Five Best router with VPN for DD-WRT

Those of us who are not very technological minded have been using routers for commercial use, mostly come across some limitations and restrictions while using them but it is essential to understand here that these limitations of a simple commercial use routers can be overcome by the usage of a firmware which is Linux based called DD-WRT. DD-WRT is an amazing tool which helps to remove the restrictions that are placed by default in the programming of the commercially used routers. 

If you want the full functionality of a business grade router, it is usually costly but with the help of DD WRT, you can enjoy the full advantages of a business grade router without any effective costs. The advantages of installing DD WRT on your router are numerous but some of the most noteworthy benefits of installing DD WRT are listed below: 

1- DD WRT flashed routers can be used to plug in USB flash drives as well as external hard disks in routers that are equipped with portals. This allows the router to be used as network drives.

2- It provides you to control the quality of service on your device by letting you change the bandwidth settings of the device for various networks and provides UPnP media streaming. 

3- It also allows wireless bridging by turning your router into a wifi repeater and extending your wifi range. 

4- The Kai daemon feature provides you with network tunneling. This can be used with either PCs or XBOX and other consoles.

5- A particularly useful feature of DD WRT for devices that do not have built in VPN like Apple TV, mobile phones, tablets or Roku etc. is that it can route the signals through the VPN service to your devices that are connected to the router.

6- It also allows DNS caching as well as connection to the printers via USB port that can be accessed from anywhere on the net. 

The process which upgrades and changes the hardware device’s firmware enabling your device to work on DD WRT is known as “flashing”. Although there are some routers that do not support flashing with DD WRT but there is an ever increasing number of routers that do support it. You can get your hands on the full list of these routers which support DD WRT from their official web page with models from Belkin, Buffalo technology and Linksys.

Either you can get a flashed router this way or there are various other ways you can get a flashed router like:

1- The easiest way to get a DD WRT working on your router is to buy a router in which the manufacturer has, by default, installed DD WRT. In this way you will be spared the time and effort to do it yourself.

2- Another way to get DD WRT on your router is to find a router which has been installed with it by the owner. You can look at eBay for these kind of routers or simply ask the seller to per install DD WRT on your router before dispatching. Mostly sellers will simply pre install DD WRT on your router before sending it off to you and this will save you the trouble of doing it yourself.

3- If by any means you cannot get your hands on a pre-installed or in-built DD WRT router then you can install it on the router yourself. Although it’s not very high tech stuff but it can prove to be a little tricky at times so you need to properly have a knowhow of the process. Other than that it can be a bit risky and even though you do the process of installation right, you might end up bricking your router and making it nonfunctional for good. So it can be done but entirely at your own risk.

CONFIGURING VPN ON A DD WRT ROUTER:

A very good advantage of DD WRT configured router is that it generally supports VPN via PPTP protocol but a slight hitch in this is that it may not be very secure to use. Therefore, it’s better to use open VPN for these routers to avoid security issues. It is important that you check with the provider if your DD WRT built router supports open VPN or not if it is of consideration to you.

Even though many VPN providers supply guides for set up of VPN on your DD WRT but some of them are restricted to PPTP protocol. You can also view the guidelines generally used to set up an open VPN connection on the official website of DD WRT. If you want to avoid the hustle of installing the VPN on your device on your own then you can opt for the devices that have some of the famous pre-configured VPN services in the routers either by default or flashed routers are also available in the market.