Suggest a Good and Not Too Expensive Secondary Router/Modem

• 

  FoxJump on 13/09/2023 - 19:32

  +3

  with your flint you should be able to port forward the vpn port from the primary router to it

  • 

    USER DC on 13/09/2023 - 20:27

    I have tried port forwarding a bunch of ports from my Nokia fastmile 5G like 53, 80, 51820, 443, 21, 22. ANY THAT I MISSED ? on Nokia fastmile 5G?? But the GL.inet keeps saying in the DDNS page (you are behind NAT aka dont have public IP).

    So as a result whenever I setup Wireguard/OpenVPN server using GL.inet interface, (and connect a device to Wireguard/openVPN as a client I get no internet). I also dont see a device connected in the GL.inet interface on server connections list.

    But regardless of all of that THE MAIN THING ROUTER MUST SUPPORT IS either one of these protocols (from the plugged in USB storage)
    FTP, SFTP, SMB,S3 Compatible or WebDAV.
    GL.inet Flint does not support FTP, SFTP which is a big big bummer for me to stick with GL.inet.

    The entire point of me buying GL.inet was so that I can easily do stuff like adblocking, vpn connection etc. with ease. But it does not seem to be so easy anymore, so I might as well move back to tp link Archer VR1600.

    Also the CS of GL.inet is like so hard to get, (Like i am posting forums over here, because of this only).

    At the moment, the cheapest and easiest option for me to access LAN outside home seems to be NORDVPN's meshnet. But I dont have NORD subscription rn, I may probably just get that instead if setting up pesonal VPN is too hard.

    • 

      FoxJump on 13/09/2023 - 20:46

      -1

      i think brume2 i think supports tailscale which should solve most of your problems

      wireguard isn't ready to setup unfortunately

      but idk about ftp.

    • 

      Limbot on 13/09/2023 - 22:15

      +3

      1. You cannot get DDNS to work because you are on a mobile connection and hence behind CGNAT. To get remote access you will need either Tailscale or Zero Tier which are designed to work with a CGNAT connection.
      2. Both Tailscale and Zero Tier are supported "out of the box" on the Flint in the latest firmware 4.2.3. You will not get a Wireguard or OpenVPN server to work no matter what router you buy because of the CGNAT.
      3. I don't know about FTP but if you have the latest firmware 4.2.3 the built in network storage will support both Samba and Webdav. That being said, while it appears that the router does not support FTP natively with the Gl.Inet firmware, because it's based on OpenWRT you can load a FTP server manually (according to what I can see from a quick Google search)

      Hope this helps.

      • 

        USER DC on 14/09/2023 - 09:27

        thanks for the help was able to successfully get NAS/(a standard USB SSD or flash drive) connected outside of the home network (tested on Mobile Data).
        Was getting speeds of upto 1.6 MBPS download , and 1MBPS upload. - Still way better than WD my cloud itself which is around 1MBPS or less often, and lacks sync feature outside home. Synced Using SMB2 and WebDAV possible (router point had to be changed from 192.168.8.1 to the new Tailscale subnet (100.0…. )something like that.

        Cannot really manage to get FTP/SFTP to turn on via Luci or something else. Cannot find something helpful with that. Am able to install opensshfttp something like that plugin from the GL.inet dashboard (BUT unable to actually use/open it anywhere)

        For those wondering about what I had been doing, THIS IS THE CHEAPEST POSSIBLE NAS DUDE, (cost is Only your USB device, and GL.inet router in this case, If i somehow get better speeds with say another protocol or another way, I will let you'all know.

• 

  Morien on 13/09/2023 - 20:35

  Budget?

  • 

    USER DC on 13/09/2023 - 20:36

    Preferably around $150 or less. (at much higher costs, It just doesn't make much sense to use modem/router for everything, instead raspberry pi (better option instead of $200+ range).

• 

  FoxJump on 13/09/2023 - 20:48

  you could also get an old laptop to setup whatever you actually need

  • 

    USER DC on 13/09/2023 - 21:21

    Na laptop is too much power, I prefer on phone (android), like Nord Meshnet, if not router, (then followed by cheap Raspberry pi setup) then only old windows laptop.

• 

  c64 on 14/09/2023 - 10:00

  optus 4g/5g doesn't support unsolicited incoming connections. the only way to connect to a home lan would be via a vpn and an external host such as a vps

  if you get a router you should be able to bridge the 5g modem and let the router handle everything. however, you won't have any public ip as mentioned above

  • 

    USER DC on 14/09/2023 - 21:39

    Upon contact with vodafone/tpg it seems like their network does not assign a Public IP to the 5G home modem. (thus why I was unable to get port forwarding).
    Saying this because
    WAN IP doesn't match the IP address from Google. Thus VPN server with routers is going to be very difficult for free. (only Zerotier or Tailscale are free options, ofcourse other paid options still available, But may be better to just get Nord meshnet instead of them)

    • 

      c64 on 15/09/2023 - 17:54

      yes, you get no public ip for 4g/5g so you need an external host with a public ip to act as an endpoint to access your home lan. your home router would need to establish a vpn connection with the external host, not the other way around.

      i've never used the services you mentioned. maybe they can do what you want. i just use a cheap vps + openvpn + openwrt xiaomi router + bridged 4g modem

• 

  OMGJL on 14/09/2023 - 10:24

  in your use case I think a raspberry pi or its alternative (SBC with whatever linux) would be the best suit, better expendability than android phone, just install a linux distro, and docker everything. Versatile, easy to manage, and mostly platform independent.

