Found a simple trick to stop my landlord spying on my router traffic

I live in a duplex in Phoenix and my landlord lives next door. Last month I noticed my internet kept tanking at random hours, like 2 AM on a Tuesday. I figured he was throttling me or maybe snooping since we share the same ISP modem. I tried a VPN and it helped but was slow. Then I bought a cheap $30 travel router off Amazon, plugged it into the modem, and set up my own network with a random SSID. Now he can't see what devices I have or where my traffic goes, and my speed stays steady. Has anyone else dealt with a landlord who oversteps like this? I'm wondering if a VPN plus this router is overkill or if I should ditch one.

3 comments

3 Comments

phoenix5731mo ago

Travel router is solid but a VPN on top of it is overkill unless you're doing sketchy stuff honestly. I'd just run the VPN on specific devices when you need it, not the whole network. Keeps your speeds up and still blocks him from seeing what you're doing on your phone or laptop.

the_fiona1mo ago

I get what you're saying about the overkill thing... but honestly, for me it was worth it just for the peace of mind. I dated someone who would literally check what devices were connected and when. Having the whole network hidden behind a VPN meant he couldn't even see I was online, let alone what sites I was hitting. The speed hit wasn't that bad on a decent travel router, maybe 10-15% slower. Plus, I didn't have to mess with toggling the VPN on and off every time I wanted to use my laptop for something private. It felt like a small price to pay for not having to constantly worry about what he might be snooping on.

the_olivia1mo ago

Honestly, I gotta push back a little on the whole "worth it for peace of mind" thing. In my experience, a landlord snooping on your traffic is annoying but like... are they really gonna do something with that info? Your mileage may vary but I think running a travel router is smart enough. Adding a VPN on top of that feels like you're expecting the FBI to kick down your door over a Netflix binge. @the_fiona I get the paranoia, I really do, but I'd drop the VPN and see if the router alone fixes your speed issues. If you're not doing anything illegal or something you'd be embarrassed about, the router probably does everything you need without slowing things down.