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GL.iNet GL-X750 Spitz mini router review

MINI REVIEW – Firstly let me clarify, this is not a “Spitz Mini” review, it’s a Spitz  “mini review”. That being said, just like all the GL.iNet  range of products this is small, not your normal size router.  Why a mini review?  Because unlike a normal router, there’s a heap of different factors that will affect how well this unit will work for you including your country, your telco, etc.  That makes it really hard to say if this will work well because of the differing environments.  But if you’re looking at using a small LTE modem router the Spitz (GL-X750) is well worth a look.  Read on below the break:

So why do you need an LTE modem router? In Australia, the National Broadband Network (NBN) hasn’t quite met the expectations set for it (and let’s leave it there and not get into any sort of technology or political discussions 🙂 ).  People are putting in landline broadband solutions and finding them inadequate for even the most basic requirements.  Australia is ranked about 60th in the World at the moment in the broadband speed rankings. That’s not so good 🙁  That being said however we are ranked about 5th in the World for mobile broadband speeds. Many people are changing from fixed line to mobile broadband to attain better speeds for internet access especially as prices get cheaper for mobile broadband.

But that’s not the only reason you might want LTE mobile broadband internet. Some examples are:

  • Maybe you want a 4g backup line for when landline provider goes down
  • When you’re away from home  and don’t trust the free/public wifi
  • When you’re away from home and there’s no free/public WiFi
  • When the public/free WiFi is slow
  • If you are moving house a lot
  • When the family needs internet while you’re driving/touring in a vehicle

Like the other GL.iNet units I’ve reviewed, the X750 (Spitz) comes loaded with OpenWRT (with a neat little OEM wrapper on the front-end) and does all the WISP and router functions I’ve already covered so I’m not going to go over old ground and instead concentrate on the differences. Note that you could achieve the same solution using an LTE WiFi dongle attached to either the Slate or the Mango as I’ve discussed before in my previous reviews.

As I said in the beginning, the Spitz isn’t your normal size router at 115 x 74 x 22mm / 86g it’s still pretty small and can easily be thrown into your gadget bag. The Spitz comes with everything you need to get started.  A country-specific power supply, an ethernet cable, and a USB micro cable. On the front, there are 5 LEDs showing power, WAN connection, 2.4Ghz, and 5Ghz activity and LTE connection.  The Spitz is an AC750 WiFi router so supports both bands so all the advantages I mentioned in the Slate review hold if you just wanted to use this in a WiFi environment.

On the back are two removable antennas, they’re two 5DBi antennas for LTE not for WiFi; both the WiFi antenna are internal to the unit. If you wanted you could replace the antenna with different ones like higher gain or maybe directional rather than omnidirectional. There’s a reset switch, a 10/100 LAN and Wan port and a barrel power connector (12V/1.5A). So unlike the previous GL.iNet routers I’ve reviewed, it can’t be run off a normal USB power adapter or via your notebook/computers USB port. With the correct adapter/cable/power bank however you could run this off a powerbank or the cigarette lighter port in your car.

On the left is a USB 2.0 port for sharing a USB stick across your network.

Underneath a cover on the back is a micro sd-card slot and a slot for your mobile SIM card.

Sample image

The Spitz has a Mini PCIe slot underneath the bottom cover (user removable)  and currently, you can purchase with either a Cat 4 or Cat 6 Mini PCIe modem from Quectel. It can also use Mini PCIe LTE modems from other vendors as well as long as they’re “recognized” by OpenWRT).  In theory, the Cat 6 modem will give you better speeds as it supports better Carrier Aggregation.  Because each country and each telco uses different bands for the LTE broadband, there’s a number of different variations of the boards and you need to make sure you purchase the correct board for your country and telco when ordering.  They are user changeable as well if you needed multiple boards but you need to be willing to lose any warranty, use a screwdriver and one thing I really worry about is the delicate little uFL antenna connectors; you have to be VERY careful when removing and reclipping the antenna cables so as not to damage them.

The unit also allows for optional Bluetooth and Zigbee if you wanted to make this unit the “hub” for you IOT home automation system.

