To secure your internet connection while traveling, consider using a VPN or a local SIM card. These devices provide a secure connection within the local network, such as hotel Wi-Fi or direct Ethernet connections. To use a VPN, connect to the local network first and activate the VPN program. This creates a secure connection within the network.
There are various ways to get portable Wi-Fi while traveling, including mobile hotspots, SIM cards, hotel and restaurant Wi-Fi, USB dongles, pocket Wi-Fi rentals, and public Wi-Fi. To access free Wi-Fi, compare prices, speeds, and learn how to protect yourself from man-in-the-middle attacks and other threats.
To get secure Wi-Fi while traveling, check with your mobile provider if they offer roaming as part of your package for the countries you are visiting. Some of the best ways to secure internet on the road include getting a local SIM, using a VPN, using your phone’s WiFi hotspot, considering a portable Wi-Fi router, staying away from unsecure sites, having strong passwords and using 2FA, updating software, and turning off auto-join.
A VPN is an essential tool for securing your internet connection when traveling. VPNs are designed to provide a secure tunnel that goes through another tunnel. If you must connect to a public network, only do so if you have downloaded a reliable VPN. VPNs are designed to safely access public Wi-Fi anywhere, anytime.
In summary, using a VPN or a local SIM is a smart move to secure your internet connection while traveling. Be cautious with the sites you visit, only visit secure websites, and use a VPN to ensure a secure connection.
📹 Using Free Public Wifi While Traveling | How to Avoid Identity & Data Theft
We’ve all done it … Connecting to a free wifi network so we can read our messages or see our notifications, especially when we …
How to safely use Wi-Fi overseas?
To ensure safe internet use while traveling overseas, consider using a VPN, a virtual private network, which protects personal data such as usernames, passwords, credit card numbers, and browser cookies. VPNs encrypt your online data, reducing hacker potential.
In case of misplacement or loss of personal items, download a device finder app to track your location on your phone. This is a great security platform for overseas travel.
If you’re a Latitude 28° Global customer, consider pre-purchasing secure Wi-Fi before your trip. Latitude 28° Global offers Boingo Wi-Fi, providing fast, free worldwide Wi-Fi. To check if you’re eligible, visit the link provided.
In summary, using a VPN, installing a device finder app, and purchasing secure Wi-Fi before your trip can help protect your personal information and ensure a secure internet experience.
How do I make my Wi-Fi secure on a plane?
If you need to use airplane wifi, consider getting a VPN to protect your privacy and stay secure when connecting to public wifi. Cyber safety is crucial for a relaxing experience, and Norton and LifeLock brands are part of Gen Digital Inc. The goal is to increase awareness about cybersecurity and consumer topics, but it’s important to review the terms during enrollment or setup. It’s also important to remember that no one can prevent all identity theft or cybercrime, and LifeLock does not monitor all transactions at all businesses.
How do I make my Wi-Fi secure?
To ensure the safety of your home Wi-Fi, follow these seven simple steps: change the default name of your Wi-Fi, create a unique and strong wireless network password, enable network encryption, turn off network name broadcasting, keep your router’s software up to date, ensure a good firewall, and use VPNs to access your network. Home Wi-Fi is crucial for various activities such as online banking, paying bills, reserving hotel rooms, chatting, and watching movies. It is essential to keep your router’s software up to date, ensure a good firewall, and use VPNs to access your network.
How to have secure Wi-Fi anywhere?
A VPN is a crucial solution for travelers to ensure device security and avoid the hassle of switching SIMs. VPNs encrypt internet traffic, making it unreadable. While free public Wi-Fi connections can be convenient, they can be at risk of being used by hackers for Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) attacks and data theft. Unprotected networks also invite malware onto devices, posing a threat to both users and devices.
To protect yourself and your devices, consider using secure Wi-Fi while traveling. Hackers often set up honeypot Wi-Fi networks to trap unsuspecting people, making it essential to use secure Wi-Fi to protect your data and devices.
How do I get portable Wi-Fi while traveling?
RVs and Sprinter vans typically have built-in utilities systems, but if you’re living on the road, you need a separate Wi-Fi system. Mobile hotspots and Wi-Fi extenders are affordable but not adequate replacements for a proper home internet network. 4G LTE or satellite internet plans provide a consistent connection for wherever you travel, especially in rural areas. These plans work as mobile connections that can be set up anywhere. Setup and billing costs can add up, but the benefits include stronger equipment and unlimited data.
Nomad Internet is a good choice for RVs because its portable 4G internet plan doesn’t have a data cap, which is crucial for streaming movies, making video calls, and working remotely. Offers and availability may vary by location and are subject to change.
