Reasonably priced board as VPN Server

[J0s3f]

Hi,

 

I have a OpenVPN server running on the broadband router installed at my parents house. My router at home connects to this and I mirror my complete NAS over this connection.

My brother also has a laptop on which he uses VPN occasionally to copy important stuff there.

 

Since the router has only a small dual core MIPS CPU, VPN speeds are limited to about 18Mbit/s. The connection at my parents home is 100/50Mbit/s and mine at home 250/80Mbit/s, so it could work faster.

Also, the VPN takes up all the CPU so for example DNS resolution is slow if the VPN is saturated.

 

For this reason, I'd like to buy a inexpensive small device that will handle the whole VPN. (The NAS devices there run FreeNAS where it isn't that easy to setup a VPN server).

 

Features I'd like to have:

• WireGuard VPN (so old kernels only is a no-go)
• OpenVPN (should work on every toaster, so no issue)
• Hardware support for encryption if possible (not a must)
• Runs stable (I can get my parents to power-cycle it or even to flash a new image on a MicroSD, but this shouldn't be necessary)
• reasonably priced
• well supported (wouldn't be cool if there are no updates in only a year or so)

 

Any suggestions?

I am in the EU, so something that ships here cheaply would be preferred. I am not in a hurry, so shipping from China isn't a problem.

Edited June 19, 2019 by J0s3f

[Werner]

What about OPi 0+ H5?

 

Offering GBE, 64bit quad core, officially supported by Armbian and dirt cheap

https://www.armbian.com/orange-pi-zero-plus/

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/Orange-Pi-Zero-Plus-H5-Chip-Quad-Core-Open-source-Cortex-A53-512MB-development-board-beyond/32828347476.html?spm=a2g0o.cart.0.0.68e43c00J6oKjx

 

If you need even more power staying at low price, could accept the sacrifice in reliability and get a PCIe which is broken by design you can go for a H6 based board like OrangePi OnePlus. The H6 SoC is clocked with 1,8 GHz. All H6 boards are still in development stage and do not come with support.

I have two OPi 1+ running about since when they were released and besides the very first issues like not having ethernet working they now are working quite well for me.

 

If unsure go for the H5 SoC.

[J0s3f]

Thanks, the OPi 0+ H5 looks perfect. I ordered one.