So here’s the sort of speeds I am typically getting using the X750 on the main telco (Telstra) available here in Australia. They’re known to have the best coverage and speeds (which comes at a price of course 🙂 ) .  That being said I’ve seen speeds from 24Mb to speeds up to about 190Mb depending on circumstances and yet, in many cases the 24MB is better than people are getting on their landlines.  My internet needs aren’t complicated, at most a couple of streams of Netflix or other streaming service at the same time, so even the lower speeds will do me.  Other telcos (there are 2 main other ones) I’ve tested so far peak at around 40Gb, still a good result and normally adequate for my needs. If I got really serious I could start sending AT commands to the modem and start locking it to bands and forcing carrier aggregation depending on which telco and which tower and which band and…….. to try and get the best possible connection but I really don’t have the time. These results are as it ships.

Final Thoughts

If you’re looking at LTE mobile broadband for whatever reason, there’s a number of things you need to take into account:

  • Country
  • Telco
  • Bands supported
  • Distance from Tower
  • Bands supported on that tower
  • Congestion (traffic) on that tower
  • Tower coverage
  • The list goes on and on for factors that will affect your final throughput….

But if you’re looking for a small, flexible, well supported device, then the GL-X750/Spitz is well worth having a look at.  It’s flexible both as a normal router with potentially a 4G link as a backup for your home or business, or as a portable LTE modem solution when you’re out and about (and have the power to run it).  I am currently looking at building a house at the moment and knowing that there’s only Fibre to the Node (FTTN) available there I am seriously considering just using mobile broadband and the Spitz (GL-X750) will definitely be a part of my infrastructure if that happens and most likely even if mobile broadband isn’t the best option just as a standard router.

As mentioned though please do your research before you commit to one of these LTE modem units (whatever brand)  and ensure that the modem card you are purchasing suits the environment in which you’re going to use it. As the old IT adage goes;  YMMV 🙂

Price: From $119 (US) depending on the configuration
Where to buy: GL-iNet
Source: The sample for this review was supplied by GL.iNet.

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GL.iNet GL-X750 Spitz mini router review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on June 24, 2019 at 9:06 am.

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GL.iNet GL-AR750S-EXT (Slate) and using a WISP repeater review

REVIEW – For some reason, in a very short time I’ve gone from zero travel routers to three travel routers.  If you follow through my reviews, I initially purchased the TP-Link TL-WR802n, then to add further functionality I discovered the GL-iNet GL-300N-V2 and after reading my review, GL.iNet was kind enough to send me their latest model travel router, the GL-AR750S (Slate). It’s worth noting that the Slate was awarded a CES 2019 Innovation Award HONOREE in the Cybersecurity and Personal Privacy product category. As such I’m going to do a review of the AR750S, compare it to their  MT300N and then demonstrate some of the advantages of using a travel router. Is this my last attempt to find the “ultimate” travel router? Read on…….

Once again I’m not going to go into all the technical details as you can get these at the GL-iNet GL-AR750S website.  

The slate is nicely packaged in a plain black box with a slip off sleeve.

What’s in the box?

They include the router (funnily enough), a power 5V/2a power supply with appropriate country plug, a micro-USB cable and an ethernet cable, and some quick start guides. Personally while I love the packaging it’s just gonna go in a drawer.

On the front, there are three discrete LEDs; power, 2.4Ghz activity, and 5Ghz activity. They’re very discrete and you can only really see them when you’re looking straight on to them, not like some disco light LEDs on “full size” routers. The unit has 2 x 2 dBi non-detachable (though you can if you disassemble the unit) but fold up/down antennae for better performance.

On the back, there are 3 GB ports that are as standard configured as 1 WAN and 2 LAN but you can make it 3 LAN ports.  This is currently the only travel size router that has GB ports, most of the rest only have 10/100.  Gigabit ports might be overkill in a hotel/free WiFi situation however if you need to plug in wired devices and shift large files like at a trade show or something, they will be a bonus.  There’s a USB 2 port for USB stick or USB 4G MiFi device, and finally a micro-USB port for power. Unlike the small Mango, the Slate takes 5V/2A compared with 5V/1A.

On the left-hand side is a micro-SD/Transflash slot which supports up to a 128GB card. Note you actually put the card in, what I consider, “upside down”  (contacts on the top) and there’ s no indication on the unit as to which way to put it.  The slot isn’t hot plug either, so if you insert a card you do have to reboot your router.  Again note the folding antennas.

On the right-hand side, there’s a switch which can be programmed (normally for VPN on/off) and a reset switch. A short press will attempt to “repair” your network and a long press will reset the router to factory default.