How to be secure on hotel Wi-Fi?
A virtual private network (VPN) encrypts information between you and a website, preventing infiltrators from seeing the encrypted data. To protect your privacy, download a VPN like Aura’s, set it up on all devices, enable the Kill Switch feature to shut off Wi-Fi if the VPN stops working, and ensure the VPN service is running correctly before logging in to hotel Wi-Fi. This will help protect your online activities and privacy.
How to get internet when traveling internationally?
To stay safe while traveling, consider purchasing a data plan or using a VPN. Check with your mobile carrier to see if they offer data usage in certain countries, which can save you money. Many daily activities require an internet connection, and public Wi-Fi can leave you unprotected. Hackers can access compromised networks and access data from you and others. To stay safe, try using as few public networks as possible and stick to more well-known networks, such as those found at popular restaurants, hotels, and stores.
These networks are generally more reliable than those operated by unknown individuals. Be on the lookout for fake networks, such as misspelling of a common network name, and be on the lookout for suspicious signs, such as an interface not matching the location’s branding or access points asking for personal information. If something seems fishy, don’t join or exit the network immediately.
What is the app for Wi-Fi when Travelling?
Airalo offers eSIM plans for 200+ countries and regions, allowing users to stay connected and save up to 10x on roaming fees. To install an eSIM, users need to install the Airalo app, purchase an eSIM plan, connect to a local network, turn it on, and connect to the internet. This easy, affordable, and global connectivity allows users to stay connected wherever they travel, saving up to 10x on roaming fees.
Is hotel Wi-Fi safe without VPN?
Hotel WiFi without a VPN poses significant risks to guests. Without a VPN, guests can be vulnerable to cybercriminals snooping on their online activities and stealing personal information, such as credit card numbers, passwords, and emails. Public networks, which rarely require authentication, are often used as hunting grounds for cybercriminals, making them a safe haven for threats like man-in-the-middle attacks. The Federal Trade Commission advises caution when using public networks, as they are often used by hackers as hunting grounds.
Malware distribution can occur when unknowingly connecting to malicious networks, known as “Evil Twin” attacks. Additionally, without encryption, sensitive company documents or personal photos could become public property without proper encryption.
How to secure Wi-Fi when traveling?
A VPN service is essential for privacy and security, providing a secure connection over public Wi-Fi. It is a virtual private network that can be purchased for a set price per year or month. VPNs are easy to use and set up, with options like Express VPN being popular. These services are provided at a monthly or annual cost, making them an affordable and convenient way to access public Wi-Fi.
Can hotel Wi-Fi see your history with VPN?
To stay safe on hotel Wi-Fi, use a premium VPN like Surfshark to encrypt your data before it leaves your device, protecting it from snoopers. Even if intercepted, hackers will only see jumbled characters, not compromising personal information. Enable a firewall to act as a barrier between your device and potential threats on the network, preventing unauthorized interception and malware infections. Most devices come with a built-in firewall, so activate it before connecting to the network.
📹 my SUPER secure Raspberry Pi Router (wifi VPN travel router)
In this video, I built something I actually used on my family road trip….a Raspberry Pi ROUTER!!!! It is the perfect VPN travel router …
Your resume SUCKS!! (get a website instead): ntck.co/3nUNDGp In this article, I built something I actually used on my family road trip….a Raspberry Pi ROUTER!!!! It is the perfect VPN travel router and it kept me and my family secure while we were on the road. In this article, I walk you through every step to build your very own Raspberry Pi Travel VPN router using NordVPN. ✔✔Links and Guide: ntck.co/3bIdITF 🔥🔥Join the NetworkChuck membership: ntck.co/Premium **Sponsored by Hostinger 0:00 ⏩ Intro 1:07 ⏩ what do you need? 2:25 ⏩ the BIG picture 3:28 ⏩ STEP 1 – Bake the Pi (Install OpenWRT) 4:54 ⏩ STEP 2 – Login to your Pi 4:43 ⏩ STEP 3 – OpenWRT Basic Setup 9:29 ⏩ STEP 4 – Configure OpenWRT Network 14:48 ⏩ STEP 5 – Connect OpenWRT to WiFi 20:02 ⏩ STEP 6 – Setup the USB Wireless Adapter 21:59 ⏩ STEP 7 – Wireless network setup 24:16 ⏩ STEP 8 – VPN Setup (with NordVPN)
Hey Chuck! Great article tutorial, maybe im blind but that long opkg install command is missing from your article description, anyway, here you go folks: opkg install kmod-rt2800-lib kmod-rt2800-usb kmod-rt2x00-lib kmod-rt2x00-usb kmod-usb-core kmod-usb-uhci kmod-usb-ohci kmod-usb2 usbutils openvpn-openssl luci-app-openvpn nano
Other than completed courses, this is the sort of content I’d love to see more of. Pi projects are easy to do, great skill builders and it’s surprising how much you can do with them. I’d love to see more, especially more out of the box stuff. Building our own pocket wifi-router is absolutely perfect and a great skill to have once traveling becomes more viable.