  With your triple NAT issue (CTNAT + 5G router + another OpenWRT router), it's mostly setup issue. CGNAT can be solved by zerotier or FRP(if you have a VPS server —- Oracle Cloud free tier might be a good option). OpenVPN etc can be solved via FRP too which is kinda like port forwarding.

  and if you really want a good router, TP-Link XDR 4288/6086/6088 is a good bet, all 3 are based on MTK MT7986A SOC, which have full speed USB3.0 support that actually hit 200MB/s +, and have dual 2.5G ethernet port… All 3 is supported on the latest OpenWRT rc, stable build should be out soon ish.

  Only thing is you need to buy it from China (sold in China only), crack it with firmware exploit, and flash official OpenWRT uboot with no GUI/webpage so could be dangerous—- I have to recovery mine using NAND programmer twice because I can't read and follow instructions.

  • 

    USER DC on 14/09/2023 - 12:04

    thanks mate,

    With your triple NAT issue (CTNAT + 5G router + another OpenWRT router),

    it's a lot more than than, my main purpose is/was to make a NAS (like a proper NAS that I can use outside home). And also sync it with my Cloud storages (like oneDrive, Google drive, dropbox etc.)

    Android phone was the best option IMO, because
    *FolderSync app (free app from playstore) allows me to Sync local FTP/SFTP/WebDAV/SMB etc. directly onto other places like (Cloud accounts- Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox etc. and phone local storage too, heck even allows Cloud to Cloud sync - like 1 x OneDrive account to another 1 x Onedrive account or to another 1 x Google drive account).
    * and its very low power, no need to buy extra stuff.

    Linux, raspberry pi and option too, (but I only dont want it because, 1. $$price cost to buy new stuff, 2. Its not so easy to learn the new raspberry pi system, and how to do all the Syncing from that.)

    TP-Link XDR 4288/6086/6088 , actually hit 200MB/s, have dual 2.5G ethernet port

    Thanks I will look into it. With my curent GL.inet Flint the max speeds I get from USB to ethernet or ethernet to USB is like 90 MBps. (probably because of Gigabit Ethernet limitation I think). I will also compare their Flint 2 with the Tp Link routers you mentioned here (price wise when it comes out) thanks.

    Only thing is you need to buy it from China (sold in China only),

    No I dont want to buy from China, prefer Amazon or eBay at most sorry. Unless router is really really cheap and good (then I may consider Aliexpress but nothing beyond that from China). Anyway how much $$ did you pay for it BTW (and got same functionality- Adguard Home, and VPN server, Client support, along with zerotier/tailscale yeah)

    • 

      OMGJL on 15/09/2023 - 01:17

      main purpose is/was to make a NAS (like a proper NAS that I can use outside home). And also sync it with my Cloud storages (like oneDrive, Google drive, dropbox etc.)

      I personally have a XPE Synology (PC running Synology software), which perfectly does this with very little setup.

      Synology Cloud Station does the cloud drive sync that you after, and I can docker just about anything everything.

      It's a old Z97 + i3 + 16G DDR3, got 8T*2 + 10T*2 + 12T*1 in it, which is a bit excessive but I happen to have those drives thanks to CHIA.

      Unless router is really really cheap and good

      XDR 4288/6086/6088 cost CNY 560/650/700 (equiv to $120/140/150 AUD), air shipping is around $25~30 ish. I don't see how you can buy a dual 2.5G router in Australia for around this price at all. But again it kinda requires you to be Chinese yourself or have a good Chinese friend (for paying CNY to order crap in China and shipping)

      otherwise single 2.5G port GL.iNet GL-MT3000 is the closest alternative.
      CON:
      4 core 2.0Ghz -> 2 core 1.3Ghz
      2 2.5G port -> 1 2.5G port
      4 gigabit port -> 1 gigabit port
      AX6000 -> AX3000
      slightly slower USB port

      PRO
      much smaller shape (that's a big pro)
      Stock OpenWRT without needing to FAFO (f..k around and find out)
      AU stock/warranty (big pro)

      • 

        USER DC on 15/09/2023 - 02:52

        Flint 2 will have 2x 2.5 Gb Ethernet too (just not released yet - https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-mt6000/ )
        I will be waiting for that to be released in Q4 (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q5hEt_8wzFo&lc=UgynC32FWnu5c…)
        without "need to sell one of my kidneys or both?"

        • 

          OMGJL on 15/09/2023 - 12:39

          @USER DC: looks like basically a rebranded 6088, apart from the waiting game, seems like a decent one to get