Can I increase my privacy with openwrt on my router?

dairymilkbatman

My router isn't supported but would it be beneficial to buy a router and install openwrt? would this decrease the surface area of my privacy for my household?

Thanks!

OpSec

dairymilkbatman

What’s your router brand?

dairymilkbatman

OpSec I'm not sure the brand they use but I have a BT (british telecoms) homehub (latest version). Although I'd gladly buy a router to install openwrt if it helps!

OpSec

dairymilkbatman

Sorry for not getting back to you, but look at this and tell me if your router support this:

https://openwrt.org/toh/bt/homehub_v1

dairymilkbatman

OpSec Hi xbdm,

no worries. Sadly it didn't but, that link sent me down a rabbit hole and I ended up finding a router on amazon that would work with the openwrt firmware. It is on its way. We shall see.
Apparently I can hide my DNS from my ISP, VPN at the router level so the network is protected and some other cool shit that I cannot comprehend 😛

OpSec

dairymilkbatman

Yep, closed source router firmware the reason why people like it because it’s not backdoored and it also gets updated frequently to keep hacked out.. You also have more control over your router and have a Linux firmware and open source at that, I will give you some other open source router firmwares you can check out.

DD-WRT Linux firmware and open source. (iOS & android app also)
Openwrt
FreshTomatoe
Pfsense

dairymilkbatman

I've downloaded openwrt, waiting on my router and starlink dishy to arrive. I'll encrypt the DNS, add the VPN and adblocker, and any other privacy and security addons. I'll report my findings here. Hopefully that'll benefit someone.

OpSec

dairymilkbatman

Great.