I use open WiFi for my dad’s house but only because he lives on 20 acres in the mountains, far away from the road and other people, and because he’s old an sucks at connecting to WiFi. Love the episode! From one networker to another, I truly enjoy the content you are creating and I love that you are teaching people the most awesome part of IT, networking!
Nice tutorial! 2 things that would have been nice to show. 1- Swapping wi-fi to another config to simulate going to another hotel/place 2 – Handling a captive wi-fi setup requiring some form of authentication to get started. A lot of places require this before you get any traffic to flow and it would definitely require temporarily disabling the VPN and perhaps even taking the wi-fi provided DNS offered by the guest DHCP. 3 – A bonus would have been using wireguard as the VPN protocol. Maybe a follow up?
Excellent tutorial Chuck. I configured my “vacation router” a little differently. Rather than use a commercial VPN service, my Dual Wifi enabled Raspberry Pi connects back to an L2TP VPN server running on my home router (Mikrotik). This not only tunnels my families devices safely, it also allows me to access all of my devices at home as if I was still sitting at home. It makes me look like I am still sitting at home accessing the internet as usual. This helps when your online services get a “upset” when you try to log in from a different IP address.
I slapped one of these together around six months back, works like a charm. I did run into some trouble with configuring my VPN provider in, but that was due to two major technical issues. Coffee and needing to put my fingers on a diet, as I fat fingered my hashed username, running me in circles for 20 minutes before the coffee opened my eyes. 😉
I was looking into buying a vpn router and wasn’t quite satisfied with my search results and I thought I could set it up my self on my raspberry pi. Thanks to this guide of course that got me excited and motivated enough to actually do it. I use Proton VPN and the latest install of OpenWrt which is 21.01 at the time of this writing. I ran into some issues and followed docs directly on the OpenWrt support site and ProtonVPN + some googling of course. There are slightly different turns you need to take when setting up Proton VPN’s openvpn configs so I pointed that below as well. Summary of changes: 1. Wireless Config Deprecated Options: – hwmode is now called ‘band’. – “option disabled” doesn’t get added by default when you plug in the wireless adapter. Although leaving out will actually enable it per OpenWrt doc, but that caused issues of it constantly going down so I just added. It worked like a charm – “option website” seems to work better when you change it from what it’s orginally defaulting to. Did it for both radio0 and radio1 2. Openvpn settings (Proton VPN): – vpn config file and ikev2 username & password are different than your login creds. You can retrieve that from your account settings – You will upload that directly into to OpenWrt and most config will be in place. The only thing I needed to do is add the ikev2 username and password in the GUI box specified in the “edit” section of the openvpn config aread (GUI). Use the first line for the username and second line for the password.
One major problem I foresee is — what happens if the public wifi has a login/registration/payment page? I suppose you could temporarily set your computer’s wireless MAC to the same MAC as the Raspberry Pi, login to the public wifi through your computer, change the MAC back to the original, and then boot the Raspberry Pi router and use it.
I’d think it would be better to do the wifi interfaces opposite…. USB wifi with the antenna connect to public wifi .. because you will be more distant from the public wifi access point, so the external antenna will ensure a better more reliable connection. Since you’re going to be very close to your pi, use it’s internal wifi to provide wifi to all your nearby devices… Being in close proximity, they will do just fine off the built in pcb based antenna.
What a website! You’re great to watch even for a 64-year-old retired ex-network manager (that’s 20 years ago now 😁) – don’t you love SNMP??? We live in Germany and have just got ourselves an RV to go exploring. Your Pi+NAS article was just what the doctor ordered and this router article is the icing on the cake. Only… I’ve been wondering, it would make sense to combine both functions in one box. And I’m thinking of Docker. I’d like to know your opinion, and do you think it would better to install Raspbian, then Docker and run OpenWRT on that? Or to install OpenWRT as the base layer, then Docker and run OpenMediaVault on that? A article combining both these thing would make my Christmas (and give me something to do!) Keep drinkin’ that coffee, Chuck!
This is cool. Thanks for making these. I am learning a lot about network security and the capabilities of Raspberry Pi through your website. Network configuration feels like such a complicated beast to tackle, and if you do something wrong, it could lead to some pretty serious problems, so thank you for this.
