Back on sale - prices similar to those posted in @Chuppa's deal back in Jan, however these are $0.01 more expensive :(
Opal - $52.42
Slate Plus - $84.49
Beryl AX - $114.87
Slate AX also discounted, but only to $164.25 - was discounted to $156.75 in Jan.
CamelCamelCamel.
What have I bought?
Was 1 of each enough?
what am I reselling?
If you are going on holiday with your laptop and various devices - it will allow you to connect the GL.iNet to the hotel wifi, then use connection sharing to connect your local devices to the GL.iNet.
Or you can use it as an access point.
To be honest I haven't bought one as I can't see any use for it.
Got a Slate AR750s and used it as a VPN gateway for devices when I was overseas for a holiday. Made it easier and secure when connecting to public/hotel WiFi.
Had the Slate setup with a VPN profile from my local router and WiFi details the same as the local router so all the devices can connect without entering new details. Safe and secure connection.
Also had Proton VPN loaded when needing to access local sites for whatever reasons.
Worth the dollars for the ease of managing devices and from a security perspective.
For most of the trip it looked as if I was connecting from home.
Yep I have the same model and have used it on a few holidays, I wouldn't go anywhere without it.
I've tested and used quite a few VPN's on it, it works flawlessly.
Trying to resist the urge to buy the Slate AX, I want it but don't need it as the AR750s does everything I need.
I bought the Mudi V2 on a pre-release deal when it was still in beta. It's not perfect but it's a great device that AFAIK no other company has produced anything that can compete.
Love GL.iNet products
Have they stopped making the mango router?
Are they better?
I got a couple free with VPN deals. They were great when they worked. But I was messing-around with settings too much (VPN settings were the prob).
Had each one set for USA, one for UK. TO change catalogue, switch wifi
Is the MT6000 Flint 2 any good?
From what I've read it's a good cheaper alternative to an Asus router if you don't need to mesh.
Think I'd go down the cheaper Flint 2 route when/if my current RT-AX86 was to suddenly stop working, if it falls below expectation within 30 days it could always be sent back to Amazon for a refund.
only had mine a couple months or so- love it so far
I've been using one since release, and for me it's been rock solid. A really good feature set for the price.
Fantastic hardware for the price, haven't had issues in my usecase.
Worth noting that their have been reports of issues with the firmware. Haven't checked for a while so they might've resolved some, but worth a read through the bug page on the forum before committing.
Do any have 4G support?
Not natively (no sim slots) but you should be able to tether your mobile or use mobile dongles via the USB port. I have a Beryl Ax and have tethered my phone to it multiple times.
they have other models which can take a SIM card directly.
They can also take a USB 4G modem/dongle which will have the SIM card inside
My home 4G internet runs on a mango connected to a USB 4G modem. Then the LAN goes to the WAN on my ASUS router.
The reason that I do it this way, is that I can use the GL-.iNet Multi WAN load balancing feature. I set my mobile phone to turn on it's hotspot whenever it's at home charging, and the mango (or any GL-iNet router), automatically connects to both the home 4G modem, and my mobiles hotspot at the same time and effectively doubles my connection speed. You can combine up to 4 different internet connections (NBN via WAN port, tethered phone, WiFi/hotspot, and SIM slot if you have one) and merge them all into your home router.
https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/4/interface_guide/multi-w…
Only up to 2 CA, not great when phones do up to 5ca on current aussie networks
Yeah it's not perfect but last time I checked there's nothing else on the market with the functionality.
I almost bought one and realised I already bought one that's still in the box from last year and I still don't know what I need it for
good for travelling when you want to be secured, but tbh you would only need these for working remotely and don't want your employer to find out. Recently I setup a pivpn + one of these for a friend, and he has been working remotely from Asia. Seems ok so far .. until he is busted I guess
I actually bought it for travelling and completely forgot about it. thanks I may or may not need something for that purpose..
I won't travel without one. Excellent to create your own private & secure network for devices with the router connecting to hotel wifi and VPN.
If you are looking for ideas, I use mine to physically separate trusted devices from the untrusted devices (work laptops, guests) connected to my ISP router. It's also a good VPN client & server.
Latest firmware on beryl doesnt leave a lot of room for anything else. Extending with sd card used to work but cant get it going again with overlay filesystem.
what is the use case for this one? since i see this deal poping up quite often with reasonably good feedback.
Isn't all hotels now have free wifi anyway? Ethernet is actually harder to come back than wifi these days.
A few:
1. Device limits. Hotels typically have a limit on the number of devices that can connect to their WiFi. This helps get around that limit as you will be connecting only one of these to their WiFi and your devices connect to this.
2. Security. Hotel WiFi are notorious for safety - poor authentication, shared network that makes your traffic visible to othera on the network, etc. These devices can enforce VPN of your choice so all the traffic going over these are encrypted and isolated.
3. Versatility. You only need to connect one of these to the WiFi, Ethernet or mobile network, and all your devices are ready to go.
