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DenysShchur
DenysShchur

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Router-Level VPN Setup: Worth It or Overkill?

A lot of people install VPN apps on each device…
But router-level VPN is slowly becoming the default for anyone who works from home or has a smart-home setup.

🔧 Pros
• protects every device automatically
• stops IoT leaks
• no need to install apps on TVs
• better consistency for streaming

⚠️ Cons
• potential speed loss
• not ideal for gaming latency
• cheap routers choke on encryption
• device-level split tunneling becomes tricky

✔ Ideal setup

Use a router with:
• WireGuard support,
• AES-NI or ARMv8 crypto acceleration,
• separate SSIDs for IoT,
• fallback DNS (Quad9 / Cloudflare).

If you’re deciding whether to do it or not — this article gives a very clean explanation with pros/cons and examples for AsusWRT, OpenWrt, DD-WRT and GL.iNet:

👉 https://smartadvisoronline.com/blog/vpn-on-router.html

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