Nerds beware!! I attempted this project this week because it looks awesome, but with a different adapter because I had it. Do not try to use anything with a RealTek chips. Getting them to work is way more work than it’s worth. Otherwise, great article Chuck! I found your website recently and I love what you do!
to be honest, for the tasks mentioned (road trip) i use the mikrotik hap ac2 (RBD52G-5HacD2HnD-TC) since it has an IPsec hardware support onboard, the USB port suppoting LTE sticks and it is an accomplished product within appropriate housing and with power supply range 12-30V and regular updates. Anyway, the RPI is also might be useful in many ways, so thanks!
in your Openwrt config you forced 802.11g as the default connection and HT20 means you’re forcing a 20mhz spectrum, using website 7, while disabling shortguard for 40mhz spectrum. After the setup is done, I’d try and use 802.11n on there instead by switching the 11g to 11n. HT20 will work but it won’t be as fast as it can go but it won’t run into as many issues since it narrows the band to 20mhz. Short_gi 40 0 means you’re disabling the short guard for 40mhz but it might be better to change that to short_gi 20 1 to improve throughtput speeds. If you’re in an area with little to no wifi networks, then ht40 should work fine with short_gi 40 1.
Let me start saying this projects are amazing. I don’t know to congratulate you enough. You have charisma and knowledge enough to pass it in a way that is interesting. Another quick thing, from the content generation stand point it’s endless topics for everybody. Please keep doing this great articles. Thank you!
This was THE MOST informative and interesting Raspberry Pi use I have seen to date. It was amazing to watch, and I WILL be purchasing a “Pi” very soon to duplicate this technique for my use. I do a lot of field service traveling and in hotels all the time. This is exactly what I need, both in those places, as well as in my home. Thank You for your dedication to education for all of us!!
I believe at step 5 when you are making changes to radio0 you are changing the hwmode from AC wifi to b/g/n wifi, hence why there is a need to change the website to 7 as well as changing the htmode (VHT80 = 80MHz – usually for 5GHz wifi). From my own experiences openWRT doesn’t like radio0 using 5GHz 80MHz on a PI 3B+/4B (might be fixed on the 4B at this time of writing though). You may also find that the Internet speeds when connected to the wifi network (that is also connected to NordVPN via OpenVPN) aren’t the best. I believe you can make these changes by the GUI to radio0 directly as even one typo when doing config by CLI can cause your Pi to become inaccessible in some cases. I’ve actually figured out how to do this on Pi OS 64-bit since I wanted to be able to use AC wifi on both network interfaces (access point and wifi client), non kernel supported USB wifi adapters, Wireguard connection to PIA VPN and a python app using flask to host a web page that can be used to connect to other wireless networks using a browser. It sounds like a lot but honestly it’s quite easy to set up and can be configured in different ways.
Dude! I went into this project super doubtful that it would work. I’ve never had a project like this with IT stuff that’s really worked out for me, so I wasn’t really hopeful in myself that it would work, especially given that halfway through the project I came upon changes in the code due to the updated version of openwrt. However, I persisted through, and followed your tutorial to a T, and I am now writing this comment on the wifi setup through my rasppi router! I am super excited to try more stuff like this, so thank you for making such great content ❤️
72 usd for a raspberry pi 4 1gb here minus everything else, over kill for building a router tbh, can get any supported router by openwrt, ddwrt, fresh tomato etc and do all that but i gotta admit the experience was pleasing to watch and the fact that one can do so much with a raspberry pi is amazing add the knowledge of networking and skills, i enjoyed perusal this article… good stuff.
I use a $15- Orange Pi Zero because none of my bought routers would talk to my 4G LTE mobile broadband and I got tired of using an old Windows laptop with ICS to get my Internet. These little SBCs are great. I also loaded HomeAssistant on it and it controls all my home automation. (I live in a caravan) Simply magic. (edit) PS. Thanks for the VPN walk through. Very helpful. Cheers.
Hey NetworkChuck, curious about a detail – how much storage on a diy router is sufficient to have? In your article this was done with a 32gig sd card. I’m curious what I could factor for the size I give it. Also the enthusiasm I pick up from these articles reminds of a history teacher who was awesome. It’s the way to go because it sure helps when you are challenged by the path. Love this
Hi Network Chuck, wow two years ago, but still relevant. I’ve started traveling again and get frustrated by the devices available out there as well as suppliers’ WiFi access, so need a good solution. The VPN tunneling will help with my regional streaming services, fantastic! One of the biggest issues I’ve found is the use of captive portals at hotels etc, they can be a pain, constantly being timed out and re-registering to some, I think a regular scheduled ping can resolve this. But it’s logging in with the router, there is no login page on the router itself, so I’m wondering if I should log in using my phone or laptop and then clone my MAC address on the router? What do you think?
