Description
About this item 【MINI TRAVEL ROUTER】 Convert a public/hotel network(wired/wireless) to a private Wi-Fi for secure surfing. Tethering, 3G/4G USB Modem Compatible. Powered by any laptop USB, power banks or 5V/2A DC adapters (sold separately). 39g (1.41 Oz) only and pocket friendly. 【OPEN SOURCE & PROGRAMMABLE】 OpenWrt pre-installed, USB disk extendable. 【VPN CLIENT&Server】 OpenVPN and Wireguard VPN client&server pre-installed, compatible with 30+ VPN service providers. 【LARGER STORAGE & EXTENSIBILITY】 128MB RAM, 16MB NOR Flash, dual Ethernet ports, UART and GPIOs available for hardware DIY. 【PACKAGE CONTENTS】 GL-AR300M16 mini router (1-year Warranty), USB cable, User Manual.
Leo –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great for in-barracks wifi!
Bought this to create a wifi point for a wifi enabled camera to use in a military barracks room. The wifi they use there is a public wifi so connecting smart devices wouldn’t work but using this small router actually worked great to generate a wifi point and the speed works well on it as well! Haven’t had any issues with is so far and it was quick and simple to set up
Bradley Diggs –
5.0 out of 5 stars
For Uboot mode be sure to connect Ethernet cable BEFORE powering it up. Can’t beat GL.iNet for small OpenWRT routers.
These are the best mini routers. I use the GL-AR300M16 for ROOters, and much prefer the Qualcomm Artheros chips (GL-AR300M series) over the MTK ones (GL-MT300A). It seems like these are smoother, a little more solid with the wireless, and just less quirks (not that the MTK had a lot of them, this one just seems flawless). If using for ROOters check or ask on the forum, because sometimes (as of writing) the firmware is not on the website (ofmodemsandmen) for many including the AR300M models but may be in the forum.Finally, I’m not sure if it’s as important with other models or chips (such as the MTK ones), but with this one if you need to access Uboot mode to change or update the firmware (how I load the ROOter firmware) be sure to plug in your Ethernet cable to your computer BEFORE plugging in the power cable to the router (while holding the reset button long enough to access Uboot as stated in the documentation). Otherwise, it will fail to connect (just will time out) when connecting to the Uboot web interface at 192.168.1.1. If you plug in the cable and have the static IP set on the computer before powering up the AR300M, Uboot will come right up when trying to access it.Also – the AR300M16 is the NOR flash only version (of which the current ROOter firmware I use for it is – this may change in the future), but the AR300M has both the 16MB of NOR and 128MB of NAND and is kind of a different/new beast.Also – even though I really like these for ROOter routers there is nothing wrong with the stock firmware! Very good and flexible with lots of options! Can’t beat these if you need a few little routers for something.
6 people found this helpful
John H. –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Effective, inexpensive travel router
This is a very basic, very inexpensive little portable router. It runs Open WRT; though with minimal RAM and a slow CPU it won’t be able to do much or perform particularly well. But that’s probably not what you’re looking for in a $30 router!I often tether to my phone when camping in my RV. The problem with this is twofold. One; tethering to multiple devices is sometimes flaky. Second; devices sometimes spontaneously disconnect because phones and tablets often stop broadcasting the SSID to save battery, causing client devices to fail to reconnect if they glitch or go out of range. Requiring you then to open the settings on the host device and reconnect everything. A real pain!This device does exactly what I need. I have an old iPhone I never use plugged into it via USB, with it’s own unlimited data plan. (Note that, of course, your plan will have to support tethering). Now I have a WiFi router in my RV with a decent internet connection for streaming and the like on rainy days when I can’t be outside. It works!I wish it was USB-C. Really nothing after 2017 or so should still be using micro USB. It’s a flimsy connector prone to breaking and has more limits on how much power it can carry; which also limits power that can be passed through the USB port. It appears to be limited to 500mA. This is fine for cellphones but if you plan to connect a larger tablet, or wanted to share files from a power hungry USB hard drive; you’ll find that to be limiting.That said, it does sip power. Meaning one potential use case would be to connect this to a USB power bank of some sort for truly portable Wi-Fi when tethered to a phone or USB modem.All in all, for $30 I’m happy with it. Time will tell how well it works as time goes on!