Slate versus Mango:

The Slate is 100mm X 68mm X 24mm and weighs in at 86g compared with the 39g of the Mango. While it’s bigger than the Mango it’s still small enough to throw into your gadget bag or even your pocket. The Slate has  the following major differences over the Mango:

  • Better processor (useful especially when using OpenVPN)
  • Micro SD slot
  • 2.4Ghz and 5Ghz band
  • External Antennas
  • Gigabit ports

Setting up a WISP repeater session:

So here’s a (very non-technical) diagram of what WISP mode does.  You connect to a WiFi network via WiFi on your mobile router and it creates a LAN on the other side with a firewall in between and clients on a different subnet. Your client devices are now on their own LAN segment and on a completely different subnet ( 192.168.8.x) from the source WiFi network (10.0.0.x). Only traffic destined for my own LAN will traverse the firewall on the AR750s. You can load things onto the travel router like perhaps an OpenVPN or Wireguard VPN service so all devices go through it,  a global ad blocker,  share a USB stick of music, movies or photos. Only people attached to the WiFi LAN will have access, especially important if you’re on “free” hotel wifi or similar.

 

Setting up in WISP mode is easy as…

  • Login
  • Go to “Repeater” and hit “Scan”
  • The router will go off and scan for any available WiFi networks
  • You can then choose whichever network you need to connect to (note there’s a 5G network as well)

  • Put in the password to the network you want to connect to
  • Click “Join”

And away you go.

If there’s a login screen to validate your usage like many hotels or coffee shops have you should only have to do this once with your first attached device. After that, all your attached devices should just attach no problem (including things like Chromecasts, Fire Sticks etc).

Once again, it’s the same overlay over OpenWRT as the Mango, so if you’ve got one GL-Inet device you can easily work out others.

The other nice thing is there’s an option which I didn’t refer to in my last GL-iNet review, to remember your WISP networks, so if you bounce between regularly used ones you shouldn’t have to set up again.  Personally, I would only be saving those that you do use frequently and that are a bit more “trustworthy” like at work or home. No need to rescan and set up all the time.

WISP Mode speed:

So what’s the advantage of a dual-band router when traveling and using in WISP repeater mode?   In a single band router, you attach to your WISP source and your bandwidth is shared between repeating the source signal and transmitting your LAN.  People indicate that you’ll probably lose half your bandwidth to the repeater however, in reality, I’ve seen about 1/3 bandwidth loss. Below are some Speedtest figures that show the advantage of using a dual-band router where you repeat on one band and transmit your LAN on the other.

So here’s my speed connected with my phone directly to the source WiFi router and standing right next to it on the 2.4Ghz band.

Here’s my speed in a remote area of the house connected to directly to the source router on 2.4Ghz.  There’s a few walls and doors between the device and the base router and you can see the effect it’s having on my speed.

In the remote area I’ve used a WISP repeater connection to router on the 2.4Ghz band and then connected to the 2.4Ghz LAN network. You’ll see there’s a drop in speed compared with connecting directly to the base router.  Remember the 2.4Ghz on the AR750s is now not only servicing my WiFi LAN connection but also “bridging” between the two routers. I normally see about a 1/3 drop in speed approximately.  This is around the same speeds I’d expect from the Mango as this only supports the 2.4Ghz band. So the speed might not be there, in fact we’ve taken a drop,  but the security as described above is.

So what if you want speed AND security?  I’m in the same remote area of the house above however here I’ve got the WISP repeater attached on the  2.4Ghz band  and I am attached to my LAN on the 5Ghz bandwidth. The 2.4Ghz WiFi LAN network is turned off.  Here the 2.4Ghz band isn’t doing anything except bridging between the two routers. This is the big advantage of a dual-band router when using WISP repeater mode; one band for bridging, the other band for LAN.

Summary:

I’m really impressed by the GL-AR750S. It’s a faster processor, external antennae, micro-SD slot, and dual-band makes this not only useful for traveling but also at home. In fact currently, I’m house sitting and been moving houses quite a bit.  The GL-AR750s has been great for this as rather than having to connect all my devices to the house network each time we move I just connect my devices to the GL-AR750s and then WISP to the house network. That way I don’t have to change anything except linking the Slate once to the house network.  Between my wife and I that’s probably 8-10 different devices including things like a Chromecast and an Android TV media box.  When we move, we just connect the GL-AR750s once to the new house network and away we go. Additionally, I’m using the micro-SD to operate as an SMB media server and ad-blocking all connections on the router itself.

