Why I bought a portable router

So I have been dipping my toes into the hobby of “Homelabbing” for some years now, setting up a truenas server, a WiFi mesh at my previous home and various Raspberry Pi’s set up to do various things over the years. A couple of weeks ago I bought something new but far less exciting, a router.

Now this wasn’t just any router, it was the new, portable Beryl 7 by GLiNet (gl-mt3600be for those that wish to know). I don’t yet know enough detail about routers and their features to give a proper review, for that check out this great video by jakkuh, but with my current living situation and some of the device features on offer I took the plunge for the following reasons

My own environment for experimentation

I am currently fortunate enough to be living with family. This means the home has an existing networking setup, including very fast and stable WiFi. But, you see, I’m always wanting to mess with things, to try the new wireless protocols, to set up Ad Blocking DNS with PiHole, to tunnel in while away from home to access my devices remotely. With a router of my own I can set up as many of these things as possible on a network of my own, while piggybacking the actual connection to the internet through the existing network. This way when I’m messing around and, more often, breaking the network none of my family have to be bothered (most of the time at least). The Beryl 7even allows for wired LAN while using a WiFi repeater mode as backup so I can move the box around the house to where I’m working without losing a connection

Containing the security risk

Similarly to above, but even more crucially, I also don’t want to be putting anyone else’s devices at risk in this house. I consider myself a very security conscious person but to play with features and setups the way I intend to an increased security risk is inevitable. If I can tunnel in to my own network, anyone who compromises my secure access keys can do so too. The theory goes that at the very least if my network only has my devices on then I am hopefully not exposing other peoples devices to any added risks, this isn’t perfect and I recognise that if they get into my network, they may well be able to get to the whole house through it but it makes me feel a lot more comfortable than doing nothing.

A foundational configuration

I could talk for some time on whether a VPN is a security tool or not. For me though, it offers privacy benefits I want to leverage and it help as part of a setup to ‘be more secure’. One issue with a VPN though is it can be hard to keep ‘always on’ or on on every device you own. By having a router of your own, especially one as configurable as GLiNet’s you can set the VPN connection at the router level, meaning all network traffic runs through it by default. At the very least I am getting more use out of the money I pay to Proton every year for their services. The same is true here of a number of things, such as Ad blocking and this being at such a foundational layer means I have the network and browsing experience I want, without having to custom configure every device. Still, I can and do install uBlock origin as well as Proton VPN on my laptop for use away from home but also at times when I want to add layers for a specific task but the foundations are there and can be relied on when at home.

Home away from home

Finally, while I don’t travel much, I always miss my home setup when I do. The Beryl 7 is very portable and can even run off a USB C, so wherever I go now, I can take all of the advantages listed above with me. Long gone are the days where I worry about the security of my hotel WiFi network, I can even consider connecting to public WiFi again in airports, etc which I’ve always avoided like the plague. Trust me to not just want to take my phone and laptop with me when I travel but my home WiFi network will be able to travel with me too now!

Wrap up

Overall, I’m looking forward to exploring more of the features on offer and laying a feature rich foundation for which to base the rest of my homelab off of. Who knew a little box could do so much!