CamelCamelCamel.
sorry but how does that answer my question? Im trying to understand why I need it when I travel (outside of storage sharing on wifi)
Don't worry, that's just JV for you, you'll get to know their "humor" as time goes by ;)
This youtube review helped me to want one. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=szqme3j7h10
I've not got one yet.
Looks like there is a web browser on the device you log in to the hotel wifi through that and then connect all your devices to the travel router. No need to log in multiple times to the hotel wifi.
@nicktids: That’s the captive portal pass through
It’s also handy for devices that doesn’t support captive portal login such as google chromecast etc
@littlesoldier: Yep learnt that at a hotel recently when I took my chromecast and was so high up that the phone reception was rubbish to use my phone data.
yeah hes so clever bolding his words and doing basic word association boomer jokes
nope @jv is Chat GPT…
Including VPN and multiple devices even if the hotel only lets you do one
Well, that's the theory
Care to share what's the practice and what you even mean?
Its what i understood as well, it connects to any network wired or wireless and creates its own network which is secure
when I get to a hotel, I connect the device to the hotel wifi internet (how ? through wifi ?)
Yes, you connect it to the hotel's wifi, and then set it as a wifi repeater so your device/s can access internet. TBH it can be painful trying to get it to connect through the captive portals which most hotels have.
I am not certain on the security aspects, but believe it is more secure accessing this way.
For me the main use/purpose is that before I leave I have the Opal set up on all of the family's devices, and then once connected to the hotel's wifi, they can all just automatically connect to the Opal.
TBH it can be painful trying to get it to connect through the captive portals which most hotels have.
Painful or just impossible? Honest question.
Never mind, my question is answered in the comment right below.
Just one use case for me is:
Some hotels have captive portals (publicly open wifi login page) where you enter your room number and confirm with your last name or something like this anyway.
So I login to that using my phone and then clone my phone mac to the glinet device. Now, whatever other device I connect to the glinet (via cable or wifi) just works without logging in to the portal again.
One advantage for me is I can have glinet vpn to my home network amd have my movie library available wherever I go and whichever device I connect to the glinet device.
You can use the router to connect and log in through the hotel WIFI (a public login screen should just appear on your browser the first time you connect to their WIFI) and use it to share the internet connection to all your other devices.
Some hotels will make you pay extra for each individual device connected, or will only allow you to connect with a single device, but with a router like this you can share the connection but they will only see you connecting as one device.
You can also set up the router with your own VPN subscription to by pass certain hotel WIFI restrictions.
You can also use the router to turn a single wired connection or a usb cellular modem into a wireless connection that can be shared between multiple devices.
thanks for all the replies, much appreciated.
is it worth getting the higher end model ? GL.iNet GL-MT3000 (Beryl AX) , also on a deal at $114
I'm quoting @Wimma here - the Beryl AX is a beefier unit with better CPU, more RAM, bigger internal storage, faster WIFI speeds, etc, so it can support more concurrent connections and perhaps have a longer WIFI range as well (don't quote me on this).
This makes it more power hungry to the point where it may need a more dedicated power supply instead of just plugging it into a cheapo USB wall charger / powerbank.
It also costs twice as much, so you'll have to decide on what you need. The Opal is already more than good enough for my use case.
@anonym: I have a dedicated multiport GaN charger for travel with swappable plugs, which can charge my laptop, tablet, and phones. The beryl requires 15W, which is about the lowest wattage my charger delivers as well. So I don't really bringing any extra charger for the router as all my electronic stuff works with that one
@rubik33: Huh, I just checked my Opal and apparently it needs 5V 3A which is also 15W as well. So the Beryl is superior in pretty much every regard except the initial cost.
Turn this device on (via USB-C power), once it's on, you connect via ethernet or its wifi SSID, go to the management page (normally its 192.168.8.1) you can then from there, scan Wifi such as your hotel's guest one, connect to it, and it will grab a DHCP IP from the hotel's Guest network. Go to one of your devices and connect to the Opal's SSID, and try browsing, you will then be navigated to the hotels terms and conditions page which you agree and accept or enter their username and password. Once you've done this on one device, all other devices that connect to your SSID will be able to browse the internet without having to agree to the terms again.
This is particularly useful for hotels that only allow a certain number of devices on its guest network or one user. You can now use multiple devices hanging off the one Opal.
Hope this helps.
Yep. So I've got a Beryl, and configured mine to have the same Wireless SSID and password. Turn it on at the hotel, all my devices connect to it without reconfiguration.