I’ve been seeing relatively high latency on the built-in pi wifi. It doesn’t matter if it’s OpenWrt or Raspberry Pi OS. ICMP ping shows roughly 0.6-0.7 ms if checking ethernet, but wifi ranges from 3-4ms. If I replace my OpenWRT pi with an OLD OpenWRT router, wifi there becomes 1ms. The pi’s high latency ends up reducing my usable bandwidth over TCP due to window sizing/acknowledgements on appliances where I can’t tune window sizes. Are you seeing similar latencies with the onboard wifi vs USB, or what else should I look at to debug my local latencies?
I am curious how the speeds compare to your main network? I was interested in doing something like this as my room has almost no wifi connections so I was going to use a router to connect via WDS allowing me to get wifi in my room and use the ethernet ports. Are the speeds similar to the normal router or are they drastically lower?
For anyone having this issue: Router can connect to internet, you can connect to router, but VPN does not launch: check the logs. For me, it was missing paths in the vpn config file. I had to put the full paths for the CA file, the auth-pass file, etc. Any file reference in that file should have the full path, relative paths won’t work. Otherwise the tutorial was flawless
Chuck, I can’t keep up anymore 🙂 Please can you do a raspberry pi book with all your favourite projects and links to the articles, you’re one of my favourite sources for cisco tutorials and now you’ve engaged with the pi it’s amazing. The enthusiasm and readability of the steps make your tutorials so engaging and easy to watch and follow.
Does this cover connecting to open networks, which need yout to accept the network rules and / or login before being able to use the network? Since the DNS is changed to cloudflare / google, neither the WRT router or the clients get the authorizeation site displayed … if not this is only usable for classical WiFis without additional authorization.
Chuck, you’re amazing, and I go to Disney all the time and WISH I had this setup – for me, the holy grail would be to have a PI set up like this as a remote router, running OpenWrt and Pi-hole (with unbound – as an all-around DNS Solution) on the same device… I’m looking for documentation about how to do this… but YOU certainly do have the flair and competency to make an amazing article on how to make this happen. I hope you trip rocks!!!
Question for Chuck and friends: I have my first Pi – very exciting. Do you all normally re-flash the SD every time you want to try something different? Or do you buy a handful of SD cards to swap out? Also, can you partition a larger card into different Pi flavors and multi-boot? One final question — for now: What about getting a larger card and using Docker for the various Pi flavors? Just typing that and I thought of many more questions but I will spare you for now. Thanks!
Excellent Tutorial!! I am a newbie (~2 months in) and your articles have made easy the set up of my home network! I wonder if you can combine this set up with wire guard for remote access or is it matter of just port forward your router? BTW, side question: what do you use to power the Pi while traveling?
Found a limitation with Raspberry Pi devices. If you use a really early device (in my case a B+) without in-built wireless then you get in sticky spot. You can’t install a USB Wifi device to give the OpenWRT internet access unless you’re connected to the internet, and if you can’t use the Ethernet because that’s how you’re accessing the terminal (or GUI). I can think the only way out is to 1) bridge internet via the computer you’re using to programme the Pi, or 2) connect the Pi to a monitor/KB/Mouse to free up the Ethernet port, or 3) remove the SD card and load the driver packages on through copying from your computer. Or – just thought of it – 4) edit the Pi ethernet static address so it’s on your home network, and so it can see the internet through your home network, and you can connect to it from your computer.
A really useful and well presented article. Thank you. I’ve been looking for something like this. I have a Pi 3b that I want to use it in exactly the same way as you have with the same configuration but without the vpn. What I want to do is restrict certain devices that connect to the wifi hotspot at certain times – the kids phones. Coming from a pfsense background I know how to do it via the firewall rules. Can the same be done with openwrt on the Pi?
Chuck, I ‘liked’ the article, but for me there is something missing. Most hotels/coffee shops/trains now have a banner login page where they expect you to enter an eMail address to get connected. This won’t help in that situation… will it? Or when you connect a WiFi client does that get paased through?