3 people found this helpful
Tracy Julvezan –
5.0 out of 5 stars
I thought it would be just ok but it works very well
The signal strength and quality is actually very good. It is very small so it’s a no brainer to take when you are traveling. My only gripe is it still uses micro USB instead of USB C but at least it comes with a long cable and is cheap so I can’t be too mad
2 people found this helpful
RGreen –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compact and fast setup
I bought this because my campus wifi has switched to WPA2-EAP, but my tv and previous mini router don’t support it.I was first surprised opening the box because it is much smaller than my tp-link, which is going to be great for traveling. I also like that it comes with a micro-usb cord to charge because my old router would fall out of the wall socket frequently. This is more flexible in my options for powering.When it comes to setup, this was a no brainer. So straight forward, and easy to do, once I found the link in the instructions. Previous router took me many videos and tutorials to figure out. I had this up and running in under 5 minutes, if even that.I have zero experience in IT and don’t know much about wifi, but if I can figure this out, anyone can.The only thing I didn’t like was that out of the box, it appeared to have been used previously even though I purchased a new option. That irked me a bit, but on the whole I am happy.Now I just need to test the distance, but since I bought to use in my dorm room, or hotel rooms while traveling, I don’t really need the wifi to extend far so isn’t something Im worried about.
5 people found this helpful
Ycarol –
1.0 out of 5 stars
Takes forever for this device to broadcast its WiFi SSID and the SSID would disappear
I have two of little yellow boxes made by this company for a couple of years now. I recently bought this black one because supposedly it has a little faster processor compared with the yellow one. This black one took forever to broadcast its WiFi SSID even though I chose the SSID to be “shown” during setup. I cannot find this WiFi SSID on my iPad after more than10 minutes even though I am sitting right next to it. And because of that, my smart plugs etc. keeping on flashing because they cannot connect to this WiFi. And the WiFi SSID would disappear for no reasons at least once a day, again causing my smartplugs etc to go offline. I thought I got a defective one, and ordered another black one. Again, the second black one has the same problem.The difference between this black one vs the yellow one is that the black one got the Qualcomm processor, and probably Qualcomm WiFi chip. I am guessing this Qualcomm chipset has some design flaws.
SHK –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Mixed review
It is difficult to give this product a high recommendation. I purchased this to replace a TP Link A300 that had been working then gave up the ghost after two months (decided to try a different manufacturer due to that) Set up can be a bear. Here’s why: For some reason the manufacturers of these wisp based travel routers can not provide clear/complete information, user documentation. For example, they will tell you to start up the router, then connect to the admin page through wireless. That failed in my instance. The documentation tells you to use the pw “goodlife”. Nope, doesnt work. THEN WHAT!!?? (see below about support) No explanation of that. Ahhh….. wait!! This router has a LAN port as well as WAN (not all others do), so you can try to connect hard wired. (I suggest you turn off wi fi on your computer when you do. I didnt originally, that can create some issues. ) Nope, that did not work . THEN WHAT!! (the answer wasI had my computer network set to manual 1000, not automatic. Neeeded to change that to 100 or automatic) I was not challenged for a PW accessing through the hard wire LAN the first time once I (not support) figured out the speed issue. . (AFTER the first time, after I set an admin password, I was) So it seems on first use there is no admin password. I still have not found a use for “goodlife” password. lol It would be useful to explain that to emphasize the need to set one. And to provide an option if connecting wirelessly fails as it did for me.They tell you to set your admin password. What they fail to tell you is that there is also a wifi password which you should set.You can then enable “repeater”, which then allows a Wisp option (actually they just call it repeater settings no Wisp on there anywhere) . So there is no reference to Wisp on the router admin page to choose your wireless set up (this is a travel router, hotel and even other public networks are the essential use of the router, and in WISP mode. Why not make that clear on the interface?)What they fail to tell you (clearly) is that if you are using this as WISP on a network that has a captive portal, you may need to disable a dns setting (that would normally prevent duplication). The need for that depends, of course on details of the wan wireless network.If you are using a device like a streaming device, that does not allow a web page to come up, you will need to try to access the internet through your computer first, so you can verify the router on the portal page. Once you have enabled the router on your WAN wifi (for example the hotel). If you are connected through the hard wire lan, you can use your computer to access the internet to confirm connection. HOWEVER, depending on your computer (I assume?) you will not be able to access the router through wifi with your computer (to confirm) while your computer is still connected hard wired to the LAN. You can use Other devices through their wifi while your computer is hard wire through the Lan. However your computer is connected to the router, once you’ve established all the above, you can then access the router (and so the internet) with your other devices with wifi (yes I am repeating myself, I am not writing user documentation if you/they want perfect send me a check lmao lol) . An Apple TV, or other streaming device, for example, will not need to “see” or act on the portal splash page. The portal will think your device is the router. Lastly, my unit shipped without the most recent firmware version. (got to that later, see below) Another worthwhile note. If you’ve been using your computer on a gig network, you may have set you network speed to gig, not to automatic (as I did).Tonote again since this is what originaly caused me to call support: The router is 100 not 1000 network speed. If your computer is set to 1000 they wont talk to each other. Automatic for network speed might work.FURTHER!!! Your wifi WAN (say, hotel) network will be using only a few available channels. The router does not appear to automatically scan all channels successfully to find the ones being use and connect