The more secure access comes in when you configure the unit to connect to a VPN. Then all your traffic from the travel router to the VPN provider is secure. The hotel network cannot (without effort and likely detection) access your data as it traverses their infrastructure.
thanks, ordered Beryl AX and 2yr subscription to NordVPN
If you're using NordVPN, then be aware you can't just use your regular username/password that you use for the app and put it into the travel router, you need to go to the Nord web interface and "Get Service Credentials or an access token" to get a special username and password. This had me scratching my head and checking things for ages before finding this out. Hope it helps.
How does the Opal compare to the Slate AX?
https://www.amazon.com.au/GL-iNet-GL-AXT1800-Pocket-Sized-Ex…
What is the benefit of this over activating "hotspot" on your mobile phone?
The bigger/more powerful you go, the bigger the unit, and more power it needs. The little mango one can plug into any usb port (like a tv), bigger ones need a couple amps at least, so dedicated psu. They do add more ports, have antenna for better signal sensitivity etc. Many models to choose from.
Perfect for holidays plugging into hotel ethernet or wifi (they can do either) then give you in theory a more secure infrastructure based lan to connect to behind a firewall, leaving you free to take your phone out with you and not denying the kids their internet connection. And it handles the captive portals logins, allowing multiple devices.
They can also be configured to run a vpn connection linked to a switch on the side, for private internet essentials (banking, porn etc).
Also a pretty portable little router.
Thanks, I think the benefit of plugin a hard drive for Chromecast is great. VPN is also good but I do have HMA on my mobile.
and not denying the kids their internet connection
One of the advantages of this is that you could deny the kids their internet connection, since they'd be connecting through the travel router and you could block their internet access through it's configuration ^_^
Someone mentioned using opendns so the kids can't access dodgy sites wherever you go also
For reference I've been running a slate on a 30w USB PD power adaptor for over a year.
The adaptor it comes with is rated for significantly more but my understanding is that this is to give it enough overhead to spin up a couple of external hard drives, should you need them.
VPN, battery saving, more number of devices, can transfer data over wifi, use Chromecast if you are in a hotel room. List goes on
Can i use this on pricey cruise wifi and repeat the signal for my friend to connect to
Yup, I use this where wifi is paid. Pay for 1 device and register routers Mac on their network. Then split it across other devices.
fantastic thanks. How do you connect the router to their internet? Do I plug it in to my laptop initially?
Or phone
Or …., log in on your mobile then use mobile as a hot spot to get around their naff "one device" only policy. Thus, no need of any router and can install VPN on mobile if desired.
no wifi repeating option on my phone unfortunately
Time for a new phone, that's such a basic feature nowadays
@stephendt: Really?
I've not seen a phone with WiFi sharing capability, since this would (AFAIK) require a second WiFi card, or some sort of MIMO card.
@Chandler: TIL - looks like WiFi sharing may be a thing:
https://tunecomp.net/wi-fi-sharing-on-samsung-galaxy/
https://tunecomp.net/what-is-wifi-bridge-on-huawei-phone/
(note these are not discussing "personal hotspot", which shares your phone's cellular connection via WiFi, but "WiFi sharing", which shares an active WiFi connection via a second WiFi network originating from the phone)
Not to be confused with "Wife sharing", which is a discussion for another time…
It's Portable Hotspot that you want, not wifi sharing.
I have Android based mobile which I use to connect to the ship's internet. Mobile has Hotspot activated which entails creation of separate SSID and password.
I then connect tablet to the hotspot and the mobile acts as router to the ship's WiFi.
Sometimes I can make do with phone, other times I want the larger screen of tablet to access the internet. It's one or the other, not like I'm using twice the data so buggered if I gonna pay extra $$ because I alternate between 2 devices.
Not sure if iPhone has this ability? Looks like hotspotting only works through cellular data and not wifi?
Yes, I just came back from a Royal Caribbean cruise where I used the Slate version of this device. Royal Caribbean charge something like $150 USD for internet access for one device only. They track the devices hardware MAC address. There's login and logoff websites that you can use if you want to switch devices for that one account. On Royal Caribbean you can use their app on your phone when connected to the Wi-Fi even if you don't have an account. It's really useful for all the schedules and there's also a messaging feature so you can talk to other passengers.
When I got on board, I connected to the RC guest Wi-Fi network on my iPhone using a privacy MAC which is unique to that Wi-Fi network. In the phone I logged into the RC captive portal and then did some web browsing on the Internet. I then took a copy of the privacy MAC address for the Wi-Fi network on my iPhone. I then set my phone to not auto connect to the RC Wi-Fi. I turned on my Slate device which I had configured at home and my phone was set to not use a privacy MAC for it's wireless network name, which was different from the ships.