And my Mango?  Still a great functional little travel router.  It will remain my EDC travel router that’s left in my gadget bag when I’m out and about.  It’s smaller size and lower power consumption means it’s easier to carry and will last longer on my powerbank or when attached to the USB port of my Surface Pro.  If I’m going on holidays though I’ll be taking the AR750s even though it’s bigger for its added micro-SD slot and better performance.

In my opinion, the Slate (GL-AR750s) is highly recommended especially as a travel router but is also useful for home use either as an access point or repeater or bridge or VPN Server or media server or even as the main router.  It’s definitely very flexible and packs functions and features that punch well above its size.

I don’t think I’ll be looking for any more travel routers in the near future, think I might already have my “Goldilocks” pair 🙂

Price: $69.99
Where to buy: The GL-AR750S is available direct from GL-iNet and Amazon 
Source: The sample of this product was provided by GL-iNet

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GL.iNet GL-AR750S-EXT (Slate) and using a WISP repeater review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on May 16, 2019 at 8:00 am.

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GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) mini travel router review

REVIEW – Since my last review of the TP-Link TL-WR802n , I found a few things that I wasn’t happy with and went on the lookout for something to address the shortcomings. After searching high and low I came across the GL.iNet range of mini routers.  They have a whole series of mini routers with different specifications and their boxes are aimed not only those wanting mobile internet routers but also useful boxes to integrate into IOT type projects. In fact many of them have GPIO connectors (you can see them in the picture above).  After much ummming and ahhing and weighing up specification versus price versus my use case I ended up purchasing the GL-MT300N-V2 ( Mango). How does it differ from the TL-WR802n?  Read on.

What’s in the box?

Note: Once again I’m not going to get into the technical side of things with this box. You can read the specs in the top graphic or from the web site.

The Mango comes in a nice small box with just basic graphics and without any fancy colours (very dirty access card for size comparison, the only credit card I had in my wallet without personal information 🙂 )

But once you open it up you get an eyeful of colour. Inside the box is an instruction manual, USB Micro cable, a nice quality Ethernet cable and an even smaller but very brightly coloured router. Everything  is cardboard and recyclable which is always nice (not sure about the cable ties? )

Size

I’m still amazed by what can be fitted into this little box.  Here you can see it compared to a standard credit card.  At 58*58*25mm and  39g it’s a very portable device and yet gives you all the functionality of a full size router. On the top all you have is a power, a customizable and a WiFi traffic LED.

Ports

On the right hand side is a USB port, a reset switch and an on/off switch (more on that later 🙂 ). The little “propeller” is just a heat dispersion hole (there’s a matching one on the otherwise blank side).

On the back is a 100 Mb WAN and LAN port. If you’re using this to wirelessly connect and need an additional LAN port you can configure the WAN port to act as an additional  LAN port too for wired devices. On the right a micro USB port for power. From a WiFi perspective, it supports 2.4Ghz 802.11n only.

Because this is powered by 5V 1A, then you can easily power this by various methods: a 5V 1A AC adapter (like for your smartphone), via a USB port on a desktop/notebook/tablet or even via a powerbank.  Above you can see the Mango and my Xiaomi 10000MAh powerbank (must get a shorter cable 🙂  ).  I haven’t timed exactly how long I get out of the powerbank but I can advise based on experience it would be at least a day.

Interface

The Mango is running OpenWRT.  Anybody that’s ever played with OpenWRT will probably agree that it’s not as user friendly as the proprietary interfaces that most vendors place on their routers (mainly made for the “domestic” market).  That being said, GL.iNet has written a custom interface on the top of OpenWRT, that automates and makes things much easier to do than having to enter into OpenWRT. If you want to get rid of GL.iNet’s interface you can flash it with native OpenWRT or there is also an option to load a TorGuard specific firmware.

GL.iNet has automated a lot of functions. You can see above where I’ve basically just plugged in my 4G MiFi device and the router automatically recognizes the device and sets the router up so that the  USB  just works as my WAN port. Normally with OpenWRT initially you’d have to research the relevant “packages” to load, use an SSH session or use the LUCI  interface to load and configure the packages and then test to make sure you’ve got everything right.

