I have two AC68Us, but I'm currently only using 1 on my home network. I flashed AsusWRT-Merlin on the router currently in use. I have ExpressVPN configured on it via OpenVPN. It connects to 2 separate servers, depending on client device. But the router itself and the default for all new devices is no-VPN. I also have remote access via the Asus Android app, though I'm not sure how secure this is.
So I have some ideas for how to use the other router:
1) Setup aimesh or access point: don't really need it as our house isn't that big, but the 5GHz network isn't quite as strong as 2.4GHz on the 3rd floor. So this might be a good option to keep devices on 5GHz by default. I just don't want to deal with any significant loss of speed or continuous switching back and forth between connections to router vs. AP/node.
2) Setup dedicated ExpressVPN router: ExpressVPN firmware which gets me one-click switching of servers (assuming I can connect remotely to second router). Also easy to connect new devices to VPN, and get dedicated SSID for VPN. Would still need to have VPN client configured on main router since ExpressVPN firmware can only connect to one server at a time.
3) Setup dedicated AsusWRT-Merlin VPN router: I would move all my OpenVPN configurations to this router, so I can setup remote access to main router using VPN server. Not easier to connect new devices to VPN than current config, but still get dedicated SSID for VPN.
I would say #3 is probably ideal, considering I'm concerned about the security of the Asus app remote access. Don't want everything locked up in the event of DDoS attacks or someone stealing my info.
So is my understanding of the items above correct? What else could I potentially use the second router for?
So I have some ideas for how to use the other router:
1) Setup aimesh or access point: don't really need it as our house isn't that big, but the 5GHz network isn't quite as strong as 2.4GHz on the 3rd floor. So this might be a good option to keep devices on 5GHz by default. I just don't want to deal with any significant loss of speed or continuous switching back and forth between connections to router vs. AP/node.
2) Setup dedicated ExpressVPN router: ExpressVPN firmware which gets me one-click switching of servers (assuming I can connect remotely to second router). Also easy to connect new devices to VPN, and get dedicated SSID for VPN. Would still need to have VPN client configured on main router since ExpressVPN firmware can only connect to one server at a time.
3) Setup dedicated AsusWRT-Merlin VPN router: I would move all my OpenVPN configurations to this router, so I can setup remote access to main router using VPN server. Not easier to connect new devices to VPN than current config, but still get dedicated SSID for VPN.
I would say #3 is probably ideal, considering I'm concerned about the security of the Asus app remote access. Don't want everything locked up in the event of DDoS attacks or someone stealing my info.
So is my understanding of the items above correct? What else could I potentially use the second router for?