GL.iNet GL-AR300M16 Portable Mini Travel Pocket WiFi Router - Extender/Repeater for Hotel&Public Network | VPN Client&Server | Connector between WiFi&Ethernet | OpenWrt | USB Port | Internet Security

Bought this for remote Wireguard VPN access to my home server and to bounce off my home broadband to get UK iPlayer etc. when travelling. Very neat, flexible and clever little device running OpenWRT under an excellent custom UI which smooths out most of the complexity, although setting up private VPN links as opposed to the large menu of commercial providers is buried pretty deep in the menus and needs a bit of thought and subnet planning. Upgraded to the (beta) 4.3.6 release 2 firmware which is working fine so far and offers a few useful advantages. Draws under 5W so will work with pretty much any USB charger / laptop port. Only 2.4GHz / 802.11b/g/n radio and 100M Ethernet so not the fastest thing on the planet, but given the constraints of most hotel / transport Internet is not often going to be a practical limitation. Really wish they'd bring out an updated, equally light, tiny (and cheap!) version with USB-C power, Dual band WiFi 5 / 802.11ac, 2x 1G Ethernet and a more NOR & RAM space but really can't argue with the value and utility of this thing!

It works fine (just a bit slower up to around 7Mbs or so with OpenVPN) but gradually over time (within 24 hours easily) the connection will slow down unless you unplug it and plug it back in. It will automatically restart everything as before so no worried about losing the VPN. I've had to put it on a timer socket so it switches off temporarily during the night. I'm using it on for AirBNB.This is pretty annoying and should be solvable in software so why hasn't this been fixed yet? A simple restart brings the speed back up to normal. I also noticed the ping becomes really slow too not just the speed. Maybe the CPU is running out of memory or other resources slowly over time (such as a memory leak etc).

I dont have cable or an adsl internet connection in my home. Everything that requires an internet connection I attach to my phones hotspot. But this is a massive drain on my phones battery, and on consistent use has ruined the battery of my iPhone 7 which now lasts just a few hours before needing to recharge.Now I have an iPhone 12 mini, and the battery is so much better, but I didnt want to ruin it again. I have been hunting far and wide for something like this and couldnt believe it didnt exist, it has for android phones for years. Why, Apple?? Why??But then I came across the GL iNet mini router in yet another hopeful search and I immediately felt relief. I compared it to others that the internet had also been hiding from me and read several dozen reviews.This thing is SO small, and SO easy to set up. I was at it for couple of hours because I had performed 2 instructions the wrong way around. Once I noticed, reset, restart, sharing internet in 10 minutes.My mistake was attaching my phone via USB instead of going straight to Wifi connection to set up the router.The fact you can install a VPN is outstanding. I had a little difficulty because the VPN I used for my Phone, which is ExpressVPN, is not directly supported by the router. But ExpressVPN supports OpenVPN, so a little googling of “GL inet expressvpn” and I had a walkthrough which worked great.Depending which VPN you use it may slow down your connection like mine does, but its far more consistent. I know this because I ran a whole lot of speed tests in various setups. But thats the price for added security... for me. And if you want to set up like mine, the VPN will stop your provider from throttling back your data speeds. Which I cant stand because if Im paying for unlimited data (670GB per month in actuality) then I should get it.Just remember though, you dont need a VPN unless you have specific concerns, and your net connection is faster if its just the router you’re using. Worth pointing out that VPNs are subscriptions services that make your internet connection appear to come from somewhere else, and there is a switch on the side on the unit that can be set up to allow you to turn your VPN on and off without going into the admin panel.Fantastic little piece of kit, and at this price, I can see me getting another as a repeater at some point.

The main router in the house is an expensive "dead spider" thing which cost me hundreds. It's great but, cheap IoT devices like smart bulbs and plugs _really_ don't like the shared 2.4GHz/5GHz airspace. I lost hours of my life trying to sync £10 supermarket bulbs reliably, it's a pain in the proverbial when you've got several in one room and pairing manages to link three out of the four.Enter this teeny-tiny little bad boy. 2.4GHz only and a frankly astonishing range in a house which has internal walls two feet thick. Every Smart device in the house connected in seconds and solidly. Even the Gen 1 Echo connected with it, and that's been sat in a cupboard being a gormless paperweight for two years.I don't use 99% of it, but the functionality offered is exceptional. Its default firmware is more feature-rich than most regular users will ever need, and it natively supports OpenWRT - it's literally a tick box in the settings - which will keep the most ardent of hackers and hobbyists happy.Superb product, they could have slapped a zero on the price and I wouldn't have felt too hard done by. Purely from a home automation point of view it's one of the best £20 I ever spent. I'm seriously considering buying another one just to tool about with.