On the one hand, not bad, on the other hand, routers r sold separately, not because it is a rudiment. The structure of the raspberry pi has not been specially optimized for handling internet traffic, it would be good to compare performance between it and router with similar hardware. And u can’t connect more than one device over a wire without a switch or another network card P.S. Sorry 4 my english
I ran into the same problem wherein the files were no longer listed. HOWEVER, I was able to list them by reading them off the screen while pausing. Here is the command with all the files. As of 12/09/22, they still worked. Just copy and paste them onto the command line and hit ENTER: opkg install kmod-rt2800-lib kmod-rt2800-usb kmod-rt2x00-lib kmod-rt2x00-usb kmod-usb-core kmod-usb-uhci kmod-usb-ohci kmod-usb2 usbutils openvpn-openssl luci-app-openvpn nano
About to go on vacation in 4 day’s working full time & working on this & a nas after work. I’m soo close to having everything done before my vacation. As a 40 year old welder who has been messing around with Linux for the first time building a router & a nas. Now I’m ready to trade in my windows laptop for a Linux one. Having fun & learning so much. I just found out what a IDE was I need a good not over complicated one. Also GitHub is awesome. Whole other world out there.
Great tutorial. Worked a treat. 2 comments. 1, when you do the bit where you install a bunch of things, your image over writes the list of things to install (and I could not find the page where you say the commands are shown) I managed to work out what was “missing”. opkg install kmod-rt2800-lib kmod-rt2800-usb kmod-rt2x00-lib kmod-rt2x00-usb kmod-usb-uhci kmod-usb-core kmod-usb-ohci kmod-usb2 usbutils openvpn-openssl luci-app-openvpn nano 2, is there a way that I can connect to a captive portal? BT hotspots (and others) send you to a webpage to log in. But I could not see any way of dong that. Looking at ways round this.
I tried this on my RaspberryPi CM4 (compute module), with two USB dongle. I had some issues. I first had to install an additional package: opkg install kmod-usb-dwc2 Then for lsusb to work, I had to insert the following line inside /boot/config.txt : dtoverlay=dwc2,dr_mode=host. Finally, I don’t know if it’s because I had two adapter, a newer version of openwrt or because the driver ignition is too slow, but I had to add to /etc/rc.local the following lines before the exit 0 sleep 10 /sbin/wifi up After this, everything worked as expected. Great guide thank you!
You could also take it to the next step, set up a VLAN in your home that only has access to the internet and not to your local network (securing your home network away from VPN just in case of a breach), and configure a VPN host on that network that you can connect to using this OpenVPN client. Then you don’t need to have any VPN subscription if you already trust your home ISP and are just trying to get out of being monitored on public networks. Would recommend using a spare PC (can get from an electronics recycling depot, or use a second Pi) with pfSense installed and two network interfaces to be able to facilitate this on the cheap without needing fancy routing equipment at home. You may need to get a Dynamic DNS registration though.
I just got done going through this. All I can say is wow!! Fantastic tutorial and it helped that all my H/W and vpn provider were the same as what you detailed in the article. Amazing collection of open source software all working together. This will be great for our upcoming holidays. My plex will be running on another Raspberry pi via dietpi. Magical!
Hi Chuck, I also did this project following your instructions with an RPi3, I only had one problem with the usb dongle I bought on Amazon and found that it didn’t work as an AP, but in the configuration I reversed the two antennas (RPi3’s built-in antenna as ‘ap’ and USB dongle as ‘sta’) and it works fine! This may help other people who have the same problem as me. Please bring other content and projects using the Raspberry. Thank you
I would love a article like this one on how to do a OpenVPN to your home network to get around “websites that require your home IP” and access local home servers like a plex server. Would be even better if you include mac address filtering on the new network so that one MAC say of the TV goes over the OpenVPN whereas the MAC of the phone or laptop goes out over normal internet.
Hey CHUCK!!! I tried first with one of my Raspberry Pi 3b+’s without much luck – so finally decided to use a spare 4b which I hated to use because they are hard to get these days. To cut to the chase, I got the router working very well, so then I bought NordVPN today and followed your instructions to get it configured, and then verified all working on openWRT checking for the VPN IP address. I will be taking it to Puerto Rico next week for the big checkout to see if all my stuff works, especially YT TV, which actually thinks PR is not part of the US. So I will edit this post when I get back to let you know how it works for me. This is my 4th or 5th project you have helped me with (love the NAS with my PLEX addon and and TV dual tuner – I have a 4B set up with 10 TB RAID drives – 5 TB total), and next will be some hosting on one. By the way, I am a 78 year old and this stuff is my hobby now and a lot more fun than golf or perusal pro sports – my friends use me for their free help desk, so that is pretty fun as well. Thanks Chuck – I feel like I know you :person-turqouise-waving:
Wow, I didn’t know I could run OpenWRT on a raspberry pi (or anything), I thought it only run on those Linksys WRT routers (thus the name). I will be playing with it to see what it can offer. I followed Chuck to create a wired-to-VPN-wireless router, and it worked. Some steps can be done with the GUI of OpenWRT, no need for all those command line commands, but it was fine.
