I tried to zap you p2p because I'm pretty sure the bounty will only pay out in ccs, which are stacker news native tokens. Can you confirm if you got it?

Hey, TollGate dev here.

## what is tftp and is it necessary for firmware installation?

It's a [system to load files onto the router for flashing](https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-user/installation/generic.flashing.tftp), i haven't used it personally, maybe you don't need it.

If you just want to copy an OpenWRT image file to a router that has no ftp server installed, Here's a snippet of what i do in the [TollGate installer](https://github.com/OpenTollGate/tollgate-installer):

The -O option uses the old SCP protocol which doesn't require sftp-server
```bash
scp -O -o StrictHostKeyChecking=no -o UserKnownHostsFile=/dev/null -o LogLevel=error "${localPath}" "${username}@${ip}:${remotePath}"
```

i've used this for the MT-3000, MT-6000 and GL-AR300M.

## is it worth it for this generation of routers?
Questionable. I see it has 8mb flash, which is low [source](https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-n56u). We try to target the [gl-ar300m](https://openwrt.org/toh/gl.inet/gl-ar300m) which is already a squeeze with 16mb flash. 

We do hope to support very low-power hardware further down the line to make TollGate more accessible for low-income areas, but we're not there yet.

## can he use NordVPN as a client
There are packages for openwrt to route traffic through a VPN. You might wanna look into the OpenVPN package. Mullvad could be a good option instead of NordVPN.

hope this helps a bit!

- Arjen


arjen

[OpenWRT](https://openwrt.org/toh/asus/rt-n56u) is not asus firmware afaik.

👀 https://www.asus.com/us/supportonly/rt-n56u/helpdesk_bios/

0xbitcoiner

Very interesting project!
Myself, I'll probably just buy one from Flash Routers when I'm ready for that fun. 

supratic

So a friend of mine has an old (c.2010 asus router--the RT-N56U A1) and wants to see if it would work as a vpn server.

I told him I'm pretty sure you'd have to flash it with OpenWRT, but this seems a bit out of his depths and before diving into the weeds he's got some more questions I'm not able to answer.

1000 sats (or more) if i think your advice/guidance is worth it (let's see if we can get him to come over to SN!)

tech

So a friend of mine has an old (c.2010 asus router--the RT-N56U A1) and wants to see if it would work as a vpn server. 

I told him I'm pretty sure you'd have to flash it with OpenWRT, but this seems a bit out of his depths and before diving into the weeds he's got some more questions I'm not able to answer. 

- is it worth it for this generation of routers? 
- what is tftp and is it necessary for firmware installation? 
- can he use NordVPN as a client (lol I know, I already I told him that's spyware, but what else can one do?) 

Any thoughts/ideas/suggestions?

1000 sats (or more) if i think your advice/guidance is worth it (let's see if we can get him to come over to SN!) 

what is tftp and is it necessary for firmware installation?what is tftp and is it necessary for firmware installation?

is it worth it for this generation of routers?is it worth it for this generation of routers?

can he use NordVPN as a clientcan he use NordVPN as a client