to the strongest one. EVEN though if you poke around to find the channels to be use by the router, there is an “automatic” choice . So you need to go to Channel options as the router admin and check each channel and make note of which one is strongest.There are a few other issues with set up, that involved just trying what looked like different options that might logically be at issue. Those I would consider “to be expected”Re support. My experience was this. I went to their web site (fortunately I was able to access the internet without their router lol). And entered a support ticket. That is a little confusing, since you can “contact us” on a form mid screen. AND there is also a chat window on the side. I did both. The mid screen form requires you to open an account with them. The chat window says they will respond to you in a short time. (I dont recall using a facebook log in, in either of those requests…. I “might” have out of frustration…. that will be interesting in a second).While waiting I was doing some things on facebook. After about an hour, a chat request popped up on FB. From GL. Remember above, I do not recall using an FB link or id to send either support request? I avoid those for security reasons (some might think security being relative with FB of course). At that point who cares, though, right? I had a support person to talk to! Maybe i broke my own rule but it worked!! (just goes to show ,try to remember what you did when you have multiple options you are pursuing lol) He was in Hong Kong. His english was good. He walked me through several of the issues I referenced above. He was technically oriented in his approach so there were some, as would be expected, small misfires. However, if that happened a question from me and he (I assume he?) resolved that. For example, “please send a screen shot”. hmm “A screen shot of what !!!” the context of what we had just spoken did not indicate what to screen shot ) Another tidbit: The documentation says to use the password “goodlife” to access the router. At that point I still had not gotten access to the router, we were trying to do so through wi fi, and the support rep said goodlife was not a password for this. (I did not try to clarify why if its in the start up documentation, at that point who cares) The support rep helped me through the various issues. Some of which (once I got in to the router as admin) were “seeing” the choice he was referencing on the page. Nothing was said about the captive portal dns setting change during all that, btw. While initially trying to access the router through the hard wire lan, it kept failing. The rep had no solution. As he was thinking about that I was poking around. It occurred to me…. the router is 2.4, you need to make sure your wifi WAN is 2.4. What about network speed? The router is 100…. hmmmm so I checked my computer network settings and I had network speed set to 1000. Changed that to 100, success. I figured that out on my own, the rep didnt point to it.Once connected to the router he pointed out to set the password. Didnt mention the network password (or not yet) but I noticed that option.He noticed that I was using version 2.x of their firmware. Suggested I upgrade and sent a link. (All during the support process he would provide directly links to different technical pages. ) He then asked if I would like to try their beta firmware versionit had a different UI. I did finally install that. You can download the upgrade through the link (and from their support area if you poke around). However how to install it on the router?? Ahhhhhh the last choice on the main admin panel says “Hardware” (or something similar). And when you chose that, can then see options to upgrade firmware!When all was said and done I still could not connect to the router with wifi with my computer (my computer was still connected hard wire). Never was while working with the rep. I also had not tried to access the internet through the hard wire connection. That was never mentioned to see if the router was connecting to the wifi Wan. To do that you need to poke around in the wireless admin section and you will find choices for clients, network , etc, and in there if your router has “seen” the wifi wan client you will see an option to “join”. That will also take you through the captive portal splash page (depending of course on the dns duplication issue if you run in to that you need to go change that setting). And depending, I believe on whether you have your computer talking to the WAN through wifi directly (as I did).See the issues? There is no “tree” of things to check, options to review, depending on the situation. The rep, while helpful and pretty nice guy, also did not have such a tree to follow. Cant connect through lan. Check cables, Check computer network speeds. Can connect through LAN but not through wireless? Try disconnecting LAN before trying wireless. Passwords…. set BOTH Admin, AND network. Captive portal page does not come up, change DNS duplication protection to off. Those types of things are basics that “should” be in the user documentation. The rep would want to go to deeper detail right away (see if the router shows ip addresses for the WAN) but did not to the simpler basics. (reminds you of the joke among support reps…. user says “my computer screen is black.” Rep spends an hour going through all kinds of detail. Then a big pause. Then from the rep “is your computer plugged in” That’s funny to support reps because they have all done that in one form or another.Comparison to TP Lin A 300 Using the same computer. Using the same hotel based wifi WAN. I did not need to go to support to get it working. I DID still have to poke around a little, try a few different things. But it set up much more easily that first time. On the other hand, my TP Link a 300 just sits there now, two months later, “blinking”. Complete reset doesnt help. Cant connect directly through a Lan port on the router, there isnt one. Tried using the WAN port just in case. No joy. it’s effectively a really bad paperweight since it is so light. There are options/choices in the GL admin UI that just do not exist on the TP. But then I did not need to change those with the TP, I did with the GL. You can get in to installing different software/firmware to actually run the GL. Which gives you lots more things to play with (if you are so inclined or understand). Not so with the TP. No idea how the GL will hold up with constant use compared to the TP at this point. The GL seems to be better contructed physically. For example, the power plug on the TP sits a littletoo far back and is not solidly attached, so plugging in takes a little wiggling. Pretty sure thats a point of failure over time (cant “know” that since the TP is now just a blinking light not a router) The GL, that plug is set well and is “solid”.
