How to Enable the Kill Switch on GL.iNet Routers

A VPN that silently disconnects and lets your traffic continue unprotected is worse than no VPN at all: at least without one, you know you're exposed. The kill switch is what prevents that silent failure, and on GL.iNet routers it's a single toggle. This guide to GL.iNet kill switch enable steps explains what "Block Non-VPN Traffic" actually does, how to turn it on, and how to prove it's really working before you trust it with your work.

What the "Block Non-VPN Traffic" switch does

Normally, if your VPN tunnel drops, your router does the "helpful" thing: it routes your traffic directly through the hotel or café connection instead. Your devices stay online, your IP address changes to the local one, and nothing tells you it happened. You could work for an hour on an unprotected connection without noticing.

The kill switch inverts that behavior. With "Block Non-VPN Traffic" enabled, the router's firewall only permits traffic that goes through the VPN tunnel interface. Tunnel up: everything works. Tunnel down: nothing works. No silent fallback, no leaked IP, no unencrypted DNS sneaking out.

A few things worth knowing about how it behaves:

• It covers every device behind the router. Laptop, phone, tablet, streaming stick: all of them lose internet when the tunnel drops, not just the device running a VPN app. That's the advantage of doing it at the router level.
• It engages during reconnection. When the tunnel drops and the client auto-reconnects, there's a window of seconds where you're unprotected without a kill switch. With it on, that window is sealed.
• It doesn't break the router's own uplink. The router still needs to reach the internet to re-establish the tunnel. The kill switch blocks client traffic, not the router's own VPN connection attempts.
• Local network access may still work. Depending on firmware, devices might still reach each other on the LAN while the tunnel is down. Internet is what's blocked.

Enabling it step by step in the admin panel

1. Connect to your GL.iNet router's admin panel (usually at 192.168.8.1) from a device on its network.
2. Go to the VPN section and open your VPN client configuration (WireGuard or OpenVPN, whichever you use).
3. Look for the "Block Non-VPN Traffic" toggle. On current firmware it's in the VPN client settings, sometimes under an options or advanced area.
4. Switch it on.
5. Make sure your VPN client is configured to auto-connect (and auto-reconnect). The kill switch plus auto-reconnect is the combination you want: brief, sealed interruptions instead of long outages.
6. Save and apply. Some firmware versions ask you to restart the VPN client for the firewall rules to take effect.

That's it. One toggle. But don't stop here: an untested kill switch is a rumor. Test it.

Testing that leaks are actually blocked

Test 1: manual disconnect. With the kill switch on, disconnect the VPN client manually from the admin panel. Immediately try loading a website on your laptop and phone. Nothing should load. Check your public IP via a site that shows it: it should fail to load at all, not show the hotel's IP. Then reconnect the VPN and confirm everything works again.

Test 2: kill the uplink. Unplug the router's internet source (or disconnect it from the hotel Wi-Fi) for 30 seconds, then restore it. Watch what happens: during the outage, client devices should have no internet. When the tunnel re-establishes, traffic resumes. If anything loaded during the gap, the kill switch isn't doing its job.

Test 3: DNS leak check. With the VPN connected and kill switch on, run a DNS leak test from your laptop. All DNS servers shown should belong to your VPN/home setup, none from the hotel or local ISP. Then disconnect the VPN: DNS should fail entirely, not fall back to the hotel's servers.

Test 4: the reboot test. Reboot the travel router and watch the boot sequence. There may be a window where the router is up but the VPN hasn't connected yet. With the kill switch on, your devices should have no internet during that window. This is the test most people skip, and it's the one that catches misconfigurations.

If any test shows traffic flowing without the tunnel, double-check: is the toggle actually on (not just the VPN client), did you apply/save, and is there any VPN policy rule (like per-device bypass) punching holes in it?

FAQ

Need help setting this up?

A kill switch you haven't tested is just a toggle you hope works. Our VPN audit includes hands-on leak testing, kill-switch verification, and DNS checks across your devices, so you know the protection is real. Book it at https://homeipvpn.com.