Vilfo VPN Router Review
Vilfo Router – Overview
VPN routers are a great way to protect all the devices in your home without having to install a VPN on each device individually. Most VPN services allow between 3 and 7 simultaneous connections and no more.
For families and consumers with many devices, this is not always enough. Furthermore, using individual VPN clients means that you constantly need to remember to connect to the VPN server manually And To check that the connection is not interrupted.
VPN routers like Vilfo are designed to remove this inconvenience by allowing you to connect to a VPN at the router level. This is a great feature for anyone who wants to connect a smart TV, game console, or other device to the Internet via a VPN.
Pricing and plans
Vilfo is a standalone product that can be purchased with a one-time purchase. Once you own the Vilfo router, it is yours and you don’t need to pay Vilfo for anything else. However, you will need to pay for a VPN subscription for this VPN router to do its work and connect you to the VPN server. How much you decide to pay for your VPN subscription is up to you and will depend entirely on the VPN provider you prefer and the features you need.
Vilfo router costs 339 dollars Which is a very reasonable price for a router of this type, especially when you consider that it is possible to buy several VPN routers with only 256MB of RAM and at a similar price.
Admittedly, there are cheaper VPN routers available in the market. However, these routers tend to be frustrating for everyday use. With Vilfo you get 2GB DDR3 1600MHz and 8GB of SSD storage on board, which is a much better hardware than what you get on a similarly priced VPN router.
The wireless capability in Vilfo (802.11ac) isn’t nearly as powerful as what you really get on top of range-topping routers. However, Vilfo is directly comparable to routers like the popular Asus RT-AC3200, which is a popular VPN router in the same price range. It should be noted that 802.11ac is currently considered the accepted standard for wireless communication (some routers use 802.11n and it is three times slower than that). Overall, this is an affordable device that is well suited for medium-sized homes with about 10 to 15 devices connected.
Get the Vilfo router
Features
The features on a Vilfo VPN router can be separated into two distinct categories; Hardware specifications and features available via the user interface and add-ons:
Hardware Specifications
- Intel® Celeron® 2955U processor
- Wifi: MT7612E
- WAN: 1 x 1000 Mbit/s
- LAN: 3 x 1000 Mbit/s
- 2 GB DDR3 1600MHz
- 8 GB SSD
- 802.11ac (maximum 867 Mbit/s)
- 8dBi antennas (2T2R)
- 2.4GHz or 5GHz WiFi
- USB port
- HDMI port
In terms of size, the Vilfo router is quite small. Although admittedly, it has a pretty large power supply that you’ll need to hide behind a piece of furniture to avoid the Vilfo looking like it’s ugly to the eye. All of the above specs are pretty good considering the price of the router, with speeds up to 125Mbps on the WAN and Ethernet ports, and good speeds on the wireless connection – you should have great speeds for everyday use.
However, the dimensions of the device (Height: 42mm, Width: 180mm, Depth: 120mm) aren’t cumbersome – and because the device looks great, you’ll be able to place it where you want it. Of course, it is worth remembering that placing it higher in a central place of the house will allow it to provide better coverage.
The USB and HDMI ports on the front of the router allow you to plug a monitor and mouse directly into the router, and as a result you can use the router as a mini PC (a bit like a Raspberry Pi).
User Interface Features
- Excellent graphic user interface with lots of advanced functions
- kill switch
- Bandwidth monitoring
- The number of connected devices
- Traffic control
- Latency monitoring (for ISP and VPN server)
- Monitor the number of hops to your VPN server
- Organize devices into groups to connect them to different servers – or to connect devices like NAS storage, IP cameras, or other IoT devices to your VPN using a public IPv4 address that can be accessed remotely from anywhere.
- VPN force feature; Never connect to certain websites without enabling VPN connection
- Bypass feature to access websites without VPN when necessary
- Extension for Chrome and Vivaldi (Firefox extension on the way)
It’s also worth noting that the company is publishing a roadmap that outlines what’s to come in the future. This is a great additional resource for users that allows them to quickly check for upcoming updates or features.
The company is currently working on v1.0.14. This has been delayed for a few months but should start with some minor bug fixes, improving internal testing procedures using continuous integration, and introducing some miscellaneous improvements that are yet to be determined. There isn’t a great deal of information out there, admittedly, but it’s a good sign that it’s being actively developed. It’s also worth noting that Vilfo always releases a list of all improvements as soon as the new version is published.
Get the Vilfo router
Accommodation
The first thing that is necessary when setting up a Vilfo router is to connect the antennas that come in the box. Next, you have to connect it to your modem and connect it (the router provided by your ISP is your router and modem). Once you’ve plugged in your router and connected it to your modem, you’re ready to sign in and set it up.
