I agree about the USB "C" vs USB "Micro" connections. The way I fixed that issue is I purchased a bunch of USB "C" to "Micro" adapters (not cords) from Amazon and I boxed all my old USB "Micro" power supplies and purchased the "C" power supplies to replace them. Amazing how many of the USB "Micro" devices I have. All working fine. Great video!
I have an Opal router, which I chose because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted/needed at the time of purchase. Or if it was something I'd even use long-term. Have been pleased with the unit and have considered upgrading, since my initial purchase was merely to learn and get started. I see a lot of people recommending the Beryl AX over the Opal. I think I am going to stick with the Opal for now, but if I were ever to upgrade, I'd go with the Beryl AX just for future-proofing and perhaps for the newer WiFi 6 protocol. But for my main use repeating hotel WiFi, the Opal has been working great.
I purchased the Opal because of the price. The great advantage of a travel router is you can completely set up your "travel network" before you travel so all devices will automatically see the travel router network and you will have visibility of those devices on that travel sub-net. Do you need to carry a shared printer, scanner, or NAS. They will be visible and likely auto connect if you did the proper home setup before your travel. I also like the auto vpn back to my home for all internet traffic as my home router blocks ads and malware sites. You just need to connect to the hotel, cafe, or cruise ship network, everyone turns on their devices and you are good to go.
Personally, I'd recommend the Beryl AX; it's also more likely to get an update than the Opal is; and at $90, the Beryl AX is a better buy once, cry once option. Is the Opal bad ? Certainly not; just know that it's more like End-of-Life. It's also cheap, in case you lose it, or it gets stolen. Will you notice the difference in real world use ? Not really, not right now. If you deal with larger files, or lots of business use, I'd lean towards the Beryl AX as it will give arguably better performance. Would I suggest using the VPN feature if using someone else's wifi ? YES; but not absolutely necessary, but it does help prevent snooping. Out of the box, the NAT feature of the firewall router will already enhance security; nowadays, you are better assuming that someone else did not do a great job of securing their wifi, so assume that they did NOT, so travel router= YES; VPN=Yes. The Beryl AX will also deal with newer features like Ad blocking much better than the older SLATE ( it's a built in feature ) ; Side note: Some services like Amazon Prime and Netflix aren't particularly VPN friendly; but the GL.Inet devices do allow exceptions for websites, thus can allow other traffic to be protected by the VPN while allowing Netflix / Amazon Prime to be not going over the VPN. I do like devices that do get updates; but in reality, updates from any manufacturer for wifi routers seems to be hit or miss, and often very infrequent. Still, I'd rather own a device that might likely get an update some point in the future. These things are great anyway you look at it; whether it be the Slate AX, Beryl AX, or Opal; all will work, and improve your overall security out of the box. All can be setup in a few minutes, and all can also be ran off a USB power bank. Not only can these be useful for travel, but let's say that you are in an area where the free wifi is poor strength, these devices can often connect where your phone may not; so connect the travel router to the free wifi, and use it to repeat to your phone or tablet. There is an app for android and iphones for the GL.Inet routers; good for setup that does not require a laptop to configure the router. For example, the local gym has wifi, but almost no reception in the parking lot; however, the gl.inet routers pick up the weak signal and can stream movies very well, despite the phone not being able to even pick up the wifi signal.
Thanks! These can handle most captive portal logins with no issues. There is documentation on the GL.iNET website on how to get it done. I’m planning to do a short video on this in the next week or two.
I've used the Opal at Hilton and Holiday Inn Express captive portals. Often you will need to toggle the WiFi of the initial device off/on to trigger the captive portal.
I am using the gl-a1300 slate model. I am using WireGuard vpn to connect to my home network. I am running into issue communicating with my local devices on my home network because the hotel has two routers connected to each other and doing a double NAT. Do you know how to resolve routing issues when there is a double NAT in place? The VPN does connect and traffic is getting out to the internet but cannot ping or connect to anything on the home network.
Doing an initial search, it seems like there's no way around this. People that are reporting on this issue say they can't even connect to other paid VPN services as well. The solution always is to contact the ISP or the network admin, which obviously is not an option here. I wish I had a better answer.
