Deep Dive - Guardian BE6500 Wi-Fi 7 VPN Router– Fast, Flexible and Built for Fast VPN Speeds

Guardian Routers
Aug 17
4 min read

Available for Nord, Zoog, Pure, Mullvad, Surfshark, Private Internet Access and IPVanish. Other VPN Suppliers upon request.

If you want more from your home network than the ‘bog standard’ router supplied by your broadband provider (ISP), the Guardian BE6500 is a very enticing option. With the secure pre-configured router and VPN service it becomes particularly appealing for anyone who wants VPN protection across their entire home network without having to install a VPN app on every device.

A Modern Wi-Fi 7 router

The BE6500 is a dual-band Wi-Fi 7 router, with a maximum wireless throughput of 5,764Mbps on 5GHz and 688Mbps on 2.4GHz. It supports Wi-Fi 7 features including Multi-Link Operation (MLO), which is designed to improve connection stability and make better use of available wireless resources.

Five 2.5GbE ports

One of the BE6500’s biggest strengths is its wired networking.

You get five 2.5GbE Ethernet ports — one dedicated WAN port, one configurable WAN/LAN port and three LAN ports. There’s also a USB 3.0 port for storage expansion.

This is excellent for a home with multi-gigabit broadband or several high-performance wired devices.

You could have a 2.5GbE gaming PC, NAS, desktop workstation and other equipment connected directly without immediately running into the limitations of ordinary gigabit Ethernet.

The USB 3.0 port also adds some useful flexibility, including the possibility of using USB storage for basic file sharing and media applications.

The VPN integration is the star of the show

One of the biggest reasons to consider the Guardian BE6500 isn’t simply Wi-Fi 7 — it’s the VPN functionality.

The BE6500 supports VPN clients and servers, including WireGuard and OpenVPN. The router is rated for VPN speeds of up to approximately 680Mbps at the Router using WireGuard and slightly slower with the older OpenVPN protocol.

This makes it a much more practical VPN router than older hardware that could struggle to push high speeds through encryption.

The advantage of putting the VPN on the router is that you don’t have to configure a VPN separately on every device to stay anonymous and remain secure from prying eyes.

Your TV doesn’t need a VPN app.
Your games console doesn’t need a VPN app.
Your streaming box doesn’t need a VPN app.
Your smart-home devices don’t need VPN support.

The router handles everything. That’s a huge benefit for households with lots of connected equipment.

Select which devices use the VPN

Another massive bonus with the BE6500 is that you’re not necessarily forced to send everything through the VPN.

The networking platform is designed around advanced routing and VPN configuration, allowing users to decide how traffic is handled. The router’s OpenWrt-based system provides a considerable amount of flexibility compared with typical ISP routers.

That means you can build a setup where, for example:

· Streaming devices such a Firestick or Nvidia Sheild use the VPN.

· A work laptop uses the normal ISP connection.

· Gaming devices bypass the VPN when you want the lowest possible latency.

· Other devices remain on the standard connection.

This kind of selective routing is one of the biggest advantages of a dedicated VPN router.

Privacy and security features

The BE6500 isn’t just about VPNs.

Other features include AdGuard Home, parental controls and other security and network-management features.

AdGuard Home can block advertisements and trackers at network level, meaning you don’t necessarily need an ad-blocking application installed on every device.

For families, parental controls are another useful addition.

And because the router is based on OpenWrt, advanced users have considerably more scope for customisation than they would with a typical ISP router. The firmware supports more than 5,000 plugins through its OpenWrt-based platform.

What about performance?

On paper, the hardware is impressive.

The router uses a Qualcomm quad-core 1.5GHz processor, 1GB of DDR4 RAM and 512MB of NAND storage.

The combination is more than capable of handling a busy household with lots of simultaneous connections.

The 2.5GbE ports are particularly useful if you have multi-gigabit broadband. Wi-Fi 7 can also deliver excellent wireless performance when paired with compatible clients.

Of course, the headline Wi-Fi speeds should be treated as theoretical maximums. Real-world performance will depend on distance, walls, interference, client hardware and channel conditions.

The same applies to the 680Mbps VPN figure. Your actual VPN speed will depend on the VPN server, location, protocol, broadband connection and network conditions.

Nevertheless, having hardware capable of approaching those figures is a major improvement over many older VPN routers.

The Guardian Routers advantage

This is where the product differs from simply buying a router from a normal retailer.

Guardian Routers has been providing secure VPN-configured Routers for 10 years+ with unrivalled customer support and 100’s of happy customers

The appeal is that you don’t have to become an expert in WireGuard configuration, VPN profiles and routing rules - All Guardian Routers are Plug & Play

For someone who simply wants:

“My whole house to use a VPN, including devices that don’t support VPN apps and I need first class customer support.”

A Guardian Router is the first choice.