VPN Hardware for Digital Nomads

I know when I first started working remotely, I needed a way to access Netflix (US version), do normal things like pay bills online, and most importantly access my work network. All kinds of tech problems!

But I figured it out! I learned how to build a VPN tunnel using two identical routers. This solved most of my issues. Even though my employer has VPN on my machine, I could still work virtually using my new router combo.

Anyway, I wanted to share this with you because I know a lot of people are struggling with this and I’m here to help if you have questions!

I do the same thing for my very small MSP when I’m traveling. I have a Mikrotik router at home running wireguard, and then I take a Mikrotik router with wifi with me, connect to the hotel or whatever, and my PC thinks I’m at home. It works great.

What size? Form factor?

I use a gl.inet opal GL-SFT1200 as a travel router. Because of its size, versatility and it runs happily on USB power. But that’s an OpenWRT platform not Opnsense.

There was another thread asking for basically a travel router and I suggested an OpenWRT-based router as it better equipped for cellular uplink.

That said: I can do most necessary things in OpenWRT that I can do in OPNsense…

Sounds nice that you found a solution. Not sure how I feel about accessing your personal network from inside you employers network. That sounds like a compliance issue.

Also you dont need a travel router. Installing wireguard or tailscale lets you connect directly to your home router from the device. Its funny to get local advertisement from the home country when youre traveling and using different languages.

Opnsense is awesome

I plug my router up directly so I never use hotels or public wifi. I need the added security of airplane mode and no other Wi-Fi networks. Even at home I plug my work laptop in. But for people that don’t need that level of self scrutiny, your option is definitely going to work!

Nice. I like the Flint 1800.

I really don’t know much if anything about those other protocols. My use case was always kind of simple from a networking standpoint, to be honest.

I don’t agree with this particular comment. It is not factually incorrect. You may be mistaken as to what the use case is for the average digital nomad. And no, it is not fun to get local advertisement you’re working overseas. The whole point is to operate as if you are in the United States. Private VPN hardware is the gold standard for privacy and security.

I mean, the way I set it up is you can wither wifi to the hotel in case there isn’t a cable connection available, and then either wifi (like for my phone) or cable in directly to the travel router. The tunnel is 100% transparent to the end devices (except maybe the phone which has location enabled knows it’s not at my house).

Will you ever want to use a 4G/5G modem as a WAN link? if so: OpenWRT has WAY better support.

OPNsense will function but it will constrain speed…

I like the setup but as I mentioned before Id br a bit hesitant to meddle with my work machine and circumvent the intention of any work vpn. Not from a technical pov but more in terms of compliance.

Whats a good travelrouter that has decent wireguard throughput. Any recommendations

Wow blew that sentence up. “Not factually correct” so it is correct according to this statement. I don’t know and I’d go with. it’s false. Why have several new sentences and not able to keep up with your negatives and then not nuts or not not thanks dictation. Anyway, or a particular way I choose particular, and I will say that the way to alert the authorities someone made a statement and my question is always after because I wouldn’t have the question otherwise duh… What’s your source so I don’t need APA or MLA format but oh that whole post was a clue I’m gonna leave it alone and just watch. your concerned and overly concerned about what others think particularly intelligence. People probably thinks super smart anyway which I wouldn’t doubt it. It’s the smart ones that just can’t get grammar. I can take 12 so I score in genius by a hair. But then I can make it go down 30 points or go up 30 points based on how I communicate because communication is heavy on the IQ score and I think you have to be Caucasian as a race because it was invented by people that wanted to categorize people and having an elite group that are not not right.

One. I like to make sure I know my motive before I press send and this is a hunk of junk. I don’t know how the moderators do but yeah, this one could potentially be deleted, but I’m trying to be more active social media and I just don’t like it , I like this place the old old way works best but

it’s been a tough 48 hours here thank you guys for being around and staying on Reddit until I finally signed up and found it like 20 years after it’s launched. I really don’t know where things came from and I missed a lot of pop music because of major depressive episode the last couple years , so I miss a little time and I think it’s a new but it’s just a cover of song and I really like the

Sry I dont get what youre talking about? No sarcasm just some mild confusion.

Running a pi hole is on my todo list so when I watch youtube on my phone while abroad I get local advertisements from home instead of the country Im staying.

Im not a digital nomad per se but Im somewhat well traveled I think. Accessing my home network from abroad is important to me. Living in Europe means thats its quite easy to roam across different internet providers.

Using wireguard to tunnel to my home (or rented VPS) is quite state of the art. Not sure what else you refer to as gold standard.

Anyways I an grateful that opnsense makes managing networks easy for without spending a fortune on an enterprise box

Cool. I’ve never tried it. I don’t think my router is set up to pick up a public wifi signal (not plugged into anything).

Because you’re not a business user. You’re a consumer. Business users are using laptops and other devices to do work from a stationary location and there’s not a lot of room for error. Rather than rely on third party setups, I use my own equipment that I myself configured. I’m not reliant on any subscription services to provide a secure, encrypted connection back to my home IP.

On my router the wifi interfaces are just interfaces, any one of them can be used as a WAN connection. (My platform is Mikrotik, but Openwrt can do it too)

Funny to call me a consumer like only business users are grown ups?

Are you upset because I mentioned tailscale? I dont use it but I see value in it. I have automated my setup as much as possible but that takes time and effort. Sometimes outsourcing that is a calculated risk and worth trading money for time.

Anyway I simply wanted to mention that you dont need a site to site setup with two routers if you want to use a vpn in a mobile setup.

You’re talking about playing on your phone. Your use case isn’t the same as the point of this thread.