turning a raspberry pi 4B into a vpn router - eviltoast

Hi guys as title suggests I have a pi 4b 4gb and basically I want to connect it to my isp provided router (wired connection via a lan cable) and run an openvpn config on it and then connect it to an access point that i already have (this one is wired too via a usb to RJ45 adapter and lan cable). I know that I need to flash openwrt image on an sdcard and install it on pi4 but I don’t know how to configure openwrt after that and honestly the guides on the forums and internet are a little confusing (I’m not that tech savy) also I read that not all usb to RJ45 adapters work with openwrt on pi4 but I don’t know which one to buy. can anyone show me a fool proof guide or tell me what I need to do?

  • surph_ninja@lemmy.world
    2·
    48 minutes ago

    It sounds like a fun tinker project, but I don’t think the hardware will perform as well as you hope.

  • tavu@sopuli.xyz
    3·
    23 hours ago

    You have the pi, give it a go.

    If it’s inadequate then i’d recommend a used fanless thin-client type PC, such as a Wyse 5070, just make sure it comes with PSU and a few GB of RAM and SSD. And check reports of how much power it uses at idle.

    • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      1·
      10 hours ago

      Thanks I will try running Wireguard on pi4. I never considered tin-clients before. What kind of OS these have? Can they run VPN clients?

      • tavu@sopuli.xyz
        2·
        3 hours ago

        Usually they’re normal x86 PCs with nothing unusual about them so just your Linux/BSD distro of choice. You can look up the processor model to see what crypto acceleration it can do, or see if there’s any wireguard benchmarks available.

        Some have interesting processors like PowerPC, or other strange hardware, but avoid them unless interesting is what you’re after.

        • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
          1·
          3 hours ago

          Sounds interesting I’m looking for a good mikrotik router right now. Going to look for these too thanks

  • orhtej2English
    2·
    22 hours ago

    I used RaspAP for the purpose lately, comes with VPN support built in

    • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      2·
      10 hours ago

      Thanks This looks like exactly what I need. Installation seems easy enough. How do I configure it afterwards?

      • orhtej2English
        1·
        8 hours ago

        there’s a nice WebUI, should be easy.

    • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
      2·
      1 day ago

      Thanks but I think you misunderstood. I don’t want to run a VPN server I want to run a openVPN client on a router

      • FeelzGoodMan420English
        3·
        1 day ago

        Can you just get your own Router and use that instead of the ISP one? Then you can flash whatever firmware you want on it and you can run the openvpn/wireguard client at the router level. You won’t need to combine the Pi with it.

          • FeelzGoodMan420English
            1·
            23 hours ago

            I think most consumer routers let you flash firmware. I believe certain Asus ones do, but obviously just validate that before buying it. OpenWRT has a list of supported devices you can check.

            I just figured that if you’re doing network stuff then you’d likely want to use something other than the ISP router as those track your activity more (this is a privacy community after all) and lock many features you may need.

            • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
              2·
              10 hours ago

              I checked OpenWRT table of hardware and there were some Asus and Mikrotik models that are available where I live but I don’t know which one to buy that sufficient hardware for running ovpn clients

              • tankplanker@lemmy.world
                2·
                3 hours ago

                Mikrotik wont need openwrt unless you are dead set on having an open source OS on your device.

                Mikrotik supports all sorts of VPN connections, both client, server, and site to site. You could even get creative and have it for certain services or IP addresses.

                If you get one of the more modern devices it will support a pretty chunky VPN as well, mine can get over 600mbps without much hassle.

                • merlin@lemmy.dbzer0.comOPEnglish
                  2·
                  3 hours ago

                  Thanks. I know routerOS is pretty capable but I’m also aware it’s not noob friendly at all that’s why I want to flash OpenWRT on it. I’m not sure which one to buy, I found RB750GRE hex model for a good price and it’s supported by OpenWrt too but I’m not sure it can handle openvpn or not

              • FeelzGoodMan420English
                2·
                4 hours ago

                Does it need to be openwrt? What about tomato or asus-merlin? I think any of those should work, no?