Where can i learn about securing my home router?

Privacy Questions
1

Any guides i should be using?
Any forums about it?
Articles?
I have an asus RT-AC51U

Any help is appreciated!

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2

Please search about installing custom firmware on your router from DD-WRT, Open-WRT, or PfSense - you will have to do some research yourself but those are the firmwareā€™s generally recommended if you want to customize practically everything within your router and its settings.

Check out:

https://openwrt.org/

https://www.pfsense.org/

https://dd-wrt.com/

If you have any specific questions, people can answer but your post reads more like a general tech support question. But I could be wrong too.

Iā€™m sure there may be other guides but none come to mind immedietly. Will comment abck should I find anything.

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3

I will research firmwares.
Iā€™m asking cause i donā€™t really have any networking knowledge, i was also thinking about buying a new router and modem so i can get a fresh start.

4

Then I would not recommend trying to mess with your current router.

Look into this:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005007795779282.html

5

There are ways to secure your router without installing custom firmware. Not all options may be as private as custom firmware, but that can be ok.

  1. Keep firmware up to date, always
  2. Look into changing the default DNS to an alternative that isnā€™t your ISP
  3. create a guest network, and give that out to guests
  4. Disable UPNP, as it punches a hole in your firewall
  5. Ensure your admin password is secure

I donā€™t have every option off the top of my head, but Iā€™d recommend seeing what you can do with your current router and seeing if thatā€™s good enough for your threat model. Google ā€œhow to secure ASUS routerā€, read some guides, and come back with questions on things you arenā€™t sure about.

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Why not?

7

Why not what?

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Why not?

9

Because it requires an advanced level of understanding on networking

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10

Yep. This!

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OP has a popular router. Hereā€™s the official instructions:
https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-ac51u

and a more informal video breakdown:

Popular Video

https://youtube.com/watch?v=B7d8U2_AQYw

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14

As someone that is also moving away from a proprietary router / APs - the one issue I had with OpenWrt One is there are just not many good sources to buy it from* so you end up paying an extra 20% in shipping (at least if you live in the US).

It is super appealing though, as you could buy multiple and they should work as decent APs as well. Some popular APs have a bit more involved install process for OpenWRT which might be worth avoiding.

Another router to consider is NanoPi R4S (4GB version)

OpenWRT Page:

https://openwrt.org/toh/friendlyarm/nanopi_r4s_v1

You do have to load the openwrt firmware onto a microsd but that process is beginner friendly.

*granted I have not checked in a few months, this is subject to change.

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15

Look into this first. If your current router meets your hardware needs then look to see if flashing it with OpenWRT. To most I imagine that is quite intimidating. I donā€™t know how likely it would be to brick/ ā€œsoft brickā€ your specific router, but the idea kinda scares me. So a router with OpenWRT preinstalled might be quite attractive.

I bought the Flint (GL-AX1800) by GL.iNet before the OpenWRT One became available. It comes with the downside of the existing firmware on it being ā€œOpenWRTā€ through GL.iNet. So if you trust GL.iNet and can wait for them to release their firmware soon enough after OpenWRT I believe you have no problems. The benefit is their Admin Panel UI seems more user friendly than LuCi IMO. I can always flash the Flint with the true OpenWRT firmware in the future when Iā€™m more confident. I got the Flint on sale so it was basically the same price. I havenā€™t compared the hardware between the two yet.

Basically the Flint 1, 2, or eventual 3, might be a good option to consider. I would look at videos of someone configuring a router in the LuCi interface and decide if that is too intimidating or not. If not then I would strongly recommend the OpenWRT One. It sounds like a great project.

I would ask if any of these meet your hardware needs. What speeds does your ISP supply? Do you want your router to preform more tasks than the average normie?

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i think i have maximum 500mb/s download and 250mb/s upload.

not really iā€™d say

17

im not from the us but im on a budget, id say 100$ max maybe 120.

ill check it out, thanks.

18

i do but last update was like a year ago lmao

i tried mullvad but it doesnt work, i use an always on vpn on all my devices though.

will do.

should i change the username to a 30 character generated password too or just leave it as ā€˜ā€˜adminā€™ā€™?

19

Mullvad isnā€™t the only DNS provider, check out the PG recommendations: DNS Resolvers - Privacy Guides

If you have DNS at the router, that will be the default for all devices on that network. You can override it, such as using Mullvad and their VPN, on a per device level. This DNS update will help move DNS lookups from your ISP to a different place for devices not overriding DNS, given youā€™d prefer to trust not your ISP.

Changing default username is great, but the username doesnā€™t need to be complicated imo. You would be defending against attacks that know your routers default username and enumerate passwords - even ā€œadminnā€ would give you this benefit. A strong password + non-default username is best.

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20

Given you have an ASUS router, I was thinking you could do a small step towards custom firmware with Merlin: https://www.asuswrt-merlin.net/

This unlocks more capabilities out of your router, and you can learn and explore more options without completely swapping out the experience.

HOWEVER, your router doesnā€™t not seem to be supported. If you get a new router, consider one that supports Merlin (and maybe also OpenWRT in case you wanna go further?), if this interests you.

Other than that, I recommend looking at every single (and advanced) setting on your router. If you donā€™t know what it means, look it up and understand. Search what enabling/disabling/tweaking it does. This is how I learned most foundational knowledge on router configuration.

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Ill look deeper into dns and other stuff tomorrow or when i have time but for now Iā€™d say i did like 85% of what i could do.

I just changed it to like a 20 character one since i donā€™t need to remember it cause i use a password manager.

I will be definitely getting a new router since the last firmware update on mine was in 2022 lmao. But for now i think ill keep the custom firmware till i get a new one, Iā€™d use openwrt probably.

I havenā€™t looked at every single thing but i will definitely be doing this too, i also read a lot of stuff on https://routersecurity.org