josephstern

Even if you can't get it to work in that situation, I think you might want to consider keeping it. I have used mine in a ton of situations where it's saved me a lot of money and aggravation.

ajhun9

I just tried it again at the hotel and it doesn't work. I'm guessing it can't handle the number of networks that are available here (over 15 show on my laptop). I will unfortunately need to return it since I stay at this particular hotel around 100 nights/year. Hopefully I have better luck with another brand.

legalalien

I stopped using HooToo because of the same problem. Occasionally switching WiFi channel would help; other times I would not be able to get it to see the hotel's or the plane's network.

I'm now using a GLi.Net router - see above for links - and it seems to work much more reliably. Lack of an internal battery makes it a little more hassle to use, but functionality, usability and performance more than make up for it.

MareLuce

docbert

Looks like GL.iNet have been busy. They have a new mini travel router, the VIXMINI which is 47x47x18mm and 30g. And also a new version of the 5Ghz travel router with folding external antennas, the GL-AR750S.

The latter isn't going to win any size awards, being slightly bigger than the old model which didn't really fit well in this thread anyway, but could be useful if you need 5Ghz and good range.

They've also completely revamped the GUI and it's much cleaner. Not sure if this is across all models, but it's certainly on my GL-AR300M. And the next version of the firmware adds a very cool feature I've been wanting for a while - the ability to route traffic for only specific devices over VPN, or to route just the guest network traffic over VPN. So I can have my phone and Chromecast over VPN in order to get US YouTube/Netflix/etc, whilst having everything else going direct.

kennycrudup

I've had a "Slate" (GL-AR750S) for nearly a year now, and it's working perfectly in hotels and on client sites.

I also have the WL-330NUL that started this thread that I use on airplanes, to NAT the single connection between my phone, tablet and/or laptop. I have a small portable recharge battery to run it (which lasts for 12 hours) and the whole thing fits in the headphone case I wear aboard. While it's been working OK, I've suspected for a while it's been responsible for thruput issues (even pings to the device can take 2secs to return) so I've been using my AR300M (another GL-iNet device, which I got on sale for $13 ) and it's been working much better- but doesn't fit in the headphone case.

So I see that GL-iNet has the GL-USB150 "MicroRouter" and having owned several of their products and been impressed with the quality of the devices and the high technical level of their forums I've ordered one off Amazon to replace the WL-330NUL; I'm sure it'll work much better, and also fit in the headphone case.

docbert

Didn't realize it had been out that long! However I was just reading some reviews on Amazon, and it looks like this decide can't actually do what I was expecting - in WISP mode the 5Ghz apparently only works for connection to the upstream network OR for your re-broadcast network, but not both. So if you connect to the hotel network with 5Ghz, then your local network is only 2.4Ghz. That's clearly better than my GL-AR300M where both are 2.4Ghz, but not as good as I was hoping for.

Ohh.. I'd missed that one completely, probably due to the "USB" in it's name I didn't realize it was a stand-alone router. Please let us know how it goes.

kennycrudup

Huh. My typical use-case when in WISP mode is to connect to the hotel's/etc. WiFi, then authenticate via one of my client devices, giving the rest of them access automatically via NAT, and while I swear I thought my Fire Stick is connecting at 5GHz, now you've got me thinking about that. Let me investigate this.

Also, the seriously best place to get info on their devices is their fora: https://forum.gl-inet.com/ . If there's a definitive answer to be had, it'll be there.

legalalien

I'm not the OP, but I did get a GL-USB150 on Amazon and have taken it on a few trips. So far, I find it a very worthy successor to the good old Edimax router.

​I had no issues connecting to various United, Hilton, and Hyatt networks in WISP ("repeater" in GL.iNet terminology) mode. I have also tried it with various open networks around, and I found that it sometimes it had trouble listing all available networks in very crowded environments, but refreshing the search once or twice would work and the right network would appear. I had no issues with frequent disconnects reported by some Amazon reviewers.

The new 3.x Web UI is very easy to use. Performance was acceptable without VPN. The current firmware has a bug that makes OpenVPN connections impossible, but it is fixed in the "pre-release" firmware 3.022 - so if that functionality is important to you, head straight to GL.iNet site and update your router. Connecting VPN drops internet speed by about 40%. The new firmware has a feature that routes only *some* connected devices through the VPN connection. I haven't tested it yet, but it might help control performance drop.

Overall, if you liked Edimax form factor and you don't need to share wired connections, this is a very good option for simplifying internet access during travel.

kennycrudup

Oh yeah, I've been amiss in reporting back, but I'd like to repeat what @legalalien says- it's been rock-solid, and yes, update the firmware ASAP (the first thing I do anyway) and from the GL-iNet USB-150 firmware page, and my thruput is much better than the WL-330NUL it replaced. There's no Ethernet port on the USB-150, but as I got this for inflight-only use I don't miss it.

Re: VPNs, I've switched to using Wireguard everywhere I can, as it's much faster (I get wire-speed thruput) and has less CPU load (important if you're running on battery).

legalalien

Do you run your own WG server? None of my VPN providers support it yet.

ETA: Almost forgot: thank you for discovering the USB-150 - I've been looking for something like that ever since I broke the cable on my second Edimax. ^

kennycrudup

I do- one at home, one at a friend's with residential fiber and a DO node that I'm about to stop using now that I have the fiber connection.

There are several commercial VPN providers that use WG now (Azire and Mullvad among them). I have a Mullvad account that I use on a VM that I use for ... network backups ... and can pull ~20MByte/sec at times, depending on how many peers backups are happening at the same time- and Mullvad has been rated quite highly for both reliability and privacy. EUR5/mo.

unmesh

I currently run my own OpenVPN server and clients on both iPhones and Windows PCs. How hard is it to set up Wireguard on both ends, relatively speaking?

Thanks

kennycrudup

Well, I work with source code all the time, so it was really easy for me to get a cheap embedded device with Gigabit ethernet (the RPI4 just came out, but Fry's had the Asus TinkerBoard on sale for $50), get the latest kernel for it, and compile the WireGuard kernel module. Once it's done you have to create the public/private key pairs for each WG client you'll have (it's peer-to-peer, so either each device needs its own key, or just make sure you don't use key(s) at the same time on multiple devices).

Once you generate the keys, then just copy the client-based setup file onto the device you want to use it (there's an Android native client, and likely one for Apple devices, too) and you're all set. Someone wrote a tutorial that's pretty decent.

I've pulled >300Mbit/sec on a corporate LAN from that setup; since his gigabit upload is faster than most download links I'll be on (and he's got no caps) for my tablet I never turn the VPN off, and rarely do on my laptop (which has the benefit of connection persistence, as WG is a UDP-based protocol so when you change your "main" connection the VPN stays up w/o having to reconnect).

PM me if you have more questions (or post here, if you don't think we'd be way off topic).

webvan

Is anyone still using the Edimax 6258NL ? I pulled out mine recently and can't seem to get it working. A steady blue light comes on when I plug it in but goes off after about 5 seconds and that's it. I tried holding the reset button for 10+ seconds, no change. The only thing that get the blue light working again is plugging in an ethernet cable as it then blinks irregularly. No SSID gets broadcast as far as I can tell. The manual doesn't give any helpful troubleshooting tips. Thanks for any help !