VPN setups on routers are quite a popular way to secure your household's connection. This tutorial will help you decide if setting Surfshark VPN on a router is the best option and give general guidance on where to start.
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Pros and cons of setting up a VPN on a router
Setting up a VPN on your router has its pros and cons, which are explained below.
Pros of setting up a VPN on a router
- You want to secure all devices in your household
- The usual VPN connection method is not available (for example, on Smart TVs and gaming consoles that do not have native VPN support)
Cons of setting up a VPN on a router
- You will lose access to most of the Surfshark features available on the apps
- The management of a VPN connection will not be too convenient
- The connection speed might decrease.
- You must have a router compatible with VPN, one that has firmware with a pre-installed OpenVPN, WireGuard®, or L2TP client
NOTE: We recommend using Surfshark VPN applications on your devices to get the most out of Surfshark.
How to know if my router is VPN-compatible
If you're looking for a new router, here are our top 5 VPN routers for your home.
If you already have a router and you have decided to set up a VPN on it, you must find out if it is compatible with a VPN. There are several ways to do that:
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Read your router's user manual and look for OpenVPN or WireGuard® instructions. If you do not have the user manual at home, you can usually find it online.
- Find the model of your router and look for more information online. Usually, more people have the same router as you and have already tried to set up a VPN.
- Log in to your router and check out the settings. Look for an OpenVPN, WireGuard®, or L2TP client. The most common way to do that is to find your router's IP address and enter it into the URL bar on your browser. If you don't know how to do that, check out our guide on how to find your router's IP address.
- Look at the routers section on our Help Center. We may already have a detailed tutorial for your router.
What to do if my router is not VPN compatible
If your router turns out to be incompatible with VPN, consider purchasing a new one or installing new firmware on your current router. Here are a few suggestions:
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Install a widely used open-source firmware such as DD-WRT or Tomato on your router.
If done incorrectly, reinstalling firmware might permanently damage your router. Surfshark is not responsible for any damage that might be caused by installing custom firmware.
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Choose a router that comes with VPN functionality by default. For general guidance, we recommend routers running Asus firmware, which is really easy to set up with a VPN. Here are several VPN compatible Asus models: RT-N66U, RT-AC56U, Asus N-16, RT-AC66U, RT-AC68U, RT-AC87U, RT-AC5300, RT-AC3200, RT-AC3100, RT-AC1750, RT-AC88U, RT-AC66R
Another VPN-friendly option is GL.iNet routers. These mini routers come with OpenWRT firmware pre-installed and already have an OpenVPN client. Here are a few models to get you started: GL-AR750S-Ext (Slate), GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango), GL-AR300M (Shadow).
Configure the router with Surfshark VPN
Once you have a VPN-compatible router, you can look for a detailed setup tutorial in the routers section on our Help Center. There we have tutorials for the most common routers, such as DD-WRT, AsusWRT, GL.iNet, OpenWRT, and others.
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