VPN on a Xiaomi router

MiWiFi works with PPTP and L2TP, while VanyaVPN offers routers PPTP and OpenVPN. So you’ll be connecting over PPTP, the less secure of the two. The TV and set-top box on this network use the VPN too, with nothing to install on them.

Open the Router section

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Xiaomi MiWiFi Add service window: name, protocol type PPTP, server, username, password
The Add service window in MiWiFi. The service name can be anything.

Setting up MiWiFi

  1. Open the router’s panel

    Open 192.168.31.1 or miwifi.com and log in with the password you chose at first launch. The screenshots come from a Xiaomi 3C. On other models with this firmware, the Mi Router 4C included, find the same VPN icon under the Advanced tab.

  2. Add a PPTP service

    On the Advanced tab, click the “VPN” icon, then “Add service”. Set “Protocol type” to PPTP, paste the address of the server you want into “Server”, and fill in “Username” and “Password” with your router login details from the account. Save with the blue button.

    Xiaomi MiWiFi Advanced tab: a row of section icons with VPN selected
    The Advanced tab and the VPN icon. The service list and the Add service button open below the icons.

  3. Connect

    Press “Connect” in the new service’s row. A few seconds later the status reads “Connected” and the button turns into “Disconnect”.

  4. Turn on auto-connect

    At the bottom, switch on “Connect automatically when the device is on”. Without it, after a reboot or a power cut the router goes online directly until you press “Connect” again.

    Xiaomi MiWiFi: PPTP service connected, auto-connect switch on at the bottom
    The service is connected, and the auto-connect switch at the bottom is on.

Smart TV and set-top box

A VPN on a Xiaomi router covers everything connected to it, over Wi-Fi or cable. The TV and the box just need the home network. That’s handy for Samsung and LG sets and for Apple TV, which VanyaVPN has no app for.

If the box runs Android TV, a Xiaomi Mi Box for instance, you can skip the router and install the app on the box itself, following the Android TV guide. Then only the box uses the VPN, while everything else at home stays as it was.

Android TV sign-in screen of the app with a QR code and a field for the code from your account

Questions

Can a Xiaomi router do OpenVPN?

Stock MiWiFi firmware has no OpenVPN client, only PPTP and L2TP. VanyaVPN doesn’t offer L2TP for routers, so that leaves one option.

The status never gets to Connected

Check the server address and login details, it’s safer to copy them from your account than to retype. If they’re right, your provider may be blocking PPTP, as Beeline, a large Russian provider, has done before. MiWiFi has no second protocol to fall back on, so the next step is the app on the devices themselves.

I have a Xiaomi mesh system. Where do I set it up?

On the main node, the one plugged into your provider’s cable, if its menu has a VPN section. The other nodes just extend its network, so their devices go through that connection too.

One subscription for the whole home

There’s no separate fee for the router. Away from home, your phones connect through the app on the same subscription.

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