Hotel free wifi in China and Territories… courtesy of your friendly local Chinese government.
Same with free USB charging ports.
Recommend getting a carry-case for the Beryl as well.
https://www.amazon.com.au/gp/product/B0B6FY8NMH/ref=ppx_yo_d…
Looks kinda generic. I got a few automotive devices that came with one.
The case would take up more space and the router seems sturdy enough to chuck in a bag or backpack. I usually carry a bag for cables etc.
The case keeps everything together and provides protection from careless baggage handlers, I like it. The Beryl is well built but light and I don't think it would take much punishment.
Yup I have this exact case and it takes up heaps of space even with some chargers and cables on the other side pocket. Have revert to just putting my Beryl in a plastic bag in the backpack when traveling. It's quite rugged!
I put it in a Inateck organiser along with a bunch of other equipment and cables. I quite like it.
Previous deal: https://www.ozbargain.com.au/node/824063
Thanks op. Really excited to see this deal and finally grab it!
What is it?
Can you connect this directly to an Internet connection that has a fixed ip address etc and use this device as the router?
thats exactly what this will be used as.
Depending on your exact needs your phone may already be able to do this for you without the need to reach into your pocket for a new travel router.
FWIW, I connected to wifi aboard P and O Pacific Encounter with a Pixel 8 and using the personal hotspot feature successfully shared the wifi connection to other phones/laptops and iPads.
Having the phone plugged in or hanging off a battery bank sorted out the extra battery drain burden.
FYI, and I headline this by saying I’m sure if you are more tech savvy you’ll be fine, BUT I bought the Opal thinking of using it for travel for multiple devices. It worked perfectly at home for said uses of connecting everyone’s devices to the one connection and had it all ready to go.
Worked really well at my MIL house overseas as I set up the SSID and password to match my home one so all the kids and our devices didn’t need to enter new WiFi passwords.
Problem was almost every hotel we went to, had Captive Portal login, and connecting to it was PAINFUL as there’s certain steps needed to negotiate to overcome this. Not impossible, but painful, lots of googling and forum trawling to find a workaround, and even then, I found after 30min of connection, the router woudd occassionally lose internet connection so I’d have to log back in via router properties and do the bypass again, which sometimes would work, and other times wouldn’t, to the point my other family members got annoyed and just logged in to the hotel wifi themselves. It seemed I was always connected to the networks but internet traffic was blocked, which searching online “can happen with Captive Portals”… Advice online to try this, tweak that, alter this, and it was 50:50 success rate.
This was even with captive portals that didn’t even need a login/password, just required accepting terms and conditions of use.
5 hotel wifi’s I’d tried this on has failed to “just work”
As such, I can only really see a benefit of the effort for running a VPN
Such a shame as it seemed so promising, but maybe it’s just me as lots of people haven’t had issues with it.
YMMV but I write this for the less tech savvy who reading the descriptions seem like a plug and play device
Interesting… I would like to get one for this purpose, but i am hesitating a bit. Has anyone else had similar problems with captive portals?
Did you try the option "clone Mac Address" as a Captive Portal work around?
This is my go to for this situation. Once I adopted this method captive portals ceased to be a problem.
Which mac address do you clone?
The First device that you register with password user name on the Hotels Wifi
https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/4/faq/connect_to_a_hotspo…
@arsenal1: But if the GL.inet router is the first device you use to connect to the hotel wifi, you wouldn't have that problem right?
Your phone or laptop
Yep, that’s what I did, which I found out after researching, which got it to work, but not sure once it was idle (ie no one actively using internet traffic), it just would stop working and i only get it to work by disconnecting the router to the wifi network and reconnecting it again
On the contrary, I never had issues with captive portals.
Yeah, YMMV, and I accept that
I've had similar issues with hotel WiFi as well. I think the problem is that there are many devices trying to connect to the WiFi via the router, but the captive portal only displays the login page to one of them and blocks all other connections. You have no idea which one it is. My solution now is to only connect a primary device (e.g. your phone) to the main WiFi SSID, and set up a guest WiFi SSID for other people/devices. Before you connect to the hotel WiFi, disable the guest WiFi and login to the captive portal. Once logged in and confirmed internet works, enable the guest WiFi for everyone. Not sure if the Opal allows guest WiFi networks, but the Beryl AX certainly does.
Have never had an issue with captive portal. There’s one or two setting changes needed from memory (uncheck or check a tick box stuff - easy) and sorted. 👍
Before making a decision on which one to get, check out this comparison. The OpenVPN speeds on the non-AX versions are quite low, so if you plan to run VPN it may be safer to get one of the more expensive ones. https://www.gl-inet.com/products/compare/
Don't forget if you VPN back to home then the maximum download you'll get remotely is <= the maximum UPLOAD at your source router.
Which on NBN FTTP in Australia is just a max of 50mbps…
I find that in real usage terms for my 100/40 account that it tops out at 37 for me when using WireGuard.
