GL-AR300M16 Portable Travel Router,OpenWrt, VPN,2 Ethernet

This is a brilliant little router. Very easy to use, weighs practically nothing and runs from any USB power source. Despite having an internal only wifi antenna, it has a surprisingly good coverage. I have a 3 floor house and can get a solid signal anywhere in the house. You can set it up and share a wired, wireless, or tethered internet connection in seconds. double NAT in router mode was a concern at first, but it seems to work well. You can set up an OpenVPN, or Wireguard VPN also so that everything connected to it shares the single VPN. If I were to criticise anything it would be that the Wifi is only 2.4ghz, and not 5Ghz. Having said that, for general browsing, streaming and office work, its more than adequate. £25 well spent.

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.

I use this as a repeater running Proton VPN to access my internet banking as the bank blocks my mobile broadband router due to its frequent IP address shifting (allegedly). I've used this same system with a GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 which is many times more powerful for a couple of years now with zero problems. The Shadow was needed for a distant room. Probably best to update to the latest firmware before doing the complete setup as there is jump from 3 to 4 release firmware which may cause the loss of certain settings. Startup with VPN running is slow at almost 5 minutes but once running all is fine and works perfectly if slowly compared to GL.inets more powerful models. Highly recommended for the price, performance and great versatility. Gl.inet make great products.

I got this as a VPN server and didn't need the wifi at all so i've not rated it and i'm not using it, i'm sure it will be good enough for most people, it is a travel router with built in VPN so you can access public internet securely, I've not tried this feature yet, but I have configured as a server to access home internet when away, this was very easy to set up. features like built in wireguard and DDNS make this very good value for money. The only issue i had was one turned up and was faulty with the LAN ethernet port not work, was returned and replaced with no issues. I would recommend one you have configured your router, power it down for about 30 seconds and reconnect as I found some of the setting didn't take until this was done. Highly recommend very simple to set up and use, loads of guides on the internet if you get stuck

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!

When I first powered it on I was amazed to see that it has DLNA media server capabilities and also usb file sharing. I did all the configuration needed and was very happy with the result. So why only 3 stars? well, ...I was prompted to do an update of the firmware, so I did, and then both media server and file sharing dissapeared. I could not re-install it, nor anything else...No space Left. Less than half mb free. So now I find it functional but limited. So many options but no resources to implement them. I should have spent £4 more and gone for the TP-link TL-WR902AC. I may still do this.

As Raspberry Pi’s are almost impossible to get at the moment, I’ve instead used this as a home VPN server so I can access it from abroad. Not too difficult to set up if you are reasonably IT competent. I’ve powered it from the USB port on my router. Works well. Absolute bargain.

I bought this to use the Wireguard server instead of my raspberry pi. So I can watch BBC news whilst abroad on my firestick. It’s very good value for money but you do need some technical knowledge to configure it correctly. It’s great that you can use a cloud based management tool. It worked great in turkey roll on Mexico later in the year.

Se state cercando un dispositivo ad alte prestazioni per la vostra rete gigabit, magari anche utilizzando una vpn sul router, questo dispositivo NON fa per voi, dovete proprio cambiare fascia di prezzo. Se invece vi serve un dispositivo che vi lasci sperimentare configurazioni esotiche in liberta, o per svolgere qualcosa (dove le performance sono secondare) che il Technicolor della TIM si rifiuta di fare anche dopo averlo sbloccato, o se vi serve un router molto economico e di facile utilizzo, allora non andate oltre. (In pratica è un routerino per smanettoni taccagni). Non ho avuto modo di provare se raggiunge veramente le prestazioni indicate a causa della mia situazione di rete, ma non ho motivo di credere che non siano quelle indicate. Molti si lamentano delle basse prestazioni usando VPN, dicendo che con wireguard scende a 50 mbps e con OpenVPN molto meno, a queste persone dico di leggere meglio il sito del produttore, perché parla proprio di 50mbps quando si usa wireguard in condizioni ottimali. È un dispositivo comodo per provare con le VPN ma come già spiegato, non è un dispositivo ad alte prestazioni. PER L'UTENTE BASE: Si tratta di un router economico e grande come il caricabatterie di un cellulare, e le prestazioni lo rispecchiano, ma non è tutto qui. Non supporta gigabit, ha due porte FastEthernet (100mbps) configurabili come LAN+WAN od entrambe come porte LAN, non ha la porta per il DSL (quindi vi serve un modem per attaccarlo alla linea fissa), supporta wifi a 300mbps e può essere usato come wifi extender (ma ho dubbi sulla sua portata), ed ha una porta USB a cui si possono collegare chiavette per la condivisione dati, o dei router 4G o telefoni in tethering per l'accesso ad Internet. L'interfaccia web è anni luce avanti a quella del Technicolor della TIM e piuttosto semplice da usare, ma comunque mancano alcune configurazioni di cui non si sente troppo la mancanza. Comunque troverete un opzione per installare una seconda interfaccia avanzata (LUcI) molto più potente che probabilmente non saprete usare. PER L'UTENTE AVANZATO: Il dispositivo monta una versione piuttosto vanilla di OpenWRT, ma essendo quanto di più vicino possibile all'open-hardware potete installarci direttamente OpenWRT (per me non lo ho ritenuto necessario). Potrete configurarlo nei modi più esotici, ma dovrete sporcarvi le mani con SSH (avete già accesso a root) o con LUcI perché l'interfaccia web del produttore è un po' "limitata". A contrario del vostro TG789VAC-v2 sbloccato, non crasherà giocando con tethering e bridgeing, e riconoscerà subito i dispositivi in tethering e li userà per l'accesso ad internet, tuttavia ricordate che l'hardware limitato. In questo momento io (non avendo una linea fissa) sto usando una saponetta (ZTE MF90) collegata via USB per l'accesso ad internet, ed ho collegato via ethernet un router TIM da usare come switch+AP, e la LAN è messa in bridgeing con una rete ZeroTier per poter accedere da remoto ai dispositivi come se fossi in LAN, e sembra funzionare perfettamente. Se devo trovare un difetto, lo ho dovuto riavviare qualche volta in questi mesi (motivo della stella in meno in stabilità), spero che non succeda quando deciderò di accedere in remoto altrimenti resterò bloccato fuori. Onestamente, dopo l'esperienza TG789VAC, mi sembra già impressionante che stia funzionando tanto per cominciare. NOTA: Se volete usarlo con un dispositivo in tethering, fate attenzione perché il dispositivo utilizza come LAN la rete 192.168.8.0/24, e fanno lo stesso anche alcuni dispositivi 4G (ad esempio il HUAWEI e3372). Un router non può funzionare se la sua LAN usa lo stesso indirizzo della WAN, quindi servirà cambiare l'indirizzo di uno dei due dispositivi per farli funzionare insieme.

