As privacy concerns and cyberattacks continue to grow at an alarming pace, using a VPN to protect yourself online is a wise idea. While a lot of the best VPN providers give you an easy setup process through their respective apps, you can establish a more secure VPN connection straight from your router. The catch is that while that sounds easy enough, there are a lot of complexities involved with this process.

If you have a router that features VPN client support, the setup process isn't too bad. However, if you're one of many that don't have a router with built-in VPN, there are workarounds if you want to install a VPN on a router even if it doesn't support it by default. This process involves flashing a third-party firmware on your router that enables support for VPN clients.

What is a VPN router?

The easiest way of installing a VPN on your router is to buy a router that supports the VPN Client functionality straight out of the box. A VPN router is pre-configured to connect to VPN services, and the setup is simpler than flashing custom firmware like DD-WRT (more on that later). Most of these routers feature support for OpenVPN — a popular and open-source VPN protocol used by a majority of VPN providers.

A lot of the best Wi-Fi routers come with VPN client support, and you don't need to waste too much money to get your hands on one. For example, the ASUS RT-AX1800S is a fantastic dual-band Wi-Fi 6 router that features built-in VPN support. You can often find this router for less than $100.

How to install a VPN on your router — the easy way

This method only applies to routers that natively support VPN client functionality. To check if your router has this feature, you'll have to consult the user manual or search online. In case you don't have a VPN router, you can skip to the DD-WRT method.

The steps discussed in this method will vary depending on your router and VPN provider of choice. For the purposes of this guide, we'll be using NordVPN and an ASUS router.

Step 1: Grab a VPN configuration file from your VPN provider

Before we get to the router's settings, you first need to grab the VPN configuration file from your VPN provider to set up the client. Nearly all VPN providers will happily provide you with this configuration file. For example, if you're using ExpressVPN, just search for "ExpressVPN router setup" and you should find a guide on how to get the configuration file.

In our case, NordVPN is incredibly easy to set up on a router, so we'll be using that as an example.

1. Head over to nordvpn.com/servers and click Recommended server.
2. Click Show available protocols, and download the OpenVPN UDP config file.
3. Take note of where you're downloading both of these files as you will need them later.

Step 2: Setting up the VPN on your router

After you grab the VPN configuration files, you'll now need to access your router's web interface to set up the connection. We have a whole guide on how to log into your router, and this will help you get the correct login credentials for accessing the web interface. As an example, we're using an ASUS VPN router for this section.

1. Go to http://www.asusrouter.com (or your router's equivalent) to access the router's web interface.
2. Enter your admin username and password on the login page. You can find these in the router's manual or at the bottom of the router itself.
3. Click VPN from the Advanced Settings section.
4. Select the VPN Client tab and, click Add profile.
5. From the window that pops up, select the OpenVPN tab. Fill in the name of the connection and your NordVPN login credentials.
6. Click Choose File, and select the UDP config file from the folder where you downloaded it earlier.
7. Finally, click Upload. After the file successfully uploads, click OK.
8. You'll now see the new VPN connection on the server list. Click the Activate button to connect your router with NordVPN.

If you followed all the steps correctly, you should see a blue checkmark next to the new VPN connection. This "easy" method might seem a bit more involved than initially expected, but it's much easier than flashing a custom firmware on a standard router.

How to install a VPN on your router using DD-WRT

If you own a standard router that doesn't natively support a VPN client feature, there's still a workaround you can use to install a VPN on it. This workaround involves finding and flashing a custom firmware that supports the OpenVPN protocol. DD-WRT is the most popular third-party firmware out there for this purpose. It supports a wide variety of routers, and you can check here to see if your router is compatible.

If your router is compatible with the DD-WRT firmware, follow along to set up a VPN connection.

Step 1: Download the DD-WRT firmware

Before we get to the router settings, you need to find the correct firmware file for your device and save it locally on your computer.

1. Head over to the DD-WRT router database.
2. Enter the model number of your router, and you'll get a list of options to pick from.
3. Click the option that accurately matches the brand and model number.
4. Download the BIN file at the bottom.

Step 2: Flashing DD-WRT firmware on your router

This step of the process is where things get tricky. After you successfully download the correct BIN file to flash the firmware on your router, you'll now have to go to your router's web interface and upload that file to flash it. The specific steps vary according to the router, so we highly recommend checking out the DD-WRT Installation Wiki page for specific steps.

Here's a very simplistic rundown of how flashing the DD-WRT on a TP-Link router would look like:

1. Type in the router's IP address into your browser. You can find the IP address by typing the ipconfig command into the Command Prompt app.
2. In the login page, enter your admin username and password. These credentials are usually written at the bottom of your router or in the user manual.
3. After logging in, click the Advanced tab.
4. Select System Tools, and click Firmware Upgrade.
5. Under Local Upgrade, click Browse, and select the BIN file from the destination that you saved it to earlier.
6. Click Upgrade to begin installing the firmware. The process usually takes about 2–3 minutes.

After you successfully install the DD-WRT firmware, you can usually access the DD-WRT interface by typing 192.168.1.1 into your web browser. If that doesn't work, try using the IP address for your router that you found earlier.

We're only about halfway through here. You've successfully installed DD-WRT here, but we still need to add the VPN configuration. To install the VPN, no general instructions apply to all VPN providers. Fortunately, a lot of the top VPN providers have guides on how you can install their VPN on a DD-WRT router. NordVPN's DD-WRT setup guide is easy to follow, and Surfshark's guide is quite simple as well. You can find similar guides for nearly all VPN providers by simply searching for it.

Installing a VPN on your router is worth the hassle

Whether you already have a VPN router or have to resort to the DD-WRT workaround, we can agree that installing a VPN on your router isn't an easy feat. However, it's well worth the effort. Having a VPN on your router means that all the devices connected to it are automatically more secure. It's also much more convenient than individually connecting all your devices.