On the main screen, you can see that as default you can run as a standard wired router, a repeater, a Smartphone tether or a 4G dongle router. Where required these functions are all wizard driven.

In the settings on the right you can manage all your “standard routery stuff” ; WiFi settings, set time servers, DHCP, changing your DNS servers etc. without having to delve into OpenWRT’s more complex interface.

Additionally, there’s easy access to change the unit into an Access Point, WiFi extender or a WDS bridge.

The unit supports both OpenVPN and Wireguard out of the box, and I’m guessing most people will use OpenVPN at the moment until Wireguard matures.  Most VPN providers will supply .cfg files for their various servers.  You just need to download and drop and drag your config files to the Mango. Much easier than using the OpenWRT native interface. By using your VPN at a router level, it means that you don’t have to have a VPN client installed on all your endpoints, and is especially useful where your end point might not have a VPN client available. Alternatively, you could even make this a VPN server rather than a client.

Remember that switch on the right hand side? It can be used as a physical switch to turn your OpenVPN or Wireguard Service off or on without having to enter the interface.

Plug in a USB drive and the unit uses SMB shares and you should be able to see your drive on most devices. Certainly works on both my Windows and Android devices easily. Useful while you’re on holidays for streaming movies or music or for backing up your photos and sharing them with your holiday buddies on your local holiday LAN 🙂

On top of that their interface scales nicely to mobile devices.  Looks neat and tidy and means you don’t have to scroll all over the place like you do with some web based router interfaces on mobile devices.

The custom built GL.iNet interface is nice and makes things very simple however if you’re a bit more familiar with OpenWRT and you just want to use an interface you’re familiar with or there are things the simplified interface won’t do for you then if you go to the “Advanced” tab you get your familiar OpenWRT Luci interface.

Compared to the WR802n

My last review was based on the TP-Link TL-WR802n nano router. I bought the Mango to address a few shortcomings I’d come across since buying the WR802n:

  • The firmware on the TL-WR802n is proprietary and hasn’t been updated since April 2017
  • It doesn’t support OpenVPN, the method that most VPN providers require now (you can of course still run a client based VPN client)
  • The Mango supports OpenWRT which gives me much more flexibility and I only need to load what I want
  • The Mango has a USB port to support USB media and USB 4G dongle tethering

You can see that size wise both units are very similar.

The Mango is ever so slightly taller.  But for the added WAN port, USB port and firmware functionality I’m willing to put up with the slightly larger size.

You can do all the things you can with the WR802n with the Mango but more.

Want a small video server to share? Want a small video server in your car to keep the kids happy on the long trip? Need to share a USB 4G Mifi wingle or tether a smartphone? Need to VPN your whole LAN (and hence all your devices) when you’re staying in that dodgy little hotel overseas? Want to control your devices like a roller door via WiFi? Want to set quotas on the kids for that expensive overseas 4G service you had to purchase while on holidays? These are just some of the scenarios where the Mango could be used.

Don’t get me wrong, the WR802n is still a great and tiny device and it does it’s main 5 functions well, is easy to setup and if you’ll be happy with the WR802n will all depends on your needs and requirements.

Support

I had a minor issue with my WiFi on my unit. There’s an option to email support but I used the assistance chat line (which is basically Facebook Messenger) and received a reply within 10 minutes. The technician was helpful and solved my issue quite easily. Nice to know that support is readily available. (Don’t forget time zones may, however, make a difference to response times).

What I like

Many of the reasons I liked the WR802n still stand for the GL-MT300N-V2; the size, the portability, the flexibility. However for around the same price the additional hardware ports on the Mango, the support for OpenWRT as well as it’s customized interface and all it’s functionality just expands the usage of this box so much more than the WR802n.

What I don’t like

There’s not much I don’t like about the box. If I have to be really picky, the bright yellow/orange colour is……bright. In my WR802n review, I said that it was small and discrete and not something that the IT guys on patrol will be immediately drawn to.  The Mango isn’t quite so discrete 🙂

Again like the WR802n, it’s not the most powerful router in terms of processing power or WiFi range but it’s not made to be a powerhouse be all and end all unit, but a portable, “spot solution” device.