39 people found this helpful
JP –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Little gem does just what she is supposed to
I have a small single story house but the wifi signal in my bedroom was weak which made internet searching and reading there slow and glitchy. For perspective, I am a 73 yo female who is educated but not that tech-y. Most of what I have learned over the years has been on the fly, need based, and Mac slanted. I am not interested in devices that will turn off my lights, turn up the radio etc saving me a 10 foot walk (!!!!) What I did want was something that would extend, boost, bump, or otherwise increase the wifi signal in my bedroom, and not cost a bunch of money. I could afterall get out of bed and read in the kitchen. In my research I happened upon this little device which sounded like it could be just the ticket in “repeater” mode, and could also supply a layer of security in the increasing number of wifi spots that aren’t password protected. It does the job perfectly ! Of course I have only had it a short while so I can’t comment on longevity. Also, I haven’t docked a star as it is such a handy device, but the instructions were terrible. I had to bumble around trying to match up their pictures with real life and looking up all the jargon and abbreviations. Even then they assumed a fair amount of experience with networking tech.
9 people found this helpful
Ronal –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Re-review. Excellent with caveats
Awesome device. I wrote a horrible review early in this process. I’m redoing that…USB tethering worked great. My provider theories me to 5mb but I’m looking for stable internet for devices, not speed. I can use my phone itself for large for transfers.Huge note: your phone is the internet using this device. It provides a network but you’re phone ISN’T ACTUALLY ON THAT NETWORK! Beware media casters. Frustration will Mount I promise.Onto wireless tethering through my phone hotspot. This works great BUT… For devices connecting through this device is great but for devices communicating within the network speeds are ridiculously slow. What I think is happening is if you’re serving media, for instance, all of the traffic has to come back through the router to the phone itself, then get routed and then back through this device. Device. It’s truly unusable for device to device connectivity when using your phone’s hotspot to connect to this device. But otherwise it works great and that’s possibly the best way to use the device that I found.To get around this device to device limitation, I’m actually using the repeater mode to pass through my phones hotspot or to USB tether to the device. Then I use the ethernet port to provide internet to an actual full-size router that I have here in the house. All of my devices connect to that and internal communication is at that maximum speed. But external communication is then through this device and everything works perfectly. I would take this to a hotel and a heartbeat or a cruise ship but you have to keep in mind the device to device is going to cripple you.This device to device issue does not exist. If you’re using router mode or USB tethering because in that instance the device handles communication between devices and only internet traffic itself comes back through your phone.Overall I love the device. I got rid of cable and my house is not online at all but all of my devices are stable and when I walk in the door I turn on my mobile hotspot. This device automatically scanned recognizes that it’s there, connects to it and then passes traffic through it until I leave the house again. I don’t have enough speed to serve media online, but I can I can watch video and surf the web and all of my devices are connected to the internet when my phone’s in the house.It’s a great device that I initially gave a horrible review to. My horrible review was the media server speed in repeater mode. Use USB. It saves your phone battery and you don’t run into this nonsense of device to device.But in all instances your phone providing the internet is not on the resulting network. So you create a network and connect all your internal devices to it and then go on your phone which is the source of the internet. Start a video and try to cast it to one of your devices and those devices aren’t there because your phone is on a different network.
2 people found this helpful
malhomme –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to Install and Packed with Features
It’s a easy to install and packed with features. You can easily install LuCI for more advanced features. Has an older but stable version of BusyBox installed for Linux users. It’s almost plug and play. I use it as a repeater w/firewall for using public wifi. It is a little slow with VPN but that’s not a problem with some advanced planning I’m a bit surprised by the negative reviews that say it is difficult to set up or complaining that it needs a USB connection for power. Of course it needs a connection for power but it is extremely easy to setup. It’s a wonderful device at this price point.
3 people found this helpful
Ry –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Permanent vpn
I used this to make a segment of my network have a permanent vpn on all the time since my voip phone needed a USA up ( I’m overseas). No frills just gets it done. Was easy to setup with my Nord vpn acct.
2 people found this helpful
Divide by Zero –
3.0 out of 5 stars
It’s not all bad…
Not bad for the money. My issue is the OpenVPN performance is ~5Mbps. Vpn setup is easy but I get 60Mbps on T-Mobile **without** the vpn turned on. I would give 2 stars but the overall features are good for the money. Just not the vpn, which is what I bought it for.