Doubt that it is the double nat; more likely a common network, i.e. the hotel is using the same network as you are at the house, or perhaps the port is being forwarded by the hotel's router to a different destination. I'd first try changing the interface and peer configs on your travel router and home router to a not common port, like 51822 instead of 51820, and see if that works. My guess is that the hotel is attempting to block 51820 (a common VPN port ) or is possibly using it for their own purposes; anyways, when one has two or more client configs using the same set of ports, the routers get damn funky . It's also possible that the hotel is using a network that is common to one of yours or is a subset one way or another of each other.. Still, I'd try changing ports from a commonly defined port to an oddball port. I even read of one person that used 443 instead of 51820 to bypass a firewall restriction... Personally, I'd avoid commonly designated ports where I could..
@@MrPir84freeI think you are correct. The hotel and my home network is using the same common network address 192.168.1.0/24. I’m not able to change the home network address because I’m traveling and if I try it will break the vpn I’m using to connect back to my home network. It there away to put in a route in the router? Example to get to 192.168.1.12 need to go through WG vpn 10.7.0.1 tunnel. Not to go through the WAN port that uses the hotel ip 192.168.1.0/24 range?
Yes... it's definitely possible as long as the USB port on the PC can output enough power. I can power these travel routers through the USB-C port on my MacBook Air.
how’s it going for you while using it for that purpose? considering the same thing and wondering about your results, i am unable to wire ethernet from my router to this router so it’d be a repeater and have heard that it works quite well for that as it establishes a direct line free from other devices intervening
As far as function as a travel router is concerned, I would say, these blow the Raspberry Pi RaspAP out of the water. They just have dedicated hardware made for doing the network stuff. The Raspberry RaspAP is great if you already have a Raspberry Pi and if you want to do other things with it as well. For example, I've taken the Raspberry Pi with me to be both a travel router and a development server on the go.
Thank you for your video, I have zero tech knowledge and we are retired with an RV. I need a hotspot to operate my camera to watch my pets. ?Do you need a data plan to operate these Wi-Fi routers? Sometimes campground has Wi-Fi and sometimes not. Please help!! Thanks! Pam
Hey Pam, these devices still require a hotspot (device that connects to a data plan) to receive internet if there isn’t an alternative available like camp ground WiFi or hotel WiFi. In some cases the hotspot you get from a carrier will negate the need for a travel router. But, there can be benefits to having both as well.
Does it mean connecting to this router encrypts your data and prevents potential hackers from getting into your devices lets say your laptop? Im kinda confused, coz they say this router secures your connection, but then does it mean its the same functions as having a vpn then? and applying vpn to this router "further" secures your devices? Will greatly appreciate the response coz totally confused right now lol
they take the public wifi or wired internet from the hotel and create a separate network to act as a middle man to your devices. The benefit of these devices is being able to route back into your own network at home, or if you have a VPN software, you can set the router to act as a VPN client, and any other devices on your router network will all be sending encrypted data through the VPN. It inherently does not provide any real protection ( encryption) without being routed though the VPN. An extra network layer with a password is a minor inconvenience for someone who wants your data, so I wouldn't really say that it's secure on its own. For most people, it's a convenience thing with VPNs like Nord that will allow you up to X amount of simultaneous connections at once. With this, you can set the travel router as a single user of the VPN, and any devices connected to that router will be encrypted as well. If all you're worried about is keeping a phone or laptop's data secure while traveling while on public wifi, then a general VPN subscription is probably fine. If you've got multiple devices that exceed the amount of devices allowed on your VPN plan, these travel routers are great.
the GL.iNet is a Chinese company and usually they can make the product very cheap; don't understand why this product can sell at a pricey $100+ point, while many other travel routers sell at half price or even less, usually these Chinese copycats product can copy features from each other very fast, hopefully UP can find 2 or 3 competing vendor products and do a thorough comparison review? Thanks!
opal be like 23$. i like how little power it uses with a gan usb-c power supply its like 8w less than my old router which means it pays for itself after 2 years lol. other models never bread even. i feel like older 2.4 wifi has better range... just a law of physics.