Final thoughts

If you’re in the market for a small, portable travel router it’s really pretty hard to beat, and it’s not only while you’re traveling that it’s useful either.  All the basic functionality you need is all there at your fingertips and is easy to set up with GL.iNet’s custom skin over the top of OpenWRT. For me, the basic requirement is still around having my own firewalled LAN when using a public wired or wireless internet connection but the fact that I can do so much more if I want to just makes this a much more flexible solution. If you require more advanced functionality you’ve got the whole plethora of OpenWRT modules to play with and access to the OpenWRT interface. Sure I’d love a dual band AC Wifi router (WISP repeater on one channel and run my LAN on another to increase effective bandwidth) but that comes at a price (in both $$ and size). This bright little unit should see me through the next few trips away and serve me well.

Update

I’ve just loaded their latest Beta firmware on it and it includes a VPN Policy Manager in its custom interface. You can easily set a domain, IP or MAC address to either use or not use the VPN. Really handy for those devices mentioned above that might not have a native VPN client or maybe if you only want say your Netflix device to run through your VPN.  🙂 Nice to know that the custom interface is still being developed to make “common” functionality easy to deploy.

Price: Approx $21
Where to buy: GL-iNet and NewEgg
Source: The sample for this review was purchased with my own funds.

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GL.iNet GL-MT300N-V2 (Mango) mini travel router review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on April 15, 2019 at 8:34 am.

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TP-Link TL-WR802n 300Mbps Wireless N Nano Router review

REVIEW – It’s a connected world, and if you’re traveling there’s often issues or risks with the internet connectivity you find publicly available. Or maybe you just have the need for some sort of router that’s portable but you don’t want to lug around a full-size router and it’s associated cables and power supply.  TP-Link’s TL-WR802N is a small, easily portable router that you can fit in your pocket but is it big enough in the real world?

What is it?

The TL-WR802N from TP-Link is a wireless portable travel router that can be used as a WiFi bridge, a range extender, an access point, and more.

Design and features

At 2.2 x 2.2 x 0.7 in. (57 x 57 x18 mm), this router is tiny. You can easily fit it into your gadget bag or even into your pocket.

There’s not much to it port wise just a reset button, a micro USB port and a standard RJ45 port with doubles up as both a LAN (output) and WAN (input) port depending on the units mode.  But that certainly doesn’t limit its flexibility in any way at all.  The best thing about this little portable router is that it supports 5 different modes, useful in different situations.

Set up

Set up is really easy for all the different modes and is pretty much wizard driven.

Your first step is to set up your own private WiFi network with appropriate security, restrictions etc. I’m not going to go through this for this article but note that this is a fully functional router so I can do things like MAC filter, turn WiFi on and off at scheduled times, change my encryption, set up a guest network etc.  So the important thing above is that I have logged on with the default details and set up a WiFi network called “Nanonet” with WPA2-PSK setup. All done via a web browser (even via a mobile device with a bit of scrolling  🙂 ). All my devices are then set to remember and auto-connect to this network.

So have you ever found yourself in a hotel using their public WiFi or with no WiFi?  This can have a number of issues and these can be addressed with the above two modes:

Router mode:

The hotel doesn’t have WiFi and your device doesn’t have an ethernet port? Just plug the supply hard wired ethernet cable into the router and the WR802N creates your own WiFi network.  This has a number of advantages:

  • You almost instantly have a full private routed wifi network which separates you from the hotel’s wider network and since all my devices already know to connect to my personal Wifi Network “Nanonet”,  no additional configuration required on a device end. Traffic not intended for my devices shouldn’t be routed through.
  • If the hotel has a login screen you only have to do this for the first connected device, as the router presents a single address to the network and all additional devices appear as coming from the single router address
  • Having your own WiFi network means you can get things like Chromecasts or Fire Sticks to work (where the hotel has a login screen which these devices don’t support).

Hotspot mode:

I’ve lost count of how many hotel rooms I’ve stayed in where I’m sure they’ve given me the furthest room from the WiFi Access Point. WISP mode allows you to connect to another hotspot and use that WiFi as your “WAN” source.  It’s as easy as running the wizard in Hotspot mode, scanning for available WiFi networks, connecting and logging into the one you want and you again get all the advantages listed above in router mode but you’re connected via WiFi rather than wired connections. In this case, the ethernet port on the device becomes a standard ethernet port, so you can connect a wired device as well if you want to.

The unit can also be used in:

Range Extender mode:

Got a part of the house where you just can’t get a WiFi signal, need to boost or extend the signal?

