Just asking how and why this is different/useful

General
1

Just asking an honest question. How is this project useful versus just logging into my router changing its settings? It’s obviously using a pi. 3 which is novel but from a functionality standpoint what am I gaining.

Again, not criticism, just not seeing the value :slightly_smiling_face:

2

No that’s fine - it’s using a Pi 4 or 5 (not 3)

It’s basically turning a Raspberry Pi into a high-speed travel router - so an alternative to something like this.

If logging into your router - not sure if you mean a regular broadband router or specifically OpenWrt.

But this does:

  • Network-wide adblocking via AdGuard Home (sort of like PiHole) blocking ads and trackers on all devices (even within apps)
  • Network-wide OpenVPN & WireGuard (so run a VPN like NordVPN, ProtonVPN etc wirelessly for all your devices including smart home / consoles / TVs that don’t support VPN apps)
  • Network storage (SD Card or USB)
  • And no technical knowledge / manually configuring through LuCI / SSH - it’s just a few taps in the app so even for a networking expert it’s way faster to configure or switch VPN etc

So the typical router wouldn’t have those features and would have a weak CPU for VPN performance vs the Pi 4/5 which can do several hundred Mbps whilst connected to VPN. And standard OpenWrt would just be a lot harder/more time consuming to configure and not simple to manage from your smartphone.

A common reason someone would use a travel router would be when travelling (to access content from home over VPN / block ads etc on a hotel network) but I use mine at home a lot just for adblocking / VPN

Last thing that’s different is the AC1300 USB adapter which gives way better performance vs standard Pi wireless as Raspberry Pi wireless wasn’t quite designed to be a router