Best router for WireGuard Client, Server & AdGuard

I just purchased the Beryl AX to use while traveling. I’d like to set up a WireGuard client and server on my home network. I want to VPN in to my home network on occasion while away. Also, I want to use AdGuard on my home network.

What’s the best router for these purposes? Ideally looking for a router that will be supported for at least 3 years (eg. not one of the older ones that are approaching end of life). I thought that the Brume 2 may fit my needs, but I’ve read a few criticisms about it (runs hot and less powerful than Brume 1). Should I consider the Slate AX or Plus as better alternatives? Appreciate any insight others can share about their experiences/recommendations.

I will tell you what I’ve done along these lines. Congrats on the AX. I think it is the best choice for a travel router unless you can live with the lower performance but much smaller Mango. I even think it is a better choice for a home router than the Slate AX, if you go that way, in part because of the 2.5G Wan port, or even the Flint.

First, you need to take into account the upload/download speed of your home connection. I have a site to site connection between home and second house, but the upload speed in both locations is 35mbps, so that is my effective limit between the two. Second, in the home class of routers, higher speeds (like 1gbps) are achieved through some form of hardware acceleration/flow through kludge that gets turned off for WG or OpenVPN because it is incompatible with the processing. But the CPU in the home router is really critical here, and not all home routers that can run either can achieve what the Beryl AX can. The Beryl AX I think is likely to max out what the home router will be able to do. Last, because travel is not a consideration for a home router, you can take into account things that can be accommodated in a larger form factor, like antennas, more LAN ports, mesh nodes.

Given that, I’ve opted for the last ten years to use Asus routers that run AsusWRT-Merlin and support hardware encryption (AC-86U and several AX routers). They have active development and a lot of flexibility with one glaring exception. They can form up to 5 client connections to outside services. The exception is that is that they use Broadcom chips, which have closed source drivers and old kernels, so they will never be able to use DCO with OpenVPN 2.6. Wireguard is the best they will do.

But I would rule out other Asus routers, and Netgear and TP unless you can load OpenWrt on them, and even then I think there is a bigger learning curve. If you go the Gl-iNet route, consider another Beryl AX, but you will want to research here on VPN Cascading, which I think is an important feature of VPN-ing into a home router.

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I would certainly choose the Slate AX due to better CPU and faster VPN speeds. It is, after all, the most powerful GL.iNet router to date as far as I know and with its price almost similar to the Beryl AX, it is a no brainer for me.

Ax1800 and axt1800 doesn’t have all ram available to user so if you want to use a very big hostlist on Adguard and still run VPN server, file server and more plugins maybe mt2500 mt3000 is safer, even though they may not be faster