I would like to push the boundaries of raspberry pi.. Would like to learn how to animate pi install programs I normally use in Linux.. Ubuntu and Kali.. Like Neofetch gnu radio,.. Would like to be able to format a 1tb SD card to run pi in card slot.. Examples of Auto scripts for pi would would be nice as well..
to anyone having issues doing this on windows in 2023: remove any of the custom settings from pi imager. if you are getting “connection timeout”: try changing the storage device you have openwrt on. openwrt does not boot from usb on raspberry pi (at least my usb) if you get connection refused: check the I.P. address and the gateway of your ethernet version 4 4:54 if all of that is correct and you’re still having trouble: check your firewall, you may have to add a rule allowing inbound and outbound on the port ssh is working on. from this i can determine that ssh is enabled by default, it won’t boot off a usb, don’t let pi imager change any of it’s default settings. i will comment my findings on the networking side of things too.
Great article. I built something similar awhile ago. Believe I built it using a pre-built image someone designed. Only addition I had was a switch that I could flip to route through tor if I wanted to just disappear….more or less. Dug out an older pi 3 and going to work through this since I miss my little vpn/tor router. Thanks!
Just made this with a raspberry pi zero w (original) and works like a charm. keeping this in my camper for travel from spot to spot – getting one device to connect at most campgrounds, this is a game changer and it also VPNs out which is amazing. One question for you or anyone for that matter – if you want to change your location, is there an easy way to load up another config into the openWRT webUI via phone? New to OpenWRT so i’m hoping this can be easier than a re load config via cli and resetting a few steps enabling the conf and uci set steps.
Great content!! But one thing that really honestly triggered me, the INPUT ACCEPT on Wan, you should never do that! That opens all ports that are open on the router, it’s totally insecure! If you need to open something, just open that specific port, and if possible allow it only from a specific location! your GUI will be open to the world, as well as your SSH, and possibly other services.
Mr. Chuck liked and subscribed because there isn’t a love button! Im new to this lvl of stuff and the more I watch your articles the more I want to learn. Ive seen several of your articles and the raspberry pi stuff has been super intriguing to me since they are cheap and if I burn one up/crash/melt/or just drop in the confusion/ no worries! I have always wanted to learn linux and I just learned more in one article with you than a month of perusal other articles. Specially since I got a pi and the first thing I wanted to do was this project. See I live in a rural area and you are probably already familiar with connectify/speedify as you are streamer I like to game but my dsl internet is crap so I got speedify and connectify to bond internet connections on my phone and dsl and now a starlink too just playing around with it to see what I could squeeze out of it. The results have been pretty good but I have this inexplicable drive to go further. So I got a pi and Im making my new router for a few reasons. One running those programs on my laptop keeps my laptop tied to the system and my daughter who I also homeschool by the way (great move isn’t it) could be using it instead of her old that has seen better days. The thing is that I need to know if this will allow me to feed internet through the ethernet port because like you I also don’t like wireless networking and really not for gaming. And if not if you have any other articles or advice on how to do that?
Foreword: Create a product like this, and the article community will shower you with eternal admiration! Backstory: My desire is to use my Sony VX-1000 Camcorder without relying on tapes. The most straightforward approach would be to connect a Sony HVR-MRC1 memory recorder to the camera’s Firewire OUT port. Regrettably, these recorders have been out of production for over two decades. Although they can still be found, I am reluctant to spend $400 on outdated technology. This led me to explore alternative options, but it appears that no modern memory recorder with a Firewire port is available anymore. Consequently, I thought about building my own solution, but I lack the knowledge in electronics, programming, and coding required to do so. The only viable option is to assemble a makeshift solution using existing hardware. During my search, I discovered SCB’s (Single-Board Computers). While they don’t come with a Firewire port, they can be customized by adding one. My plan would involve installing Windows 7 on the SCB and connecting a mouse, keyboard, and screen to it. Then, I would run an application like WinDV to record the incoming Firewire stream. Clearly, this setup is far from ideal, as it necessitates carrying around a lot of additional equipment. It hardly compares to the convenience of simply purchasing an HVR-MRC1. However, I remain hopeful that someone reading this might come up with an ingenious solution. Perhaps, by writing a script or firmware, the SCB could be made to operate without the need for Windows 7 and the accompanying hardware.
I finally got this working, I found a good usb wifi and made that the connection to the network and use built in for my devices to connect. not great speed wirelessly around 85-100mbps not sure if built in radio is the speed killer or not.. My question is how good is NordVPN? Do all other vpns like ghost provide this downloadable config file?