BW –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Mini Router
This is a great little portable router! It does exactly what it says and was fairly easy to setup. If you travel often, this mini router is especially helpful if you want an added layer of security when connecting to public WiFi hotspots. Great choice for anyone in the market for a portable router.
One person found this helpful
Chrissy Goff –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great little router, good tech support
So I bought this little item because I live in and work for a hotel. Anyway I wanted to set up some creature comforts like a home mini and a Chromecast. I read several reviews a s articles about several different products and everything brought me back to this little thing. When I say little I literally mean 2 Inches by 2 Inches by 3/4 inch. It was quite a bit smaller than I had imagined it. Doesn’t matter though. Sometimes big items come in small packages. This little thing runs all my little home devices and has guest wifi so I do not have to share my mainline. I just plugged the supplied Ethernet cord into the wall, downloaded the app and off we went. I am so happy and I recommend this product to anyone trying to hook up more than one device to hotel internet. Great little router! 😊
3 people found this helpful
Mattimus –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Unfinished product with some fatal flaws
Just wanted to say they’ve been selling this like it’s a finished product for years now but it’s really unfinished and unpolished and has some serious bugs and now a debilitating one.I’ll let you read other reviews to discover the little flaws it has, but the big new debilitating bug is if you try to update the software to the latest version, you’ll brick your router. I’ve had this happen to two routers now. So if you buy this thing don’t up the software (which is really bad as you won’t have the latest software or security features). If you try to update the software, you’ll most likely be shipping it back to Amazon afterwards. Good luck and to the team that developed this: way to ship an extremely unpolished product….! Hope you do better. (Bow your head in shame….)
One person found this helpful
Jennifer Graetz –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works as a VPN
It didnt take much effort to get my VPN connected. The firmware was fairly straightforward to setup. It has an external physical switch to turn the VPN on and off which is great. I connected mine by ethernet cable to the router, but I believe it can also be connected through a USB modem, tethered to a phone, or connected to an existing wifi connection. The item is very small but has good range and has not had any operational issues.
One person found this helpful
Mahogany –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Hard to install
Very hard to install. It took me several hours t figure out that no additional downloading of apps is needed. Watched a YouTube video that explained how to set it up. Wish the product would have came with instructions.
D. MCMULLAN –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Inexpensive, small, and works great
I got this router primarily to route through VPN. I set it up for NordVPN, and it works flawlessly. I am surprised at how small it is, which is great for travel.
Raj Agarwal –
5.0 out of 5 stars
The “Do It All”
This is an incredible product which makes your life easier. I can power it from my laptop USB or even a portable battery pack. The WISP (wireless ISP) mode lets you connect to another WiFi point for Inet access, while the gizmo itself becomes a wireless access point, letting you connect all your devices, ultimately bringing every device onto the Internet via the WISP.Instead of WISP mode, you could also connect to the Internet via the WAN port.You could also use the LAN port to connect a non-WiFi (Ethernet only) device to you WiFi.There are many many modes to explore. The default interface is extremely easy to use. You could also use the “Advanced Interface” to use full OpenWRT options. For the super-advanced, a Linux ssh is also available. Incredible value.Did I mention that you could just use that as a simple home WiFi router just as well. Pretty cool.
One person found this helpful
AK –
5.0 out of 5 stars
tethering
It took less than 2 min to attach my iPhone SE using USB (tethering->eth2 interface). T-Mobile is capable of 10Mbit download and 6Mbit upload in my area. It is enough to watch Sling on Roku 4 . Plus all my small wired network is now attached to this router. I don’t have any cable/DSL at home anymore. All investment was in this device and refurbished iPhone. Don’t know how reliable this thing is… As of now I am happy with this item….After one month of usage: for better results with Sling and Netflix – assign static IP for Roku and put Roku as priority rule source in QoS section (Advanced Settings – QoS – WAN interface), all ports/all destination hosts, extend in/out traffic settings to your provider max limits or more (40000/40000 in my case), click “enable” checkbox below WAN then “Save/Apply”. It will eliminate occasional video “hiccups” especially for Sling.Also reboot this thing once a week.Still 5 stars.
2 people found this helpful
DemokkkRATS suk –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Having issues getting it to work with a captive portal
Trying to set a blink camera up in my moms nursing home room but the facility has a captive portal on the WiFi and this router is allowing the portal to come up. Still trying though
Erik –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works wonderfully in my hotel room!
I am stuck in a hotel room so I needed a firewall for the hotel WiFi. This unit worked beautifully. I had the hack a little to get it configured since the instructions did not match the way it was laid out, but that only took a few minutes. I have had it running for a week now without a hitch.
Jeff –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great Product, But Beware–Seems to be Some Quality Issues?
