First-time poster. Please be gentle.
This popular travel router is on special again at Amazon.
GL.iNet GL-MT1300 (Beryl) VPN Secure Travel Gigabit Wireless Router, AC1300 400Mbps (2.4GHz) + 867Mbps(5GHz) Wi-Fi, Pocket-Sized Hotspot, IPv6, Tor, MicroSD Slot, USB3.0 for Wi-Fi Repeater
CamelCamelCamel.
The Mango model is better, right?
Personally I am a big fan of the GL-AR750 over the Mango. This model looks interesting but to my apart from the faster 5g networking, it is not too much of a jump for me over the GL-AR750 I have. That being said, if it ever dies, I'll definitely consider the Beryl.
The big advantage of Mango is size, weight and power draw but single band halves your effective bandwidth when used in repeater mode.
I have one of every model they've release and personally the AR750s (Slate) is still my goto travel router (yes we can still travel down here in Tassie 😋) because of the balance of features, performance, power draw, size and weight.
Each model has its own sweet spot depending on needs.
@Limbot: Yes, with you on that. Got the Mango and the 750. Both little powerhouses for their respective prices.
@Limbot: Prefer this for travel
https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B01K6MHRJI/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_g…
I have the S1300 for home. Pretty happy with wireguard integration but disappointed with the bluetooth hub/gateway promises. Support only points to setup doco.
Anyone pre ordering ax1800? Thanks
@Bargain-er: I'm preordering ax1800; I just received an email yesterday saying it will arrive on time which will be mid-October.
Got it for 68usd delivered so def worth the money!
@Bargain-er: Super early bird offer. I think it was limited to 10 units or something. Essentially sign up for their product launch email and buy straight away on launch day.
@XanderYuan: Now, Flint is 79 USD plus 19 for shipping = 98 USD ~ 132 AUD. Then when it's delivered, you probably pay 10% GTS over the top so it's gonna cost you around 145 AUD and you take a lot of risks in term of quality and warranty. That's why I don't go with it. I'll wait for your comment on this model.
I have both AR750 and Mango too
While AR750 has dual band I still find Mango as my more preferable travel router due to its size
Recently upgraded my AR750 firmware but accidentally brick it :(
Even tried using uBoot was unable to recover (show as upload failure in uBoot interface)
so have given up
Will try this MT1300 to see if it improve performance over AR750
Note: I found that USB tethering AR750 will slow down the speed quite significantly
Tried both tethering to Android (Samsung S20 5G) and Telstra 4GX dongle
both have slow down at least 20-30% speed compare to directly connecting to the phone / dongle
Hope MT1300 would be better
@littlesoldier: Did you brick it, or it bricked itself?! I updated mine last week and it's magically dead today :(
My AR750 just died after 18 months and it's barely been used.
FWIW I'm on the previous firmware v3.201 and not had issues. Seems they introduced a bug with enhancements in v3.203 (they added WPA3, channel interference, IPv6, CVEs patching etc - guess one of these is breaking)
Does the bug brick it? Mine is bricked a week after updating.
As far as I'm aware bricking is not one of the symptoms…..
You could try a reset. Their instructions are a bit ambiguous so…
To reset the Beryl:
Hold down the reset button
The light will flash blue,
The light will flash faster
The light will flash even faster at which time you release the reset button.
If bricked and you can't get to the interface to "revert firmware" and you need to reload software you'll need to do via uboot.
Again their instructions are a bit ambiguous. To enter uboot:
You should now be in uboot mode.
@Limbot: Nah it's fully not powering on anymore. About a week after updating.
Tried 4 power supplies
Looks like it. It's still historically a good price: https://au.camelcamelcamel.com/product/B08MKZXGBY?context=se…
I have this model and had no issues. I use it as a wifi repeater off my main router. I also set a VPN using wireguard and kill switch. So when I connect to it I am on VPN without needing my device to have VPN.
I have also taken it to a travel house with free wifi and been able to use there and ensure VPN is on and not connected direct to whatever device they had.
I like it.
That's a good idea. Makes it easy to region hop on my TV that has Netflix but no VPN support.
There appears to be a number of issues with their "stable" 3.203. If you're having issues try the Oops-Tracking version found here
https://dl.gl-inet.com/firmware/mt1300/testing/
Has fixes but also does some additional logging if it does play up.
Out of interest, where would you use one of these? My first thought was in a hotel but which hotel doesn't have wifi nowadays? Or is wifi generally terrible in a hotel and wired is good?
The use case for me (GL-AR750) is:
1. At Home: Use as an additional WIFI extension for my place. I don't use as an extension of my exiting main WIFI but as a different one. I also have Privido VPN loaded (via openVPN) onto it (but not turned on when I'm at home). All my devices (including my Chromecast) recognise the GL-AR750 and connect automatically etc.
2. When traveling, I just rip out the unit and pack it with my other electronics. When at the Hotel I might have three scenarios:
2.1: Free and Open Wifi (ie no logins):
In this case I just plug the router into power, log into the admin page via my iPhone and tell it to log into that Free WIFI as well as turn on my VPN. I can also plug my Chromecast into the HDMI port on the TV. As a side note I also do some random MAC spoofing so that the people who run the WIFI do not block the router
2.2: WIFI that requires a login and password:
Similar to 2.1, I log into the router's admin page but make sure that I enter in the provided WIFI Router login and password
2.3: WIFI that requires a Splash page to log into. I commonly see this in major hotel chains
In this case I need to log into the hotel's WIFI via my iPhone first so that the hotel internet is 'logged' to my iPhone MAC address. I then exit and log into the router but in this case before I log into the provided hotel WIFI, I copy my iPhone MAC address from the really well designed (no sarcasm) admin page drop down list and then log into the WIFI. As my Router is pretending to my my iPhone, it will just let me through without the splash page bits. (NOTE: It has been a few years since I had to do this so I may have gotten some of the steps wrong but please know that a hotel splash page is not an impediment to you using the GL range of routers).
Hope this helps.
Thanks for taking the time to explain this, much appreciated!
I'd add to this by saying that some places limit the number of devices you can connect. This gets around such limits as they only see 1 device connected.
Lol I was going to add that point in but decided to delete the line as it didn't flow well.
did this on a cruise few years ago, they like to charge for each device, this is one device… :)
This creates a firewall and independent subnet between your devices and EVERY OTHER device connected to the hotel network. I stayed at a little hotel last weekend and attaching directly to their WiFi. Using Fing I could see 43 other devices and more scarely, they could potentially see my device.
If you need to run a Chromecast/Firestick on a hotel WiFi that requires a captive portal, then you connect your mini router to the hotel WiFi, activate on another device and then Chromecase/Firestick will attach.
If you travel with family or you travel with multiple devices, you can rename your mini router to the same SSIDs as your home network. Then you don't have to attach everyone's individual device to the hotel network (and put them at risk) even when you move hotels.
I'm using the Beryl, as a secondary wifi, at home, connected to StrongVPN as a wireguard client. If your VPN provider supports wireguard, jump onto that…usually faster throughput compared to OpenVPN.
I'm on 3.203 Oops-tracking, thinking I could help report crashes but it's NOT crashing.
Would not recommend this model, plenty of issues atm it seems. https://forum.gl-inet.com/