VPN on a router: how to set it up
A router takes your whole home network into the tunnel at once — the TV, the console, everything you cannot install a client on. There is no app here: a configuration goes into the firmware.
What the router has to support
You need firmware you can add packages to: OpenWrt or something compatible. The stock firmware on an ordinary home router does not speak our protocols — Hysteria2, Reality and NaiveProxy are not in it and will not appear. Check your model against the OpenWrt device table before you change anything.
One device for the whole network
The router takes one slot on your plan no matter how much equipment sits behind it: to us it is a single connection. That is also the limit — the whole network gets one country, and you cannot switch it for one TV without moving everything else.
Where it loses to an app
A router is weaker than a phone, and encryption runs into its processor: on a budget model the speed drop is noticeable. Splitting traffic per app is out too — a router sees devices, not the programs on them. If you want a tunnel on one laptop, a client on that laptop will be both faster and more flexible.
Common questions
- Will the router from my ISP do?
- Almost certainly not: those models ship locked firmware that will not take third-party packages. You need a router OpenWrt installs on.
- Does the router count as one device?
- Yes, as one — regardless of how much equipment is connected to the home network behind it.