Once the Slate was on I cloned the privacy MAC address onto the Slate so the RC Wi-Fi would think that the Slate was my phone. In the GL.iNet app on my iPhone I then went through the Network wizard and told it to use the RC Wi-Fi network. The Slate connected straight away and mine and my wife's 4 devices could share the one account for the ships Internet through the Slate Wi-Fi network name. I hide the network name, disabled 2.4Ghz (as that has limited channels), didn't use anything in the Wi-Fi network name that could be linked to us and I also set the transmit power to it's lowest setting which was plenty enough to cover our room. I did all this to hide the device from the ship as best as I could.
When we left the room, I turned off the Slate, put it away (as I didn't want any of the crew to see it) and would then connect my phone to the ship Wi-Fi and it would get internet with out having to login again. When I went back to my room, I'd disconnected the ships Wi-Fi on my phone and plug the Slate back in. In a couple of minutes the Slate would be booted up and my devices would all have Internet again.
I'm a IT network engineer and I was very impressed with the Slate and how well it performed and how easy it was to use. Highly recommended.
Good effort! Curious as to the benefits of why you took the extra step of using a privacy MAC and not just use the default MAC of your iPhone and have that as the MAC in your Slate? Would have saved a couple of steps (viewing the generated privacy MAC then copying the privacy MAC to the Slate) and you could have just had the Slate preconfigured from home with the iPhone MAC?
By default the iPhone will use a privacy MAC when connecting to a new SSID so that meant that I didn't have logoff / login to the ships Wi-Fi captive portal again through the Slate, secondly as it's a privacy MAC address it's not identified as a iPhone immediately and lastly I wanted to use my iPhone's real MAC when connecting to the Slate so that in the GL.iNet app it would tell which device was mine & finger print it properly.
How does this compare to TP-Link AC750 to use on a cruise? I'm a wifi noob
This has VPN which would be useful for eg streaming aussie services like kayo from overseas.
If the WiFi performance is also significantly better than the AC750 I'm sold… Can anyone speak to that?
If it's just about securing your network rather than splitting & sharing it with multiple people, and if you are proficient enough to manage this router then I believe you can have a Rasp Pi having Tailscale installed on it and keep it running as an Exit node, which you can connect from anywhere, pretty much works like what you trying to achieve with this device
Apart from, to my understanding, this device just does it for $50 and your raspberry pi requires more effort on the top of its cost.
Not really, you can get pi0 from marketplace for $15ish and yes the effort is there
Thanks, OP.
Received 👍
thanks op.
just bought the flint 2 on sale:
https://www.amazon.com.au/GL-iNet-GL-MT6000-Performance-Mult…
is this much better than the mango one?
Yes, more powerful, more ports, better wifi sensitivity etc. You can see specs online to compare.
Also Mango is 1 Amp, Opal says 3 Amps if that helps too.
I was using Mango for a long time and lived with some of its drawbacks (slower speeds) until recently hit the dealbreaker which was that it could not connect to some WiFi networks as they wouldn't support the older WiFi frequency at all. So if you're considering Mango, then perhaps this could be a factor for you.
What did you upgrade to? my mango is barely pulling 4mbps over 2.4ghz with vpn on, it’s become too painful to use.
GL.inet Opal $52.41
Bought one for $52.42 last year
Damn! Should've waited.
Yeah, just imagine all the things I can('t) buy with such massive savings! 🤣
Credit card price drop protection? :P
On a serious note I bought ght this from Amazon for 135 on Friday, how are they with refunding difference? I haven't opened it yet
Get in touch with Amazon support ASAP and ask if anything can be done about this. They will probably say no, but it can't hurt to check anyway.
Never done it myself. Have a search on here if you want anecdotal evidence. Personally I'd just contact their customer support.
For those more technically inclined, note this router is powered by a Chinese SiFlower SF19A28 SoC which has questionable OpenWRT support. I’d rather a Qualcomm or MediaTek SoC.
Its worth spending a little more and get GL.iNet GL-A1300 (Slate Plus) $84.5 which support OpenWRT
https://www.amazon.com.au/GL-A1300-Wireless-Encrypted-Tether…
No harm to have both :)
Slate Plus is better in power consumption while Beryl AX is better at speed and performance
Slate Plus for travel and Beryl AX to be used at home
Is the Beryl AX smaller than the Slate Plus?
I use my Beryl ax for travel. It's great
Went for the Slate Plus thanks!
