Hey guys,
I’ve been trying to get a router that has built-in VPN compatibility. Preferably one that supports Shadowsocks/V2Ray providers that many local services offer.
Is this something I can order off Taobao? Or is there a place I can find in Beijing where I can get a router set up for VPN? Sadly, I don’t think I have the technical prowess to get this done alone.
Gonna 2nd the Asus router with custom firmware suggestion. Running a VPN (or other) client on a router actually takes a substantial amount of processing power, at least relative to what routers usually have. Lots of modern routers have a kind of hardware acceleration though that helps quite a bit.
The problem is, for a lot of routers if you install custom firmware you will lose this hardware acceleration and have worse network speeds as the router struggles to run the vpn client and actually… you know… route at the same time.
An Asus router with Asuswrt-Merlin can run a vpn client or be setup as a shadowsocks proxy, etc, but also keep the acceleration it would have on stock firmware.
I have an RT-AC86U and it’s really good, though you’d probably want something newer with Wifi6 and all that.
Check out the ASUS Merlin website for a list of routers compatible with their custom firmware. I bought a router from JD that is compatible and changed the firmware. https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/
A few Xiaomi and tplink routers are compatible with custom firmware. Check compatibility before you buy.
Google FreshTomato or similar (DD-WRT, etc.). They will have lists of compatible routers. Flash the router, and you’re in business.
Yes. I found ones on taobao
I went with gL.inet…most of them can do OpenVPN etc.
It’s more difficult finding Asus Merlin compatible routers on Taobao, but on Xianyu there are still many. Got mine for 60 RMB and works perfectly.
Thanks very much for your detailed response. I’ve poked around Google a bit and I find myself completely lost. Is the RT-AC88U a good choice? I don’t game, just want to use my ROKU stick to watch Netflix, etc. on my TV.
Never heard of this setup before. So essentially the PI sits in between your wifi access points and the ISP’s box? Are there any downsides or degradation to network speeds doing this? I remember reading these higher end PIs get notoriously hot.
I see the ports on the R5S support 2.5gbps. I’ve got 3gbps at home but probably never really achieve those speed in real usage though my connections into HK/TW already degrade things to 1-1.5 gbps.
I’ve got the problem now that while I have v2ray software on my router, I find that there isn’t enough memory to support it effectively without the router becoming unstable over longer periods of time.
This sounds like an amazing solution to take on the road.
Yes, i chatted with customer service and asked them which ones were compatible with my VPN, (I was using astrill). And they let me know which ones. Also taobao has many options. Just search “vpn” or “router”
Would you mind sharing the keywords or seller names?
I have the 86XU and my memory (1 gig) gets maxed out just from having V2Ray running. CPU is enough for me (4 core). I wish I had paid more attention to this and bought something with more than a gig of memory. The 88U has the same amount, not sure if there’s any others being sold with more, but I’d consider it for the long term.
edit: the comment below by 0O00O0O00O about using a PI looks really interesting. I’m probably going to test it.
Thank you for the information, ordered one! Hopefully this allows me to do some other background tasks that I’ve wanted to run without having to buy a full fledged dedicated machine to run them!