I want to build / get a travel router / hardware VPN which connects to a network wirelessly or via RJ-45 and creates a new Wi-Fi (& maybe a wired connection to the new network) to which I can connect my devices and everything gets tunneled either through Mullvad or through my home network. Maybe it can even throw the traffic into Pi-hole before tunneling.
What hardware would I need? (As compact, as cheap-ish and as efficient as possible)
@MagicLike@askfedi look at TP Link. I've deployed the ER605 before and it's good for a cheap router. It has a USB port that supports cell modems. You might be able to make it use a WiFi adapter for the uplink. The SDWAN features should help you set up the VPN you're looking for. You'd want to get a VPN router for home too that you tunnel to. If you're using public networks you might run into trouble using IPSEC or GRE for the VPN as a lot of places block those protocols. Use SSL for the VPN.
@MagicLike@askfedi openwrt would be a pretty good choice but the wifi stuff doesn't work on raspberry pis. I've tried to build an openwrt wifi router on a raspberry pi before, didn't go well. but if you can find the right router hardware for it...
@MagicLike as mentioned in another reply, pretty much anything that can run openwrt will do
there's a bunch of form factors, quite a few pocket-sized travel routers and SBCs are supported
@novenary well can you recommend / name something specifically? I know that I can run openWRT of of pretty much everything, but I am not really familiar with travel routers or smaller power efficient SBCs in general. And something like a Pi is definitely too powerful, lacks at least a second RJ-45 port, I will need to make a case for it and in general has too much I/O...
@MagicLike something like a nanopi r2s maybe? no built-in wifi unfortunately, and I can't really recommend any USB dongles
I don't really keep up with the market though, and choosing a router, especially to run openwrt on, is hours if not days of research
a raspberry pi has the benefit of being well-supported, there are off the shelf cases for it, and you can add a cheap USB dongle for that second Ethernet port
a model 3b or 3b+ is more than enough too, no need to go for the latest
that's about the extent of what I can recommend, sorry
@novenary no need to be sorry - I am willing to invest time in this, as the router is supposed to last a long time...
I am also biased against Raspberry Pi because of their new partnerships with Sony placing a literal spy chip on the Pi 5 and hiring a ex-spy-cop and bragging about it and then not handling the backlash correctly, but going on full agressive...
@novenary I haven't read any details, so I may be totally wrong, but afaik it is some support chip wich sends telemetry and stuff to Sony on a firmware level
@MagicLike I'm struggling to find any info on this
in general it's difficult for hardware to access the network without assistance from the OS so I doubt that's actually happening
there probably is telemetry in rpi os but if you're going to run openwrt this isn't a concern
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