Compile InvizBox 2 firmware for GL-AR300M-Ext possible?

michaelsantos · 2020-01-21T14:32:57.756Z

Hi everybody!

I have found a router with very nice features (Tor, multiple VPN Hotspots, AD blocker, etc.) named InvizBox 2 (InvizBox 2 VPN Router | Hardware designed for VPN | InvizBox).
This router is based on OpenWRT and has his own source code available here: GitHub - invizbox/invizbox-2: InvizBox 2 (used OpenWRT: https:// github. com/invizbox/openwrt; used custom feed for opkg: https:// github. com/invizbox/invizbox-feed; Because of restrictions I can not add more than 2 URL’s. Please remove spaces in the URL’s for a valid URL).
I am not a developer so my question is: would it be possible to compile the firmware for the GL-AR300M-Ext (NAND/NOR)? Could someone compile it (I could test it on my GL-AR300M-Ext!)? @alzhao or would it be possible do add multiple VPN Hotspots to the GL.iNet firmware? I can provide a sysupgrade binary file if anyone wants to look “inside” the original firmware from InvizBox 2…

Thanks a lot!

alzhao · 2020-01-22T00:26:46.269Z

michaelsantos:

VPN Hotspots

Do you mean multiple ssids going through different vpn?

We don’t hack firmware actually.

michaelsantos · 2020-01-22T11:01:48.170Z

alzhao:

Do you mean multiple ssids going through different vpn?

Yes, I have a Windscribe VPN subscription and live in Europe. I would like to configure my GL-AR300M-Ext something like this:

SSID: Windscribe-Germany => OpenVPN Windscribe Germany Server (with kill switch=no internet when VPN is down)
SSID: Windscribe-US-Netflix => OpenVPN US Netflix Server (with kill switch=no internet when VPN is down)
SSID: Windscribe-UK-Netflix => OpenVPN UK Netflix Server (with kill switch=no internet when VPN is down)
SSID: Home => ISP Internet / Home network

This configuration is possible on the InvizBox 2, so I could use the 2 Netflix SSID’s (US/UK) for my SmartTV, the German SSID for my downloads and my Home ISP for Homebanking…
Do you think it would be possible to do using the GL.iNet / OpenWRT firmware?
Thanks!

rp201rp · 2020-01-22T17:38:07.413Z

glinet can do all this and even better with 3 different gl-inet routers.

no longer single points of failure excpet for gateway router
3 stong separate wifi frequecies for 4 client wireless network.
easier trouble shooting and setup
possibly same or lower cost

neg
double nat
more power plugs and possibley more power consumption.
doesn’t look pretty but when guests come over. who actually has there vpn adblock router perched on their coffee table like the display ad?

how: assign gatway router to guest-net=vpn1, lan-net= ISP Internet / Home network and they other two with both wans an gateway router lan-net.

alzhao · 2020-01-23T02:08:56.180Z

I understand what you need.

We did thought about this. This seems not a good setting. You will soon forgot which ssid bounds to which vpn service. When setting becomes complex, your network typo is complex as well.

It is much easier to use 4 small simple routers to do whatever you want as @rp201rp said.

limbot · 2020-01-23T02:46:26.923Z

Personally I would have your main router (SSID-home) in the best reception area of the house for normal internet.

Throw the GL-AR300m (or whatever other Gl.iNet router) in your TV room and wire or WISP back to the home router and wire or WiFi the TV to the GL-AR300M. Set the SSID to VPN-Net or similar

image784×297 9.08 KB

Setup multiple OpenVPN configs on your AR300M and manually change between the configurations. Bit more work when you want to change location but doable.

I’m hoping that the ability to change and enable VPNs will be added to the mobile app soon as that will be much easier than using the web interface all the time…ehhh @alzhao

michaelsantos · 2020-01-23T10:42:34.603Z

alzhao:

We did thought about this. This seems not a good setting. You will soon forgot which ssid bounds to which vpn service. When setting becomes complex, your network typo is complex as well.

Well, the InvizBox 2 with this feature has been tested by various tech sites and they are giving this little router a great review (just look here, there are also some print screens from the GUI: InvizBox 2 redefines what “privacy” routers can do | Ars Technica), so I think this setup would be less complex than configuring 4 routers to do something that could be done by just one.
I think you should reconsider implementing something like that in your firmware, it would be very useful (I already provided the source code, so you could check how they have done it )…

michaelsantos · 2020-01-23T10:45:31.594Z

limbot:

Setup multiple OpenVPN configs on your AR300M and manually change between the configurations. Bit more work when you want to change location but doable.

Hi, thanks for the suggestion, but so you could not use two different VPN connections at the same time. I couldn’t use the German VPN Server to surf the net and AT THE SAME TIME watch Netflix from the UK using the UK specific VPN Server for Netflix…

limbot · 2020-01-23T13:00:42.842Z

Ok,

Yes I would use my AR300M to run your Netflix VPN. I’m assuming you aren’t running two Netflix streams at the same time.

I’d have my notebook/desktop/tablet/smartphone connected to my main router SSID (non-VPN) and load the appropriate Windscribe client on my device for browsing the web, and you can easily turn it off for complete non-VPN service on your device. In fact to be honest, the device based VPN client/extension is normally faster than going through a router based VPN and with a couple of clicks you could use a VPN endpoint from anywhere in the world! :).

Windscribe includes clients/browser extension for:
Mac, Windows, Chrome, Firefox, iPhone,Linux

If your television is wired to your AR300M then you’d only have 1 SSID (you can turn off your AR300M LAN WiFi) but at most if your television is WiFi connected to your AR300m you’d only have to have 2 SSIDS .

Using this method I suspect you’ll get better performance all round and better flexibility to change your VPN end point on your devices for browsing.

The only “issue” would be having to go to your AR300M web interface to change VPN from Germany/US (though I’m not sure but you might be able to write a script to change the switch on the AR300M to toggle between US and Germany) and having to turn on/off your VPN extension on your mobile device

This is pretty much how I run my system at home. Same principle but I run PureVPN on Mango and only use US VPN and run PureVPN device apps/extensions on my endpoints

michaelsantos · 2020-01-23T13:17:05.135Z

limbot:

This is pretty much how I run my system at home. Same principle but I run PureVPN on Mango and only use US VPN and run PureVPN device apps/extensions on my endpoints

I know it could be done this way, but remember that every device where you configure the Windscribe client, will count on your subscription (if you have max. 5 devices on your subscription then you can’t do it this way). So if you have wife, kids and guests at home, using the InvizBox 2 solution, you would “share” just one VPN connection that will count only as one device…

limbot · 2020-01-23T13:29:23.102Z

michaelsantos:

(if you have max. 5 devices on your subscription then you can’t do it this way)

Same with PureVPN. Max 5 CONCURRENT VPN connections.

1 for your TV, 1 for your browsing, still leaves you with three.

Note: YMMV depending on your circumstances Just my 2c worth