Mullvad VPN + GL iNet AR-150 travel/mini router success

VPN
1

Hi folks,

Thought I’d drop by just to:

a) Confirm that this hardware/VPN combination works.

b) Provide steps lest anybody need them.

Firstly, I bought this cheap (<$30) as my first travel router. The good folks over at /r/homenetworking recommended this product category (I always figured there must be something like a portable router for securing untrusted networks on the market). So I reckoned it was something I should have in my networking arsenal.

I saw that GL iNet has a loyal following and loved the look of their products so figured the GL-AR150 (internal antennas only) would be worth a shot. Worst case scenario I was out $25.

Arrived today.

After setting up the router (it’s running OpenWRT), I:

- Used the OpenVPN configuration file generator to create files with a few different endpoints. I simply opted for the default options.

- Gave my router connectivity by tethering it with ethernet to my load balancer, which is the centerpoint of my home networking

- Downloaded the OpenVPN files

The username is your Mullvad account number and for password I opted for ‘a’.

Everything is up and running nicely and I verified that my connectivity to the internet was now behind a VPN.

Every time I’m staying in a hotel / using any untrusted network from now on I’m going to rig this guy up to secure the network. You can secure both connections you have ethernet access to (probably the minority) as well as WiFi connections. Just keep an ethernet cable handy so that you can create a quick LAN wherever you are to apply the config changes.

Hope that was useful to somebody!

2

I too use Mullvad + a GL inet router, and it’s such a nice way to quickly set up a VPN network, and have a single point of configuration versus setting up apps on individual computers.

3

Yes, exactly. Post-pandemic, I’m hoping to do more travelling abroad. This was kind of an experimentary purchase mostly to test out their hardware. I’d definitely be comfortable using this router for extended remote working stays. Although having seen that it works, I’d probably opt for a higher end model with 5 Ghz WiFi and perhaps a second LAN port. Sometimes, it doesn’t make sense to be conservative!