Doesn't this Opal support OpenWRT? It's in the specs in the listing and on its box.
the advantage of using OpenWRT is the ability to use lots of third party plugins, which requires compile against specific cpu type and kernal
given SiFlower is less popular compare to Qualcomm or MediaTek
you will likely need to compile the packages yourself instead of just pulling from repo (or download those already compiled packages)
how good is this for a range extender? Looking for something to extend the wi-fi range to front of house? thx
It has moderately better range than my phone and laptop, although that's about all I can say on the subject 😅
Should I bother upgrading from mango or is that just fine
Not a direct answer to your question, but this whole discussion above had prompted me to dig out my old Slate and get it ready for an upcoming trip. Been digging around the specs etc for an hour or two two, as much as I'm tempted to buy a new model, the Slate is just fine for my requirements. I know it's not a Mango / Opal comparison, just offering my 2c worth.
Mango is hard to beat for its portability. Wifi speeds are good enough for browsing and streaming (my usual use case is 2 people browsing on phones in a hotel room with Chromecast with Google TV streaming). I think for basic needs it's still a good device.
I've upgraded to the Beryl because I've setup an openvpn server at home, and the plan is going forward to constantly have the Beryl connected to the home VPN when abroad. The Beryl is specced at 150mbps for OpenVPN, the equivalent on the mango is like 11mbps which is too slow.
I carry this and google tv dongle with me. Can get to Netflix if I get bored and have time to watch a movie. As without this router there is no way you can connect your google tv to captive portal wifi.
Im glad you posted this as I am exploring their other product the GL.iNet GL-XE300, which is a similar product with a sim card input.
I am interested in this as I am hoping to use a prepaid sim to power small data items such as smart home stuff, however, I'd like to plug in my iphone when im home - the theory being to overide the sim data, and use my phones data to do stuff like stream.
Does anyone know if this is possble?
The Opal is unable to take a sim card directly, but you can plug into it a 3G/4G/5G USB cellular modem or an old phone with USB tethering enabled and the router will be able to access the sim card connection from there.
The Opal is also able to act as a WIFI repeater, so you can turn on your iphone hotspot at home, and the Opal can be configured to connect automatically when the hotspot is in range. There is an option to enable "Auto scan and re-connect" when you need the Opal to work as a WIFI repeater.
One thing to note is that you will only get half speed/bandwidth if you run both the hotspot and the repeater WIFI on the same 2.4Ghz band. To get full bandwidth you will have to run the hotspot on 2.4Ghz and the WIFI repeater on 5Ghz or vice versa.
The GL.iNet documentation lists the internet connection priority as Cable > Repeater > Tethering > 3G/4G Modem, so this should all work pretty well in your use case.
Could i use this to tether to my iPhone, use data from iPhone but also keep phone charged?
I have heard that you can, and their website seems to suggest so. Hoping to hear if anyone else has done this successfully though
Yes, you should be able to either use USB tethering from your iPhone, which should also trickle charge the phone at the same time, or simply turn on the WIFI hotspot on your iPhone and get the Opal to connect to the hotspot and rebroadcast as a WIFI repeater.
I’ve used a Shadow with both an iPhone and Android with USB tethering and can confirm the power to the device does keep the phone charged. I’d like to assume that similar GL devices should behave the same way.
I picked up the Slate Plus last year and have only used it in hotels a few times. Basic functions work well and only a Marriott hotel took a bit of time to get connected. I haven’t yet made the time to setup a VPN to use my home PiHole.
These are great, originally purchased an older model years ago for travel as many described above, but haven't had limited wifi for a while now.
I now have mine setup as a automatic secondary failover route on my firewall, so when the internet falls over, plug in the phone to tether and everything keeps working seamlessly. Got the family all trained up so anyone can plug their phone in and we have a functional home network, great use for all that excess data saved up.
this sound great - can you please detail how you've done this?
Get a firewall/router that has the ability to have multiple gateways and routing rules (not suggesting a brand/model to avoid the OZB flamewars)
Setup a secondary interface on the firewall and connect the GL.Inet to it, defaults on the device is fine, firewall witll get the DHCP ip, adjust/secure as needed
Configure the GL.inet device to use tethering, configure firewall failover gateway rules
To test, drop the main internet line, plug in your phone and allow tethering, test as needed
Depending on your use cases, most phones these days can share/repeat/hotspot a WIFI. You can also turn on a VPN and AdGuard, etc. Tho, it will get hot.
Can someone explain how this works pls?
so I buy this device and when I get to a hotel, I connect the device to the hotel wifi internet (how ? through wifi ?) and it gives me more secure access ?