Alternative Tor configuration for the GL-AR150

rob-van-der-hoeven · 2016-04-25T20:14:29.000Z

Hi,

A few months ago I bought a GL-AR150 just to see how Tor worked on this router. I was impressed, it worked flawlessly! This got me thinking about the benefits of having Tor on the router. I wrote the following article about it:

https://hoevenstein.nl/thoughts-on-tor-router-hardware

In the article I presented an ideal Tor router configuration. I have implemented this configuration and… wrote another article about it:

https://hoevenstein.nl/my-openwrt-tor-configuration

Enjoy the articles!

Rob.

alzhao · 2016-04-26T11:01:11.000Z

Thanks for your sharing.

About the Tor configuration, I have some new ideas:

We should not set Tor-Off wireless network. Image you have 3 SSIDs, your phone will just pick up one randomly. So if you are not aware, you will be connected to the Tor-Off network and your info leaked.
You can use the switch to turn on/off tor admin interface. This will add extra protection for your router.

jamesa · 2016-05-04T23:18:40.000Z

Very nice Rob, i’ll have to test this out on mine soon!

Ideally, id like to have TOR and VPN options on my router and be able to connect to a different AP and be routed appropriately.

Id also like to be able to connect to a WAN via wifi or ethernet.

So basically i want all the things connecting everywhere in every way through this one tiny little box

rob-van-der-hoeven · 2016-05-06T14:55:02.000Z

Thanks, I’m very busy at the moment but if more people would benefit from wifi-WAN I will look into it. I think wifi-WAN is something that must have been configured by other users of the AR150. Maybe they can help? For VPN I’m a bit concerned about memory. Tor uses up a lot and I’m wondering how much extra memory is needed for VPN.

jamesa · 2016-05-06T18:58:10.000Z

Yes that was also my concern, but hey its worth a try!

Maybe i’ll have to buy a 2nd AR150

jamesa · 2016-05-06T19:10:44.000Z

Just had a thought! Could we use the switch on the AR150 to change between TOR configuration and VPN configuration?

Also i’ve just noticed the MT300A has a faster CPU and twice the RAM. I even like the colour

rob-van-der-hoeven · 2016-05-06T19:49:42.000Z

I think the MT300A would be almost ideal for a Tor/VPN router.

In the future I hope to publish more articles about Tor on the router. Have some BIG ideas about how the Tor project can use router hardware to strengthen and expand the Tor network. As always, big ideas need a lot of thinking and investigating. That’s why I am so busy at the moment

jamesa · 2016-05-06T21:11:35.000Z

Well give me a shout if you want any help testing Rob, id be happy to help.

Looks like i’ll grab myself an MT300A shortly

rob-van-der-hoeven · 2016-05-06T21:36:03.000Z

Hmm, came across this ticket that claims there are no open source wireless drivers for the MT7620A SOC used by the MT300A.

https://dev.openwrt.org/ticket/14625

A no-go for a Tor system.

alzhao · 2016-05-06T21:38:37.000Z

That is 2 years ago. Now MT300A is fully supported by open source drivers.

rob-van-der-hoeven · 2016-05-06T21:44:50.000Z

Thanks for clearing this up alzhao!

The MT300A looks really interesting for Tor.