The Vilfo router comes with a booklet that explains this process broken down into 6 individual steps, and as long as you have properly connected the router to your modem from the WAN port using the provided Ethernet cable, you will be able to power on and connect to your Vilfo router from your computer.
Once this connection is established, simply enter the address provided by Vilfo in your browser (or the local subnet IP address assigned to Vilfo by default: 192.168.0.1) and you will be able to access the admin panel. From this point on, all you have to do is follow the instructions to set up your router and choose your VPN provider from the pre-set options.
Unfortunately for us, the Vilfo router is set to the same local IP as the ISP’s router. This caused an issue that would not allow us to connect to Vilfo unless it was disconnected from our modem. Vilfo told us that it was caused by an IP conflict and that we should update Vilfo’s IP address to 10.220.0.1
We did, and it completely fixed the problem, which is great. From that point on we were asked to select the GHz band we wanted – we chose 5 GHz for the best speeds (the photo below was taken before we chose 5 GHz from the dropdown). Click the down arrow next to Encryption to choose WPA2 and update the Vilfo router name in the SSID if you prefer.
Next, we were asked for the email address and Vilfo license key. After doing this, the router decided to search on the Internet and download the latest firmware, which it did without problems. Updating the firmware will turn off the connection so if the update appears to be stuck, it might be because you need to reconnect to the router.
At this point in the review, it is worth noting that Vilfo is not previously set up to work with any single VPN provider. Instead, it includes an easy setup wizard designed to work with a large number of VPNs. Vilfo can work with any VPN that offers OpenVPN, which is good news as this is the recommended VPN encryption protocol for security and privacy purposes.
After you’re prompted to provide an admin username and password, you’ll be able to select a VPN from the growing list of 23 providers. That’s a lot of options, which means you’re not limited to one provider and can easily switch subscriptions and continue to use your Vilfo router over time.
The beauty of this integration is that all you have to do is choose your VPN provider, and with a single click it will be ready to go. After that, you will be able to login to your VPN account and run it on any server you prefer. It’s also worth noting that as long as your VPN provides OpenVPN configuration files, you’ll be able to set it up and run it manually.
If that sounds like a severe headache, Vilfo states that you can contact your VPN provider and ask them to add them to Vilfo’s built-in setup function. However, from a quick look, we can see that all the most popular VPNs have already been introduced – so most people will not have any problems setting up Vilfo.
We chose to add PrivateVPN first, and add Express within the dashboard later. This gave us the ability to switch between any of the providers at will, which is great.
Next, the router asks you to provide the login credentials of your VPN provider before automatically connecting to the server. The router automatically connected us to a PrivateVPN server in Brussels – likely because it was the fastest connection available at the time.
Accepting “Continue” will take you to the main dashboard. Here you can access the various features of the VPN router. click Hardware It allows you to separate the automatic connection so that you can select a server in an area of your choice. We chose Las Vegas and tested the connection on IPLeak.net to make sure it was working fine, which it was.
Test your VPN for IP leaks
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Test your VPN for IP leaks
It’s also worth noting that users can update their wireless password on the Network tab of the admin panel any time they want.
Overall, we found the Vilfo setup process to be very easy. The only dilemma we really have is with the first screen, where the user has to set up the domain and the encryption. It is possible that this is done incorrectly by someone in a hurry to set up the router. We prefer that the setup process forces users to set a wireless password and WPA2 encryption – to ensure WiFi is secure from the start.
However, this is a small problem and there can be no doubt that the setup process is very easy, as long as you do not rush and miss this important menu item.
Ease of use
The detailed process and integration built into the Vilfo router really takes the hassle out of setting it up, and because it’s made to work with a select group of VPN providers – you can set it up very quickly.
One of the nicest things about this router is that it comes preconfigured with strong WPA2 encryption. This means you don’t have to worry about setting it up securely and it will provide strong encryption with unique encryption keys to every wireless client it connects to by default.
After following the installation steps, it’s up to you which features you decide to use, and if all you need is an active VPN connection – you might just be happy to set up a connection to your favorite server and leave it at that.
However, this router offers a lot of great features that are available from within the admin panel and because accessing it from your computer is easy, it is great for checking who is connected to the router and how the VPN is performing in terms of speed.
For consumers who want to use some advanced features, we have to say we really like what’s on offer with Vilfo – and there’s no doubt that the user interface (UI) makes it incredibly easy to access all the available settings. In fact, Vilfo is so easy to use that we consider it great for beginners looking to gain more control over their network – while also protecting all of their devices with a VPN.
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