Firewalla: Travel Securely with Purple Newsletter - May 17, 2023

Travel Securely with Firewalla Purple

Public Wi-Fi networks in airports, hotels, and other public places are often unsecured, putting you at risk of cybercriminals intercepting your data and stealing sensitive information. Firewalla Purple makes it easy to protect your connection to the Internet when you're away from home.

Creating a Trusted LAN with Firewalla Purple

Firewalla Purple is the perfect portable router and firewall to give you peace of mind while you're away from home. This is what we call a Trusted LAN. With Firewalla Purple, you get:

• The same level of protection you get on your home network, anywhere in the world.
• Easy access to your home devices without having to open ports on your router.
• A simple way to connect all your devices to a VPN server.
• The ability to enforce restrictions on your kids' devices even when on vacation.
• A trusted LAN with you anywhere you go.

Firewalla Purple has a built-in Wi-Fi interface. This interface will appear as two logical interfaces; one can be used as an access point for short-distance Wi-Fi, and the other can be used in WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider) mode to provide a WAN connection.

Configuring Purple for Travel

You should complete the initial setup process using your home network before setting out to travel. Make sure you choose Router mode.

Then, when traveling, power up the Purple box and open the Firewalla app. After it's up and running, the app will show you a banner asking whether you'd like to set up a wireless connection. Follow the instructions to connect to a public Wi-Fi. Then, create a local Wi-Fi network on the Purple for your devices to connect to.

If the Wi-Fi network you're using as a WAN connection requires you to log in through their captive portal, the app will guide you through logging in and connecting to the network.

Finally, if you have a VPN Server running on a Firewalla box at home, you can connect to it by setting up a VPN Client connection on your Purple.

Short Distance Wi-Fi with Firewalla Purple

You can enable Purple's built-in short distance Wi-Fi LAN to easily keep all your devices connected to Firewalla while using hotel or business Wi-Fi. Use both Wi-Fi connections at the same time by setting up Purple's WAN/WISP Network to connect to the Internet and its Wi-Fi LAN to maintain policies, VPN connections, and more across all your devices. In this configuration, you do not need any Ethernet connections.

To enable short distance Wi-Fi, you can either create a new network or enable Wi-Fi your Purple's existing LAN. You'll also need to enter a Wi-Fi name and a password.

This is part of our Firewalla Weekly Newsletter. You can sign up here https://firewalla.com/weekly.