Note - All standoffs are m3. The short ones are 4 each M/F with the standoff part 5mm long. The longer ones are 4 each F/F and 15mm long. Eight m3x6mm thread screws are also needed. The fan I used is a 40x40x10mm Noctua 5V fan but anything that fits and is 5V should do. It doesn't need to be tight. There's a peg on the lid that holds it in the fan bay. I run mine off the 3.3V expansion pin and ground, though, so it’s quieter. Still moves plenty of air but the Pi and router never got hot after about 8 hours with no fan at all. The box has lots of holes.

If you just want a Pi bundled with a small router this does it, but if you want a travel PiHole, this works great at least for me. Pi-Hole is a domain name service (DNS) that can run on a Raspberry Pi computer. When you use WiFi somewhere that you don't control (airports/hotels/coffee shops/etc) this unit blocks any requests for stuff from servers in its lists. You can configure all sorts of blocking using different lists. Try surfing with and without Pi-Hole and you’ll see the difference immediately and will probably want a Pi-Hole for home, too - or just use this one.

If you're here you likely already know about Pi-Hole, but if not… Pi-Hole is free (but please donate if you find it useful) and available at pi-hole.net. It's a DNS server that converts website names like makerworld.com into an IP address that computers can use. What Pi-Hole does is when it gets a request for a domain's IP address, is it checks the name against its lists to see if it is one to block. If it is, Pi-Hole returns a dead-end IP to your computer and your computer skips over it and continues on. It never sends the request out on the wire and without that request, you don't get sent ads, cookies, malware, and so on. What you see on web pages are white boxes where the ads would have been. For other kinds of badness you may not see anything as Pi-Hole protects you behind the scenes.

The down side is if you visit websites that are ad-supported and the admins are watching for ad blockers, you'll get a popup that may block your access to the site in general. If it's a site you want to go to and allow their ads, you just whitelist it in Pi-Hole's admin console. If you aren't familiar with Pi-Hole, it will take a little time at their site to get the basics, but it's really very easy. And it is definitely worth it.

This project is a box that holds a Raspberry Pi, a fan, and a TP-Link AC750 WiFi travel router to turn the whole into a WiFi (and wired) access point that blocks trackers, malware sites, ad servers, facebook trackers, etc. Once configured, all you do is log into the AC750 router and give it the hotel/airport/etc access point information. Part of the configuration of the AC750 is to put it in “share hotspot” mode and it connects to the open WiFi. You connect to the AC750 as a WiFi or wired (there's one wired ethernet port) and go to town. Side benefit is all your devices can remember and reconnect to the AC750. You only configure the AC750 at each new WiFi location to connect to whatever open host WiFi is there. Behind the scenes, Pi-Hole merrily blocks ads, cookies, malware, and other nastiness.

Few points - I connect the Pi to the AC750 by WiFi and leave the wired ports open. It would be faster with an ethernet cable but the DNS traffic is minor and makes the power connections the only wires. I haven’t used one yet but am getting a microUSB power splitter to be able to just use a single power supply. I had to cut the RF output power on the link to the Pi in the AC750 since they are mounted so close to each other before they could connect.

Why would you want to do all this? There's all sorts of ways to compromise a computer, track your online activity, and serve you lots and lots of ads that drastically slow down web page loads. Public/shared WiFi is a little dangerous because you don't usually know who else is on the same network. When you run with a Pi-Hole running interference for you, pages load without most ads depending on how they are being served. Not having to bring graphics and files across from frequently overworked servers results in less data from fewer servers and really speeds things up. The AC750 has its own stateful firewall so no matter what the security posture where you are connecting, you've at least got front line protection from the AC750.

Anyway, this isn't about the Pi or the AC750. It's just about the box to make your own travel router with lots of security goodness. Or have close to a cube of Pi, router, and fan. Anyone needing more information on how to set up and configure the router, the Pi, or Pi-Hole should look to their respective websites.

This box just puts the bits in one convenient place/box where it's easy to have this functionality and protection when not at home. Or, use it at home. Another Pi-Hole guards my home network too.