How to check if your router supports VPN

As router options are almost infinite, you have a lot to choose from. It is a lot easier to know if your router supports a VPN connection by its category. These are the main router categories.

 

 

 

ISP provided routers

 

ISP routers, or Internet Service Provider routers in most cases, if not all of them, have massive restrictions enabled on them that can only be disabled by your ISP. There is a very slim chance that you will be able to set up a VPN on a router provided by your ISP. You may not even be able to make changes to small settings like changing the DNS. So sadly, if you have an ISP router and want a VPN setup on one, you will have to invest in the other two categories. Let's move on!

 

 

Off-the-shelf routers

 

OTS routers or off-the-shelf routers are much easier to work with, but not all of them may support a VPN. It's important to make sure that the router you are checking out has VPN compatibility. To do that, find the features list of a router, and make sure that you can find a feature called OpenVPN Client in the list. Please don't mix it up with an OpenVPN server, as this is an entirely different thing.

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Custom firmware routers

 

Usually, almost all custom firmware routers have VPN availability, and these are more likely to be fully customizable with a lot of handy features. However, custom firmware routers are more for advanced users, but don't get scared. It's not that hard to set up a VPN on a custom firmware router, and we have guides for almost all custom firmware.

 

 

Congratulations! Now you know how to check if your router supports a VPN setup, and if not, how to find a router that will fit your needs!

 

 

You may also be interested in:

  1. How to make sure if my connection was successful?
  2. How to enable 2FA on your Surfshark account?
  3. How to use Surfshark Search?
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