This product does everything is advertises, and it does it well… when it actually boots. At first all the time. Then every few times. Now a week plus in, it boots every so often (meaning, its red light kicks on and WiFi works). Otherwise, its a brick. Tried all tricks recommended. Reset. Hard reset. Re-flash. Same problem. Internet search suggests pandemic issue.If this fix this–amazing product. But as is, cannot recommend it.UPDATE: Exchanged unit for another. So far so good. So works great. If you get a lemon, just return it.
One person found this helpful
Marc –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great little router
Performs flawlessly and relatively easy to install. The latest version permits remote configuration via the goodcloud webpage. I have had problems with opening ports on some ISP modems to permit remote access so this is a welcome addition. Throughput is a bit slow but for the price, size, and weight, it is worth the tradeoff.
Bubbagump –
5.0 out of 5 stars
RPis are $140 lately, use this for Wireguard
I wanted to put in a RPi at my sister’s place to create a Wireguard tunnel back to my house. RPis are essentially sold out everywhere or are being scalped for $140+. This worked perfectly. It’s not the most powerful box, but it worked fine for my limited needs.
One person found this helpful
Caro –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good little router
This router does what it is supposed to do. I tried to use it with my phone’s hotspot and didn’t have any luck with that.
Marie –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Very great
Everything came as described awesome for the price
Derek Noll –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Has Been Flawless
I bought the AR300M16 to solve a poor Wi-Fi issue. I plugged an Ethernet cable into it from the main network and I’m is have solid internet via the AR300M16 Wi-Fi.
jon –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great little device that works out of the box
Needed a repeated and works well for my house. Just note you will need a USB wall adapter or connector to your computer to power it up. The router settings are very easy to use and actually better than my home router settings page. Vpn also works
T Smith –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Small, Simple, and Perfect for Adding a VPN Network
This little thing is the bees knees. Simple to use with some advanced features. Not super powerful but perfect for what I need.I pay for Nord VPN service so that I can watch sports games that are blacked out locally. I just plugged this thing into my current router, configured the VPN, set up the WiFi and this thing acts like a completely different network. Speeds are sub 10 Mbs, but still get perfect 1080p video. Works great if only streaming one thing at a time. Still have my Netgear Nighthawk for the rest of the home WiFi, only use this when I need to watch a ball game.
5 people found this helpful
SeniorObjectiveProductReviewer –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Tiny, very convenient & with OpenWRT support
This tiny router is very convenient to travel with, works very well & has excellent customer support. It comes with Open WRT support so enables you to setup a VPN at the router level.
KamizeFrog –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Connect to unsecured open WiFi signals with confidence!
This GL.iNet GL-AR300M16 Mini Router works brilliantly. The included instructions were clear and straight forward. Set up was a breeze and I was surfing the web on a private WiFi network that the router created for me using a Xfinity Hot Spot signal as the main source. I ended up purchasing this version because I wanted it in black whereas the cheaper version only came in yellow. I can’t comment about the built-in OpenVPN functionality because I didn’t use it – I use Nord.Overall, you can’t go wrong with this purchase if you need a functional and easy to setup up travel Router.
6 people found this helpful
Magdiel Hernández Ramos –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Muy pequeño y MUY poderoso.
Muy pequeño y MUY poderoso. Realmente me asombro la potencia de su señal. Al poseer Openwrt como sistema operativo lo hace in equipo extremadamente versátil y poderoso. Además puede conectarse a la nube de Goodcloud.xyz
Contrarian –
2.0 out of 5 stars
Sadly fails badly. It will not maintain the SSID
This is a great little product, lots of features, but I have wasted endless hours setting up this device on to find two days later the SSID WiFi name reverts back to the default name. I have two of these routers, both were upgraded to the latest firmware and again today it lost the WiFi name setting. Not acceptable.I like that it supports wireguard VPN, random Mac address and good wifi strength.Come on guys this is not good.
One person found this helpful
A. Lucas –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great value
Easy but space is very limited. don’t expect to install much with thier UI. But I kept the UI because it was easy and worked well.
Taylor –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy
It’s cute, compact. Came as expected and does what it’s suppose to do plus it’s super super easy to set up. Would recommend and would definitely buy again
One person found this helpful
R Davis –
1.0 out of 5 stars
Did Not Work As Advertised
I purchased this router to use at a temporary lodging hotel. It DOES NOT WORK. I still cannot get a good signal and the hotel WiFi is horrible. I am going to return this product!!
One person found this helpful
bonedaddy4538 –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Easy to install openwrt
This device is just what I was looking for. I turned this into a vpn router for an entire network and WireGuard can reach speeds of 48mbps tops. Advertised 50mbps seems likely.Single core cpu but never overloaded running as a router and AP with some light software ram isn’t even 50% used either
Patricia –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Better than paying for wifi
We bought this for our daughter because internet costs are so high. She loves it! It’s not powerful enough to stream from more than 1 device at a time though. Overall easy to install.
