I wanted to experiment with OpenWRT, so I bought a GL.iNet travel router, mostly out of laziness, since they ship with OpenWRT pre-installed. The choice exceeded my expectations, and I’ve had a lot of fun diving into the configuration.
Having full SSH access to your router is a game-changer for control, though it also comes with the expected slick web interface. But the feature that amused me the most is a dedicated hardware switch on the device itself. Flick it, and it instantly wraps my entire wireless network in a WireGuard VPN tunnel. No software toggles, no app launches, just a physical button for full-network privacy. That’s the kind of thoughtful, practical design I didn’t know I wanted until I had it.