Privacy
Welcome! This is a community for all those who are interested in protecting their privacy.
Rules
PS: Don't be a smartass and try to game the system, we'll know if you're breaking the rules when we see it!
- Be civil and no prejudice
- Don't promote big-tech software
- No apathy and defeatism for privacy (i.e. "They already have my data, why bother?")
- No reposting of news that was already posted
- No crypto, blockchain, NFTs
- No Xitter links (if absolutely necessary, use xcancel)
Related communities:
Some of these are only vaguely related, but great communities.
- !opensource@programming.dev
- !selfhosting@slrpnk.net / !selfhosted@lemmy.world
- !piracy@lemmy.dbzer0.com
- !drm@lemmy.dbzer0.com
Not quite clear to me, what you actually need. Only WiFi - then you'd need an access point, not a router. A router wold have something on the other end too, like fiber or ADSL.
That usually means a WiFi-Ethernet router. ADSL requires a modem, which can be a standalone bridge modem or a modem-router. I've found it better to have modems and routers separate.
I have a modem. I connect the Ethernet cable from the modem into a wifi router.
If you get a cheap n100 or similar style mini PC with multiple network cards and install pfsense on it, the only account needed is the local login. It took me a lot of YouTube tutorials to get it working just the way I wanted, but it's a great solution.
I've been thinking about GL.iNet routers. They have OpenWRT-based firmware, and it seems typically can also run vanilla OpenWRT.
Just found them on proxysto.re when looking at physical Mullvad vouchers, and regretting getting that on Amazon for (slightly) more money and with slower shipping.
I have one. It’s great. It has a very user-friendly UI that lets you do most things without having to mess with the bare openwrt interface. I have mullvad on it and it works flawlessly.
Happy to add another data point, I have a Flint 2 and it's awesome. Whole-house VPN via Mullvad supplied config file, just uploaded to the router using the given config interface...I'd buy it again for the convenience of that alone, and that only scratches the surface of what this thing does out of the box (via the trusted OpenWRT, to boot).
Just be careful if you get to tinkering, if privacy is your focus, wouldn't want to accidentally misconfigure some random capability it has that you're just playing around with.
fanless pc with sufficient network ports, running pfSense.
Is there any way to get a new router to work without connecting an account to it
Yes. Look at Mikrotik offerings. You'll need to have an understanding of networking, it's not plug and play. But it's fully self contained and powerful. No external accounts needed, just a local/device admin account and password.
Looks like what I'm looking for. Thanks for the suggestion.
I don’t buy the latest flagship routers so I’ve never had to set up one without having to create an online account yet. I bet if you look at some Netgear (or similar) models from a couple of years back, they won’t have online activation and they just have the default admin credentials on a sticker under the router.
If you want a more up-to-date one, GL.Inet routers ship with OpenWRT installed, and you don’t need an online account to activate them.
I use pfSense with eero access points.
Build your own
PCWRT is OpenWRT on easy mode.
A cheap mikrotik, and just use the quickset page.
https://mikrotik.com/product/hap_ax_lite
Not sure where you are ordering from, if Canada I ordered my SFP router from these guys. Here's the page for that ax lite https://www.store.mikrotikcanada.ca/wireless-for-home-and-office/511-hap-ax-lite-4752224008480.html