I finally got around to doing this project, followed every step and they are still relevant. I did in on a RaspberryPi 3 B with the same Wifi adapter but it is slow at only 2mbps – 5mbps download, even though i seen upload go as high as 20Mbps on a 100Mbps connection. with the Pi 4 its is much faster at 40mbps up and down. Also you say at several points in the article that you will list the commands in the article description but i dont see them anywhere and the links didn’t lead to them neither 🙁
I was able to follow the instructions and make a few mods so that I only have a Lan and a Wan interface. I may turn back on the wifi to be able to configure items from my standard network… So to do this I stole my Octopi rasp 4 B… when I went to order a replacement, there were none. I guess the Octopi will live on a Thinkcenter Tiny 🙂 Also I choose to use NordVPN’s dns and fully tested for any dns leaks…. All looks good and secure. Using the built in ether port and an additional USB3 ether port, seeing speeds of 90 Mbits/sec…. Getting great 4K streaming through the vpn… Fastest I ever saw with my ASUS 86 was 28. Thanks for the great article.
I‘ve been using old / out of service routers: flashed firmware to Open WRT and configured them into a „bridge mode” (define a provider‘s WWAN as a DHCP hook-on and the WiFi/LAN as a DHCP server). This way I can get similar internet access. Haven’t tried travelling with it but the principle seems the same. So not sure if it even needs a PI. We all have some old routers somewhere at home, don’t we?
Hey Network Chuck!! You should become an amateur radio operator…then you can do even more with computers. My ears perked up on your mention of OpeeWRT. “Hams” use that or DD-WRT to flash the firmware in Linksys routers. We can use WiFi websites listed under Part 97 operation, not the WiFi websites listed for Part 15 operation for consumer products you buy in the store. With the help of high, directional beam “Yagi” antennas, hams have made WiFi contact on the order for a record around 45 miles…above tree leaves with the antennas. Using this we can set up our own network on the fly…HSMM High Speed Multi Media. We can then do file sharing, audio, article…games, all by mesh networking. Fun fact: when they (DarpaNet) were developing the technology for the internet communication on the USC Berkeley campus, they used UHF amateur radio frequencies between campus buildings instead of wire.
Like to configure it for an Internet Failover on UDMPro wan2. Simply using a mobile phone in hotspot mode, RPI wifi using this and forwarding it to eth1 (usb-ethernet). eth0 used for administration in the local UDMPro network. Very thankfull for some hints how to configure openwrt this way. Can’t get it to work… 👍
This went great and I learned a lot, thanks! One question. What changes do I need to make to add a VPN “kill switch” so that if the VPN goes down all traffic to and from the router locks down? As it stands, if the VPN goes down, the router will silently router the traffic openly, which I do not want. I’ve been doing some research and it looks like it might have something to do with zones and the firewall, but I’m a little lost. Thanks again for a fun and highly useful tutorial!
If I could run his articles at half speed, I would understand better…lol. Love the articles, but man does he talk fast!!! I’m getting ready to make one of these. Question, though. I made the NAS that he showed. Would it be possible to just switch out the SD card, pop on the wifi, and use the same hardware?
Super noob here, can this setup work if I were to take my office laptop from Canada to US and still look like I am on my home network. Keep in mind I work for finance so there are strict restrictions around leaving the province and we’re not allowed to install anything. Is there a way I can make this work?
Hey Chuck, awesome article! What kind of speeds are you seeing connecting to a wireless host? When I connect my desktop to my home network, I see 700+Mbps but, when connecting through OpenWRT on my pi 3B my speed drops to an abysmal 10Mbps (All wifi). I’ll be doing a test today with the pi hardwired to my home router. Do you have any advice?
Question: would you be able to use this with something like a pihole and perhaps a firewall of some kind? What about inside a hypervisor? I have an old laptop with a 9th gen intel i3 I want to use to learn more about running hypervisors, and I have a decent need for a secure personal network due to my current living situation, so this would make a perfect experiment for me.
I may be wrong as I’m no expert in this field, but from my limited knowledge, this seems like all it does is simply forward your network traffic through the raspberry PI. It’s not really secure because if you for example, access your bank account, the HTTP requests are being sent first to the network with internet, then to the bank, then back to the network with internet, and finally to you. The whole process doesn’t accomplish anything. The main issue is that a raspberry PI can’t connect to internet. In order to connect to internet, you need an ISP ( internet service provider ) and a modem. The modem interacts with the ISP which then uses satalites, and cables to get the data you requested.