Amazon Customer –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Very good for the price – Should have added a power supply though
I like it very much. The default user interface is easy to understand. The best it is OpenWRT and therefore right what I needed. The only part I am missing is a power supply. They should have added one, even if it would have raised the price by a dollar or two.
Robert Byrd –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Compact; Hotel WiFi hot spot
Which I had looked at a model with a batterypack
Jacksson Barrientos –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Fácil de configurar
Es fácil de configurar, excelente presentación del producto y lo mejor de todo excelente señal de wifi.
xQuestx –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Using with Verizon phone hotspot.
I’m using this with a hotspot on a Verizon Samsung s8 android phone, you can use it in tether usb mode or wisp wireless connection. I then use a switch attached to this for google WiFi that has the 3 units. Much better than the satellite internet before.
One person found this helpful
I. Darke –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Quick and easy…
I haven’t used “in the real world” yet, but I was able to quickly configure the device to spin up a private wifi network from an existing wifi network and set it up so that a flip of a physical switch toggles it to route all traffic through an OpenVPN connection.While I haven’t done any digging “under the covers”, the device appears to be highly customizable/flexible.Bottom line: a good form factor and set of functionality at a reasonable price
Roger Kaiser –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Perfect for travel situations
Perfect to teether cellular data from your phone to either your own LAN or WIFI access. Easy set-up if you are at all techie. You would have to most likely set it up physically for your older parent or grand parent.
One person found this helpful
sandibin72 –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great VPN Router
This is my second purchase from Seller GL Technologies and I am very satisfied with the quality of the product.
AJG –
1.0 out of 5 stars
Impossible to set-up with the included instructions.
All I wanted to do was to set up wifi in my RV at each campground. Never got off the ground. There are no LAN/WAN ports in my RV. Had strong campground wifi signal. I tried connecting the ‘router’ using wifi off my phone, but could not get the settings screen to resolve – 192.168.8.1 just hung in Chrome or Firefox. Sometimes it would broadcast the SSID to my phone or laptop, most times it would not. I had set it up as a repeater at home but at campground, it didn’t even see the all the access points in my RV (including my phones) and just continually hung while trying to connect to the campground wifi. Never did. Life is too short to mess with this – turned my phone into a hot spot.
One person found this helpful
Bob P. –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works as advertised
Used to connect my SONOS speakers to community Wi-Fi in our apartment.
Kadee McMurrin –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Was the perfect travel router
Was the perfect travel router, overall easy to setup but the UI is a little flaky. Would commit a change in the UI and when it updated it would not show the change would refresh a few times and it would show up.
One person found this helpful
Manuel Gallo –
5.0 out of 5 stars
👍👍👍👍
👍👍👍👍
Garrett Rudinger –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works as a great travel router!
I am a frequent traveler and realized I’d be more comfortable having my internet route through my home network rather then being completely visible to every hotel I stay at.I bought this device specifically to connect to my VPN Wireguard server at home and it works great.Getting it connected to captive portals can sometimes be a pain. If the captive portal sign in doesn’t work right for you when connecting to WiFi device try one of the following.Using Captive Portal1. Connect Phone to Travel Router WiFi2. On Phone navigate to 192.168.8.13. Click on repeater mode and connect to the WiFi you intend to connect to.4. Go to Admin Panel > More Setting > and under custom DNS server ensure “DNS Rebinding Attack Protection” is toggeled off.5. On your Phone you want disconnect from your travel router. Don’t just turn it off you should click on the wifi name of the travel router and click “Forget this network” (iPhone Process)6. Now reconnect to your Wifi router, enter the password, and that should bring up the captive portal.Using MAC Clone.1. Connect your device to the WiFi you will actually be using (Such as Hotel, Starbucks, etc.)2. Follow the captive portal and fill in the information until your internet is active.3. Navigate to your phones WiFi setting and copy the MAC address4. Disconnect from the public wifi and now connect to the travel router wifi.5. On you phone browser navigate to 192.168.8.16. Click on more settings > MAC Clone7. Under “Your Router (WAN)” paste the MAC address that you copies in step 3 and apply.
