Why Use a VPN on Your ASUS Router?

Having a VPN setup on your ASUS router is a great way to protect your personal information and online activities while on the go. Whether you’re on your own private network at home or on the open internet, a VPN can help protect your personal data and identity whenever you connect to public WiFis or use public services like hotels and airports.

Here’s why you should use a VPN on your ASUS router:

Encrypts All Traffic

One of the primary purposes of a VPN is to secure your personal data and activities when you connect to public networks like WiFis at coffee shops, airports, and hotels. When you connect to one of these networks, your traffic isopen to the security threats of anyone listening in on the connection. This is why you should use a VPN to protect your WiFi credentials when using public WiFi — if someone is spying on you, they will know your password and have access to all your personal details. Even if your network at home is encrypted, your data is still at risk when you connect to public WiFi at a café or airport.

A VPN encrypts all your data as it travels to and from your router, helping to secure your personal information and activities no matter where you connect. Your ISP (Internet Service Provider) may be able to read the data leaving and entering your device, but they cannot read the data whilst it’s encrypted.

Encrypted DNS Leaks

DNS is a short form of Domain Name System, which is a service that translates human-readable names like Amazon.com to the IP addresses that your device connects to in order to access the internet. When you’re connected to public WiFi, your DNS queries are sent to a public DNS server and anyone listening in on the connection will know your queries and can trace your activities.

Your DNS settings can be configured to only resolve queries from known and trusted sources in your vicinity, helping to keep your personal information private. You can even use public 2-cannibal DNS servers that will filter harmful websites and advertisements from your regular DNS resolution.

Protects Against Net Neutrality Violations

Net neutrality is the principle that all data on the internet should be treated equally, and that internet service providers (ISPs) should not discriminate against any content or application because of its popularity. Popular applications or websites like Netflix or YouTube can enjoy faster speeds and better connection quality because of the large volume of data they generate; these benefits should be made available to everyone, regardless of whether you’re using a VPN or not.

When you use a VPN, your activities are anonymised and encrypted while they’re transmitted to the server, helping to keep your personal data secure. Some ISPs and governments may try to throttle or block particular applications or websites because they believe the data being transmitted is illegal or objectionable. Setting up a VPN on your ASUS router will help keep your personal data secure as you use the internet to your advantage — if you’re doing anything else that the government or your ISP believe is illegal, they could look at your traffic and accuse you of committing a crime without knowing your identity.

Prevents Third-Party Logging

Any website or service you connect to via VPN will have your original IP address replaced with a privacy protector that makes it harder for websites and services to connect your identity to your activity. This replaces your real IP address with a fake one, making it much more difficult for third parties to connect your activity to your identity. In fact, most VPNs will even log your previous activity and keep it secure in a hostile environment, should you choose to connect to a Honeypot or TOR (The O**o Network) before you connect to a public network. If you keep connecting to these networks and accessing sensitive information, you’re putting yourself in a risky situation and should consider disconnecting until you can safely connect without exposing your personal data.

More Privacy

If you want to keep your personal data private, you should use a VPN to encrypt your connection to the internet. When you use a VPN, your IP address is disguised and changed so that no one can discover your identity. Your ISP cannot see your activity when you’re connected to VPN, nor can anyone else. While this provides you with greater security and privacy when using public WiFi, it also means you cannot perform certain tasks that you could when you’re not connected to VPN. For example, you cannot access certain websites or services, you cannot upload or download large files, and you cannot get online anonymously — these restrictions are part of what makes a VPN useful.

VPNs can be set up to allow you to perform a variety of tasks, which provides you with more opportunities for enhanced security and privacy. You can read our guide to configuring a VPN to learn how to setup and use a VPN on your ASUS router.

There are many advantages to using a VPN on your ASUS router, helping to keep your personal data secure when you’re online and away from your home network. From preventing DNS leaks to protecting against net neutrality violations and third-party logging, a VPN is a must-have security tool for anyone using the internet. In our next installment, we’ll discuss creating rules for when you are and are not connected to a VPN with the use of PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) so you can remain secure and anonymous whilst on the move.