Client Mode:

Have a (older?) device that has wired ethernet but no WiFi?  Connect this unit up to WiFi enable that device.

Access Point mode:

Just need WiFi access? Connect this up to your router and you are WiFi enabled.

I’m not going to go into too many details or get technical here but hopefully, the above pictures and text explain the basics of the flexibility of the unit. I’m also not going to go into all the options available as a router either, but you can do all the standard stuff you can with a full size router (DHCP, Dynamic DNS, MAC filtering, Guest network, Port forwarding etc).

The other advantage of the unit is that it runs off micro USB at 5v 1A.  This means it can be powered in many different ways:  via the supply 5V 1A AC charger, via your standard mobile (cell) phone 5V charger,  via a USB port on a notebook or even via a power bank.  When traveling I’ll often use the unit in Hotspot mode with the unit connected to the USB port of my Surface Tablet, easy as. You can even run it off the 12V socket in your car with an appropriate USB adapter and have a WiFi enabled vehicle (if that tickles your fancy 🙂 )

My primary uses:

I use this extensively when traveling in both router and hotspot mode.  The additional security of having a separate network, the fact that I can set up all my devices to connect to my own personal WiFi network and not have to register multiple devices on a “foreign” network and the additional “boost”  I get when I hotspot to a WiFi network (note of course that amplifying a really bad signal, still results in a really bad signal 🙂 ) make this a very versatile unit.

The other primary use I have is to extend my work network in access point mode.  There’s a black spot in a very inconvenient place (the conference room) where I need WiFi to do demonstrations.  I didn’t want to bring in a big, antenna laden router and just wanted something small and discrete that IT wouldn’t pick up on 🙂 so this fits the bill nicely.

So what are the disadvantages? 

Obviously being powered by 5V 1a, this is not a “powerhouse” router.  It’s never going to be the fastest nor is it going to have the best WiFi range.  This will definitely cover a small to medium room with its signal, more than sufficient for the purposes that this router is intended.  I have a wireless bridge at home and with my standard router (with big antennas) and I get around 12 Mbps, if I substitute in the WR802n, I get about 384 Kbps 🙂  It just doesn’t have the wifi signal strength get to the source AP that’s probably about 30 metres away.

What I like

  • Small portable size
  • Powered via 5V 1A
  • 5 flexible modes

What needs to be improved

  • Not the fastest router
  • Not the best WiFi range

Final Thoughts

This is a handy little piece of kit both while traveling and at home. It’s small size and low price is just cream on the top. If you have a need for portable WiFi solution and it’s in the constraints of this product then definitely worth a look.

Price: Approx $25.99
Where to buy: TP-Link and Amazon
Source: The sample for this review was purchased with my own funds.

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TP-Link TL-WR802n 300Mbps Wireless N Nano Router review originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on January 18, 2019 at 9:00 am.

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The Beam Router will keep your privacy the way you like it


NEWS – On any given day, if we pay attention to the people around us, everyone is on the internet with via their phones or tablets or tablets, etc. Our entire lives are now controlled in some way or the other by internet-based services, and our personal information is everywhere. Many of us stay away from the internet cafes and free wifi hotspots and prefer the security that our home networks offer. But do they actually offer the level of security that we think that they do?

“Big Brother” as we know is always watching and paying attention to every website that we visit and every transaction that we make. The right to privacy is no longer a qualified assumption, so manufacturers are working to provide devices that will help us to reclaim some of our privacy.

According to the company Passel, the Beam router is “The World’s Most Advanced Router”. It encrypts all of your information so that all of your navigating and services you utilize will be your own business and your confidentiality will be maintained. The manufacturer goes on to say that “It protects all the devices in your home from threats online and keeps your physical location hidden so you can access any part of the internet, from anywhere in the world”. As per its performance, “It comes equipped with latest-gen wireless technology, gigabit networking, and an incredibly powerful processor and co-processor. This enables Beam to provide every device in your home with breathtaking encrypted speeds”.

If you are interested in purchasing the Beam Router, you can pre-order it on the Passel website with the option of a subscription to Forcefield which is a VPN service designed to make privacy and security easy. The cost starts at $249.

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The Beam Router will keep your privacy the way you like it originally appeared on The Gadgeteer on July 20, 2018 at 8:00 am.

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