7 people found this helpful
Phil Seven –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great solution for rural broadband setup
I have a Verizon hotspot (AC791L), with an external antenna that I use for receiving broadband on a rural property. The built in wifi on the hotspot is weak, however, and can’t reach all areas of my house, so I wanted to bridge the hotspot to a more powerful Netgear Nighthawk router. Problem is, the hotspot does not have a LAN port. So, prior to buying this Gl.inet router, I hooked the hotspot up to a laptop using a USB-C connector, and used the laptop’s LAN port to bridge an internet connection (using Win10) to the router. This worked fine, except it tied up the use of my laptop 24/7, and the throughput speed was not great.I bought this mini router to act as the go-between for the Verizon hotspot and the router, rather than a laptop. After booting up, I configured the GL.inet router as a “usb modem” on the GL-inet setup page. I also turned off the wifi signal on the GL-Inet to avoid interference with the Nighthawk router. I then moved the unlabeled physical switch on the side of the GL-inet router to the right, which placed the router in “bridge mode”. That’s all it took. I rebooted the three devices (hotspot, GL-Inet router, and Nighthawk router) and everything worked! This freed up my laptop, and now I have this tiny device linking my hotspot and housewide router. Note that after adding this router as the intermediary between the hotspot and the wholehouse router, devices with wifi connections to the router may need to be rebooted, so they are reassigned new IP addresses.The best news is the speed of my rural internet connection tripled. I’m not sure why, but obviously the hardware/firmware setup of this device is superior than using laptop/ICS. I was getting a consistent 6-7mbps connection using the hotspot-laptop-router connection. This is pretty slow, allowing one streaming event at a time, tops. Now, using this device, I’m getting a consistent 20-22mbps conection. Much faster, and I can finally using multiple devices at once without buffering/dropouts.Best $25 you can spend on a rural internet setup. Very happy. My only concern is the Chinese firmware and hardware, which I figure has the capability to spy on my usage, and may open a backdoor (see SuperMicro embedded chip saga), so I’ll monitor this situation and traffic connections.
8 people found this helpful
Computer Geek –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dead Simple and very handy.
These little buggers come in so handy! I needed an extender/repeater to get an adequate signal to some of my ip cams. This little $20 box did everything I needed and more. I needed it to reboot itself once a day…no problem. It took a just few minutes to figure out how to do that.I will always give a preference to routers that can run OpenWRT in the future.
Mike – Kingwood Texas –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Yes, it works on Royal Caribbean ships
My only reason for purchasing this router is for use on cruise ships. I cruise a lot with my wife and mostly cruise with Royal Caribbean. Just got off a cruise on Allure of the Seas and the device worked great. Was able to connect to ships Wi-Fi and connect both our phones to the internet, saves on purchasing 2 or more internet accounts. Using my iPhone connected to the router first and selecting the ships WiFi, the Captive portal launched automatically and was able to enter my Royal Caribbean username and PIN number successfully. Then I connect phones/etc to the routers name. I power it using a small 5000 mah battery backup and conceal both devices in my shorts pocket and stay connected throughout the ship all day long on a single charge.Great device for cruise ships, just buy!
8 people found this helpful
Kennedy Noel –
5.0 out of 5 stars
WiFi Repeated
I use this as a WiFi repeater at my apartment since I can’t hook some things up with community WiFi (nanny cam). Works perfect!!
One person found this helpful
edl –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Stable flexible little things they are!
Used 2 of them to extend a wired network across the house for an IP phone. If I were to do it again I’d buy one with the external antennae, but with a bit of positioning got these internal ones going. They are not going to give you a full speed connection but are flexible software wise. The UI makes for a simple set up and they are nice and small. Did not expect to get a USB power cord in the box, but there it was. Just needed a power cube for each to get them going.
2 people found this helpful
AlexGL –
4.0 out of 5 stars
Confusing Title: “Portable”
I don’t know if it’s only me or if other people think the same when they read a device is ” Portable Mini Travel”. To me, a portable travel device should not require an external power source (like a charger or battery) to be powered up and it should have a built-in rechargeable battery to be called “portable”. Other than this, it seems to be a good router.
3 people found this helpful
IMScrat –
5.0 out of 5 stars
Works GREAT here!
I have it set to pick up the hotspot signal from my phone and, through an ethernet cable, send it to my laptop. It is configured through the setup stuff to tunnel to a particluar IP through the intenet connection. It works GREAT. The poor reviews are mostly a function of user error with technology.If you want a case to put this and the cables in…I am using this case and it fits well is working out GREAT!https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9PFVX82
One person found this helpful
MrsReaves –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Didn’t stay connected
It was not that easy to connect to the hotel WiFi. It connected as a tether only then it kept disconnecting from the WiFi therefore my Ring camera would go offline. Did not work for me
D. Dion –
3.0 out of 5 stars
Good (Two ethernet ports). Bad (Does not support “Client” mode)
Neat little device.Works well in ‘router’ mode.Two ethernet ports: one of which is LAN, the other one can be LAN or WAN. Great!On the downside, it doesn’t support CLIENT mode. This is really surprising.The TP-Link pocket routers all support client mode…(Client mode is where the router connects to an existing wireless network, and provides WIRED ethernet to devices which only have wired ethernet, no wifi.).Disappointing a little because of that.Other than that, it’s easy to setup. Website provides good documentation.