OpenVPN is known to be slow, if you are buying VPN or setting up your own, trying using WireGuard it will be faster on the same HW if HW is the limit
I agree, but NordVPN for example does not provide setup files for their wireguard (Nordlynx), only OpenVPN.
Does anyone know if I can use this to share Wi-Fi across multiple devices on a cruise ship? So if I only want to buy a single Wi-Fi package for one person, can I share it across multiple people/devices? Thanks.
Yes, purchase one wifi connection and share with additional devices. I done this on our last Carnival Cruise.
Just be aware if the Ship or Hotels use captive portals you may need to clone the Mac Address in the Modem settings first.
https://docs.gl-inet.com/router/en/4/faq/connect_to_a_hotspo…
I had issues with the Beryl, l could connect but wasn't getting data flow.
I didn't want to piss the family off 'and I was allegedly on holidays' so didn't spend much time trouble shooting, I ended up going the easy route and connecting my Pixel 8 and used it as a hotspot for everything else - worked very well.
This was on P and O Pacific Encounter.
Many cruise lines are working out how to lock out routers like that.
That's concerning, although I found the Starlink connection pretty good the price for 'premium' access for one connection is outrageous.
Can you achieve the same thing using connection sharing on a Windows laptop. I usually have one when travelling.
Probably, a phone and a power bank is a lot easier to drag around the ship though if you want connectivity anywhere else other than your room
I got the Beryl recently to complement my older GL-AR750 and I now use my GL-AR750 as my Wireguard 'server' and my Beryl is the Wireguard 'client' so now when I connect to my Beryl when traveling, the Wireguard link between the Beryl and GL-AR750 makes it think that all the devices connected to the Beryl are in my home (as opposed to the USA or Europe).
Useful for things like accessing my SMB servers from home, accessing Optus Sports for things like EPL games and more importantly, making it look you are working from home while on vacation. :-)
These would be good for starlink in a mobile application such as caravan. They run off USBC which is handy. Means you don't need an inverter.
I have the Beryl
I use it permanently as the router and find the interface the best thing I've ever used, so easy to do whatever I need from it and it just works.
The Slate Wifi versions also offer EAP support, allowing connection to captive portals without work arounds, I only own the Mango and Beryl which don't have EAP support, but haven't had issues with captive portals using the work arounds discussed here.
Interesting. I haven't heard about EAP before. I wonder why the Beryl don't have it. Maybe it will be included in the future.
I believe it's a hardware limitation so unless they chang the internals it can't be added as a feature.
I use this 24/7 as my only router in my apartment and it works a treat.
Just picked one up on AliExpress for $58.19 delivered as a part of their “coin super discounts”, worth a look there if you’re happy to have to deal with AliExpress/Gl.inet directly instead of Amazon if something goes wrong..
Units purchased from China don't have VPN enabled because of the Bamboo Curtain and the Goverment. Not sure about those purchased from Aliexpress.
https://forum.gl-inet.com/t/statement-on-the-purchase-of-pro…
Ah I guess that makes sense, sounds like the ones sold through tmall/taobao are locked down, hopefully my AliExpress one won’t be.
Workaround posted to the internet in 3,2,1……….??
I picked up a Beryl AX*
Could you please send the link?
This one - https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005006783140039.html purchased by selecting coins on the app and then using the “Coins Super Discount”
For hiding my location whilst I work overseas should I get the Beryl AX or the Slate Plus? Both seem to have Wireguard speeds that will be faster than the internet I would get anyway. Although the OpenVPN speeds for the SlatePlus are quite slow, and it doesn't have Wi-Fi 6.
For our Australian slow upload speeds it does not really matter what you get. I have an old GL-AR750 for my home server with pretty slow WireGuard upload (but definitely faster than my home upload) speeds that is connecting to my Beryl.
Do you definitely need it connected to an always running home router (or Raspberry Pi)? Would using the sole vpn travel router spoofing a location in Australia not be enough - especially if you use a residential IP VPN service? I would think this would allow for faster speeds and less alarming ping times - correct me if I'm wrong.
You can simply use a normal VPN like NordVPN etc but I work for a company that REALLY checks where you are and knows the NordVPN standard IP addresses and so I have gone to WireGuard (you could use Tailscale as well) to hide myself.
I really went with WireGuard to increase my remote security for accessing my Synology NAS initially and the digital nomad benefits were a bonus.
What is your use case? Maybe just something like NordVPN is enough for you.
Using Tailscale, the ‘always on’ device can be something like an AppleTV. Install the client on it and set it up as an exit node. Works great, you’ll always appear to be from home.
I have the slate plus, thinking of getting the Beryl AX but… heard it has a fan? Worried that is a point of failure/noise. Can someone comment if the fan is permanently on etc?
I use my Beryl AX as a repeater with VPN on constantly and haven't heard a peep from the fan. Might only turn on if you're really pushing it.
Also this just got released. Thinking of going for this one as it is a B&M type of product sold locally (well will be when it arrives).
https://www.tp-link.com/au/home-networking/wifi-router/tl-wr…
Cool, what am I buying? Lol