbps but that’s ok. My internet is limited to 300mbps and it handles it without a fault.
I’ve got two of them, flashed OpenWRT on both and I’m using them around the house as access points and managed network switches. In 6+ months I rebooted them only when I flashed OpenWRT firmware updates. Big improvement in stability over my previous devices that I had to keep rebooting on a weekly basis to restore stability. I will keep them for as long as OpenWRT supports the device, which for now seems future-proof as they have more than enough recommended flash and ram.
TP-Link product link:
OpenWRT:
eBay:
Amazon:
Fitlet2 J3455 is $162.00 without DDR3L-1600 SODIMM RAM. You can get a 4 GB for under $20 elsewhere. Guessing you may already have storage options you could reuse. This will run OpnSense, PfSense, etc.
“fitlet2 requires exactly one RAM module to operate.
Normally, fitlet2 has M.2 SATA installed but in some cases alternative storage device is used, such as micro-SD or USB.”
GLinet mango, cheap and powerful. Working on OpenWRT.
rpi - easy to do, makes a great “always on” vpn wifi router, nothing special to worry about, just setup and done. but make a clone of the drive if using sd card for HD, they don’t last long enough and will save you from having to do rework when it dies.
I know you asked for OpenWRT but you haven’t mentioned size requirements.
Therefore, my suggestion will be to get an old Business Desktop (eg Dell Optiplex) chuck a dual port network card in and run pfsense.
If you want smaller you can go with a Thin client like T620 Plus, but they are more expensive and unsure about VPN performance.
GLinet Brume can do around 100Mbps openvpn
Yea thought about that, but really a cumbersome solution, for it is the plan c.
Yea, that is the reason of my question, but I heard that there are such routers, still can’t find cheap one…
I do agree with you, however I do not need that much speed, even 80Mb I can leave with, but in the same time spending for this 300$ seems silly, maybe at least <150$. Also the problem that there are lot of outdated info regarding routers VPN speeds, so I thought modern routers are better in this…
Thx, but it seems too expensive, especially with shiping+VAT in my country, so by cheap routers are usually meant <100$.
Thank you for the detailed answer, but as I understand you are not using VPN from the router? Because it is the main point, if it can do 100Mps in VPN connection, not ordinary one, since OpenVPN is very CPU consuming…
Still beta, and wireguard has the issue that it can be easily blocked by governments, as Proton support said many times.
I read that it CPU can’t handle such speeds…
Pfsense isn’t the kind of OS that people just casually use for a VPN.