I purchased a Google Home Hub Max for my mother who had gone into a nursing home. Turns out that the nursing home WiFi for residents was enterprise grade and required both Username and Password. Also turns out that the Google Hub products do not connect to enterprise grade WiFi and only work with standard domestic type WiFi. I know very little about computing, WiFi, routers, etc, but this device fixed the problem and her Google Home Hub Max is now effectively connected to the nursing home enterprise WiFi (via the GL-AR300M16 Mini Router) and working perfectly.

Love the item: I bought this for extra security but it adds so much more: with the built-in VPN client; I can now easily spawn QEMU VMs and let them use the selective routing on the VPN without having to configure every one to do so. As an added plus; all the VMs and my workstation are now isolated and hidden from the network.

📝 DESCRIPCIÓN Mini router portátil con VPN integrada, ideal para viajes y proteger tu conexión en redes públicas. Compacto y potente. En Amazon puedes encontrar otro modelo con más velocidad y banda de 5Ghz: https://amzn.to/42jtrn1 🧾 ESPECIFICACIONES - Velocidad: 300Mbps (2.4GHz) - Memoria: 128MB RAM + 16MB Flash - SO: OpenWrt preinstalado - Conexiones: 2 puertos Ethernet - VPN: Soporte OpenVPN/WireGuard - Peso: 39g - Alimentación: USB 5V 📦 CONTENIDO - Router GL-AR300M16 - Cable Ethernet - Cable USB - Manual en español 💶 PRECIO - 13 de Enero de 2025: 25,52€ 🟢 PROS • VPN integrada fácil de configurar • Tamaño mini ideal para viajes • Consumo energético muy bajo • Buen rendimiento para su tamaño • Precio muy competitivo 🔴 CONTRAS • Solo banda 2.4GHz • Velocidad limitada con VPN activa 8️⃣ VALORACIÓN Cogí este mini router principalmente para usarlo en casa y para llevarlo de viaje, y hasta el momento cumple perfectamente con mis exigencias. Configurar la VPN fue más sencillo de lo que esperaba - en unos minutos ya tenía mi conexión segura funcionando, siguiendo el tutorial de Gl.iNet En casa lo uso como segundo router para aislar algunos dispositivos inteligentes y para ver contenido en streaming. Aunque pequeño, aguanta bien varios dispositivos conectados. La velocidad es suficiente para navegar y ver contenido en streaming, eso sí, cuando activas la VPN lógicamente baja un poco (como ocurre con cualquier conexión vpn). Lo que más me gusta es su versatilidad. Puedo alimentarlo con un powerbank, lo que lo hace perfecto para viajes. El diseño compacto cabe en cualquier bolsillo, y los 39g de peso pasan desapercibidos en la maleta. Eso sí, si necesitas banda 5GHz o velocidades muy altas, este no es tu dispositivo. ✅ CONCLUSIÓN Excelente relación calidad-precio para quien busca un router portátil con VPN. Ideal para viajeros y usuarios que valoran su privacidad. 👍 RECOMENDABLE. ✳️ Espero que mi comentario ✍️ te haya podido servir de ayuda 😃

Ce petit routeur est une vraie pépite pour les voyageurs et les bidouilleurs. Il tourne sous OpenWrt et permet de configurer facilement un VPN (WireGuard ou OpenVPN), ce qui est idéal pour sécuriser sa connexion en déplacement. Malgré sa taille minuscule, il reste stable et fiable. Les menus sont clairs, on peut ajouter des plugins et personnaliser selon ses besoins. Il fonctionne uniquement en 2.4 GHz, mais pour un usage nomade ou en relais WiFi d’hôtel, c’est largement suffisant. Un excellent rapport qualité/prix pour ceux qui aiment avoir le contrôle de leur réseau.