Traveling with the family

VPN
1

Watched a Network Chuck video a while back that I thought was cool. He built a travel router for all of the family’s devices while traveling and took a swing at it. The concept is to have one device that allows for a dedicated VPN connection (I personally use NordVPN) for all devices while in the hotel. I also purchased a mini PC and upgraded with a 1TB M.2 for more storage. Its running Proxmox to add a set of VM servers. The first is a small NAS runing trueNAS and the second is a Jellyfin server so my kiddo can watch whatever she wants from home. I added a Ugreen usb power port to run everything from one plug. Pictures included for what was purchased to make it all work.

Overall I think it works great, beats having to log into hotel wifi individually and provides the added safety of a VPN connection.

Next step is to print a 3d case to enclose everything for easier transport and add active cooling from 2 60mm fans. I don’t think it is really needs it now, but a case could keep some of the heat inside. I’ll update when the case is built.

2

Can anybody explain to me the point of a travel router for someone on vacation? I can see why a professional on the road could want it but a normal person?

If you have services on your home server that you want to access you probably already have the means to access them from outside of your house. And if you don’t already have a VPN set up it’d make more sense connecting each device to your VPN, instead of relying on the travel router because once you’re back home you’re either VPN-less or you need to set up each device individually anyway.

I know it’s just a hobby and it’s fun to thinker with stuff but this whole travel router thing seems like just pissing money and time down the drain.

3

I have a Beryl Ax and think it earns its spot as part of this setup. Besides being small enough that it shouldn’t force you to make tough choices for what you pack, it has several features that make it, at least for me, a no brainer.

You can run it off a power bank for hours. If I want to set it up quickly at the airport or even the airplane? No problem. It can work with captive portals, so I can connect it to most airport/airplane/cruise/hotel wifi’s. These things are built for this purpose. It can run a VPN natively, which can be turned on and off with a hardware toggle. It also has a usb port for sharing files via samba off a plugged in flash/ssd or even the micro SD in some units.

This means no need for everyone on the trip to find the wifi and password. I can already set that up with a known SSID. No need to install the VPN on every device and make sure everyone’s running it. And with a little effort, I can probably serve media on most devices without having to spin up the mini pc at all.

Without this device, my first question would be what combination of mini pc and usb-c power bank do I need to get it to run, and for how long? I imagine this limits my options as far as both the mini and the power bank.

Next, at the hotel, I believe you don’t get a captive portal if you connect via ethernet, but what if that isn’t available? Would I need a keyboard monitor and mouse to access the pc? And if there is only wifi, how would I run the mini as an access point while connected? Would that require a usb-wifi adapter so I have one receiving the hotel wifi, and the other running as an AP?

I’m not saying this all isn’t possible without the Beryl/Slate, but it seems a lot more challenging.

Oh and I take this thing with me around the city because the local cableco offers “public wifi” for subscribers, and a buddy let me use his account, so I can just turn it on anywhere, and I have a vpn protected network that all my devices recognize automatically. It can even find a signal in my home, which my phone/computers can’t seem to do nearly as well, so I usually just leave it plugged in at home for a failover network. :laughing:

4

Looks like your mini PC has WiFi.
Tried to make it be a client and an AP and handle the VPN for you?

Would be whole one device less (Slate).

5

Now remove the casing from all devices, 3d print a large case that fits all the electronics and you got yourself “The Traveler” :sweat_smile:

6

I keep my travel setup basic. I use a GL Inet travel router with a micro SD card slot (NAS). I preload some movies on the SD card. Some docker containers: Adguard, Jellyfin…
Why do I need it? Family of 4 with tech gadgets (tablets, switch, laptops). 1 captive portal to deal with. 1 VPN connection. I just plug it to their modem or router and all gadgets are connected as if we were at home ( peace of my mind). When cruising pay for 1 device instead of 4.

7

So, someone thought packing a full-sized router and a mini PC for a family trip was a brilliant “travel router setup”?

“He built a travel router for all of the family’s devices while traveling”? More like shifting everything from the shelf at home to a desk for Youtube filming! a decade or more ago this made sence as there wasn’t enought mobile coverage and the only option was to use hotel wifi, having a matchbox sized travel router and also a VPN was a blessing, because it was harder to get VPN on all of your client devices.

But seriously, lugging around a full-sized router and a mini PC with 1TB of storage? That’s just overkill! Get a 256GB or 512GB USB flash drive, load it with your kid’s favorite shows, and you’re all set!

When I travel by air, bus, or train, I’m all about minimalism. I want as few devices as possible, so I can actually enjoy my vacation! Once I arrive, I’m ready to disconnect - unless it’s a work trip.

So, while it’s amusing to see the lengths some folks go for YouTube fame, remember: sometimes, less is definitely more. Your vacation isn’t a tech convention!

8

Can you explain this part " the second is a Jellyfin server so my kiddo can watch whatever she wants from home" ?

You have a jellyfin server on that mini PC and bring it with you when traveling or use it as a frontend to load movie from your NAS in your house?

9

Where are y’all finding hotels with Ethernet ports to plug the router into?

10

This something I’m REALLY trying to implement well next year. Basically a travel home lab. Problem is integrating things in a small space. A pi will give you an access point with some compute but less than most x86 solutions. Really it’s the access point part that limits options the most. It’s also the feature that’s most important when travelling and needing hotel WiFi or a way to phone home to your network with wire guard. Trying to find SBCs or WiFi cards that Linux can host WiFi on is hard to find. Add a battery hat to the pi in a neat case and that might be the solution I use.

11

I love Network Chuck. He has a great channel and breaks it down simply for any user to follow along. On a side note. He needs to lay off the Coffee. /S jk

12

The router can run as a repeater. It connects to the hotel wifi, sets up a VPN tunnel and then all the devices connect to the router.

13

Sounds like a bit of overkill for me. I just use a GL-MT3000 travel router. If where I’m staying has a wired connection, that’s best. But it can also act as a wireless bridge. I use the VPN client on the device to connect to my home VPN server. Then I can access my entire home lab as if I’m local.

14

It is pretty decent concept tbh. Though I would substitute the Zimaboard for something smaller and lower powered like a Raspberry pi for the server part. I’d go even simpler with just using the SD card on the router to back up stuff from my phone to and also using it for my VPN connection back to my homebase.

The video just shows a bit of a over complicated version of the same concept. Especially the storage drives being SATA drives. I would just do SD cards since I’m not expecting to need to hold data on there for longer than just the trip. Plus it would already mirror everything from the storage on there back to my homebase over a VPN connection, so the 321 backup rule is almost met for the most part.

15

Was trying to think about a case for all of it before I read the last part of your post.

My thought was to try and take out the internals of everything (if possible) and secure them to one or two prototype boards. Then just try to find a premade enclosure that can fit it

16

What’s the point of NordVPN in this situation?

17

What makes the internet connection? As you say you don’t rely on hotel WiFi. Is there a cellphone connection?

18

Since the mini PC has built in WiFi, can’t you just run openwrt in a docker /container,and ditch the router? That’s more direct, and one less thing to carry?
The mini PC is available on Amazon?

19

The SBC mini PC i used is more expensive (almost double) than a raspberry pi 5 but gave me an x86 platform to operate off of. I have proxmox running in the homelab on x86 platforms, so it was an install and setup process I was already familiar with.

20

Fun to play with but IMHO I’d stick to a 4G + VPN (e.g. ProtonVPN for Internet or TailScale to connect home) with optionally RPi0 as local fallback, cf https://old.reddit.com/r/selfhosted/comments/1h9bys2/traveling_with_the_family/m11uva4/