Prime Members: GL.iNet Gigabit Travel AC VPN Router Expired

I don't think this is a great price. I've done lots of hours of research on routers, so please let me explain before you downvote me:

The only reason this router is being on sale is because the new router (GL-MT1300) was released, at a similar price to the old AC750S-Ext. ($74.90) https://store.gl-inet.com/product...-gl-mt1300

The chipset on this router is quite dated at this point, it's single core QCA9563. I don't have this specific router, but I do have a TP-Link router with the same SoC. On that router, I get ~20mbps on openvpn and ~80mbps through wireguard.

It's not bad, but it's certainly not as fast as I'd prefer.

Of course, being an older model it also has micro USB, whereas the newer one has usb-c.

My personal recommendation if you're going to spend $60-70 anyway on a travel router is as such:

Raspberry Pi 4 (2GB): $35
2 x MT7612U USB adapters (AC1200 x 2): $20 x 2 - from aliexpress/amazon

Total cost comes down to $75, and you can upgrade the components individually down the road when wifi6/6e comes out on usb sticks.

You can put OpenWRT on the raspberry pi and it will have dedicated backhaul/connection to your hotel's wifi instead of halving the bandwidth available to your client devices. The RPI4 can also handle wireguard up to a gigabit and openvpn @ 300mbps so you get way more performance than these outdated overpriced travel routers.

Even if you don't like the RPI4 DIY, the newer GL-MT1300 has a dual core MT7621A SoC which is significantly faster than the QCA9563. Wireguard speeds of 200mbps are to be expected vs ~70mbps. https://openwrt.org/docs/guide-us...erformance

For $20 more the GL-MT1300 is the better buy if you care at all about performance and I find more and more that hotels have fiber or at least >100mbps connections now.

Otherwise the AC750 at $55 is /acceptable/ but not hot by any means - just warm.

For context, a fully saturated wifi5 connection should hit 500-600mbps in real world use. QCA9563 wireguard caps out at ~75mbps, MT7621 wireguard caps out at ~200mbps.

I've stayed in hotels with gigabit symmetric connections, others with terrible 10/1 connections. If you're downloading and uploading stuff, you'd cap out the CPU at 100/100 for example on the MT7621 CPU and 40/40 on the QCA9563 CPU.

In addition, if you want to power one of these things as you travel so you have it as a repeater for all your devices, and be able to plug it in to the wall at your convenience (so it doesn't reboot the router as you move it around) you can get a power bank/battery pack that supports passthrough charging.

Notable powerbanks that support passthrough charging include: ZMI Ambi 10k ($25), zendure x6 ($$$$) , Voltaic V50 USB Battery Pack ($$$), etc. That way you can keep your travel router running without reboots as you get to the hotel or move away from the hotel and keep it in your bag or something.

I had to do a lot of digging to find/build my optimal travel router, hope this helps someone.

A final thing to note: if you plan on using any device as a wireless repeater, you should have 2 separate radios, otherwise you will halve the throughput due to the frequency/channel space. For example, 2 clients both using channel 36 will mean the theoretical throughput will be halved. Because both the AC750 and MT1300 only have ONE radio, your throughput is halved. By having 2 separate radios on the DIY RPI4, you can make sure you have this issue by setting up the connection on 1 channel and the AP (access point) on a separate channel. That way your clients will not experience throughput halving.

Edit: corrected model number because I don't have photographic memory

Don't do it regardless as there's likely a policy against any such connections. The consequences are too high (career and data exposure).

It does increase the risk for other servers that are connected similarly which can increase the risk even inside the firewall depending on how things are configured, etc. Too many variables that can cause trouble.

Many times. Step 1: Power on the router and, if wired, connect to Ethernet. Step 2: Connect your phone or other device to the router's SSID. Step 3: From your device, connect to the management interface of the router (or use the glinet app) and configure the router to connect to the hotel's network either via wire or by scanning for and connecting to the hotel's SSID. Step 4: Open a browser on your device, attempt to access an Internet website, get prompted and login to the hotel network. To the hotel's network, this will appear to come from the router, not your device. Now any traffic that passes through the router will benefit from the login you just did. Step 5: Connect your other devices to the router's SSID and browse away!