When I last wrote about tools for keeping your data secure while traveling several
years ago, the laptop was still the computer of choice for road
warriors. So a secure USB key and browser combination was plenty to help
protect against insecure Wi-Fi and prying hackers. But now that nearly
everyone is dependent on their mobile devices when they travel, the
problem of staying secure on the road has become more complex —
especially if you connect your mobile device to public Wi-Fi hot spots.
Startup Anonabox has been trying to address this issue and, after a
rocky start with its first offering, has introduced a new product line,
headed by the Anonabox Pro. I’ve been using one for several weeks now,
and have found plenty to like, along with more than a few rough edges.
Anonabox Pro: Secure Wi-Fi-enabled travel router
The
Anonabox Pro is at its core a portable Wi-Fi router — not too different
from many other inexpensive versions you can pick up from a variety of
online sites, based on OpenWRT & LuCI. On top of the base hardware
and open-source system software, Anonabox has added a built-in Tor
router, a client for OpenVPN, and for commercial VPN Hide My Ass (HMA!).
The combination promises to allow you to create your own, secure, Wi-Fi
hotspot, and then route all your devices through it. That way, not just
your laptop, but your smartphone and tablet (or any other Wi-Fi-enabled
devices you use) can have the benefit of secure communications.
Ideally,
the above might also simplify your life, since those devices would have
a predictable Wi-Fi network to connect with, rather than needing new
credentials each time you use them. And for Wi-Fi hotspots that limit
the number of devices you can use, the Anonabox shows up as a single
device. In practice, though, as we’ll see further on, there are a number
of issues that get in the way of this panacea. Like many routers, it
can also serve as a bridge or range extender, but its primary use is
definitely as a secure router.
The device itself is tiny,
featuring two Ethernet ports for configuration and wired connectivity
(one for uplink and one for client connectivity and configuration), a
micro USB port over which it gets power, a USB port for adding devices
such as a thumb drive, and a reset button. There is a status LED as
well. For wireless connectivity, the Pro supports 802.11 b/g/n at
2.4GHz. The internals have also been beefed up compared with the
original, as there is now a 650MHz CPU, 128MB of RAM, and 64MB of Flash
memory.
Configuring your Anonabox Pro and using Tor
Anonabox
received a lot of negative feedback on its original version, in part
because it was neither configurable nor upgradeable. The Pro addresses
both those issues, with a configuration UI and a firmware update
capability (although there aren’t any updates available yet, so I
haven’t tested that functionality).
The configuration UI
is similar to the one on competitor Invizbox. The Anonabox Pro is still
based on the open source OpenWRT codebase, although documentation on how
to take advantage of OpenWRT functionality on the unit is very sparse.
You connect to it via SSH to access functionality beyond what is exposed
in the UI — although the UI does include a package installation
interface, and an interface for managing startup processes.
While
the Anonabox has a deceptively friendly looking user interface for its
common configuration tasks, with lots of point-and-click screens, the
process of configuring it is susceptible to user error. You need to
follow each step of the setup guide exactly, or may find yourself having
to reset the unit and start over. My favorite (well, really,
least-favorite) is that you need to uncheck the “Replace current
wireless network” box (that is checked by default) when connecting the
unit to an available wireless network. If you don’t, the box becomes
non-responsive until you connect over a hard-wire cable or reset it.
Performance
when running in a non-private mode was good, although surprisingly
spikey. Tested using our 130Mbps cable connection, Speedtest would
normally report about 50-60Mbps, but sometimes would jump to 120Mbps
(averaging about 60Mbps). Configuring Tor is a piece of cake, but, as
you’d expect, performance over Tor was only a fraction of what you’d get
otherwise — in my testing typically 1-2Mbps.
Using a VPN with the Anonabox Pro
For
those willing to invest a few dollars a month, a VPN provides a
higher-performance alternative for keeping your IP address, and some
other information, private. The Anonabox Pro comes with a free 30-day
trial of “Hide My Ass!”, one of the better-known VPN vendors. In my
testing, HMA was much slower than native access (about 8-10Mbps download
— although coupled with a surprisingly quick 9Mbps upload), but much
faster than using Tor (although each of them has its own advantages and
disadvantages as far as how well they protect your privacy and provide
security). By comparison, a direct-tunnel connection over a Hamachi VPN
from the same network to a dedicated server ran at 70-90Mbps
consistently.
One cautionary note is that some friends have
reported their mail getting flagged as spam when they sent it while
using a subscription VPN, so that’s something to watch out for if you
use one.
Anonabox has said it will be adding more VPN clients,
which would certainly be a welcome upgrade, as many users already have a
VPN subscription and won’t want to change. In the meantime, some VPN
providers have instructions for how to use OpenVPN to access their
service. However, OpenVPN configuration on the unit is neither
well-documented or simple, so it will still take some effort to use a
VPN provider other than HMA!.
Issues with using Anonabox Pro as a travel router
My
vision of using an Anonabox Pro as my ultimate travel solution ran into
a couple snags in practice. The biggest problem I ran into is that if
you power off the Anonabox Pro without disconnecting it from the Wi-Fi
network it is using, it will refuse to provide Wi-Fi when powered on —
until hard reset, or reconfigured using an Ethernet cable. The product’s
developers say this is a necessary limitation, but in practice it is
really painful. For example, if you suddenly hear your flight called,
and close your laptop, pack up and head off, you’ll need to dig out an
Ethernet cable before you can use the router again. Worse, if you are
using a laptop without an Ethernet port, you’ll need to carry a
USB-to-Ethernet adapter and an Ethernet cable. Or reset the device and
start over completely on configuration.
Also, because the Anonabox
Pro doesn’t have its own battery backup, if you power the router from
your laptop, and don’t have an “always-on” USB port, then whenever your
laptop falls asleep, the router will turn off. At minimum this means a
delay while it reboots, but if you are using Tor, it can take an
additional couple minutes to connect to the network. So, as a practical
matter, heavy users may want to travel with an external battery pack to
use with their Anonabox. Unfortunately that defeats much of the
advantage of its small size.
Anonabox Pro as a secure communication device
Obviously,
use as a travel router for road warriors isn’t the only use case for a
privacy-focused connectivity devices. For those who are worried about
censorship, access limitations, or concerned for their own security,
encrypting traffic as it comes out of their computer or smartphone makes
perfect sense. The good news here is that Anonabox has done quite well
in various tests, and appears to keep traffic flowing through it
corralled onto the VPN (if in use) or through Tor (when it is enabled
for web browsing). For phone users in particular, having Tor or a VPN
running on the Anonabox reduces the performance overhead, and battery
drain on your mobile device. It also keeps you from having to track down
VPN or Tor software for all of your devices.
The Anonabox Pro
shows a lot of promise but, at this point, investing in one involves
believing that the company will continue to improve the UI, extend
support to additional VPN providers, and make more OpenWRT functionality
accessible without needing to resort to shell commands. Unlike the
original version, which was a Kickstarter project, the Anonabox Pro is
available from a variety of online retailers for about $120.
