Starting OpenWRT on GL.iNet Routers for New Users

[BradenHeat]

**A Sneak Peek At the Upcoming New Wifi 7 Routers from GL-inet**

Flint 3 (Home Router Series):
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/

Slate 7 (Travel Router Series):
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be3600/

NNnnnaaaaaaa bbbbbeeeeeee iiiiiiiii laaaaaaa WHEN IS. IT COMING OUT TTTTT

 

[halocast]

mine oh mine

 

[halocast]

Woohoo! You’re as excited as we are! Yes, the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) is gearing up to launch in Q2 2025 – mark your calendars! Want to be the first to know all the juicy details? Subscribe to our email updates here: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/ and stay in the loop.

Coming Q2

 

[TanKianW]

Woohoo! You’re as excited as we are! Yes, the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) is gearing up to launch in Q2 2025 – mark your calendars! Want to be the first to know all the juicy details? Subscribe to our email updates here: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/ and stay in the loop.

Coming Q2

Worth the wait on glinet’s offering. I will still prefer getting an AIO Wifi7 router running OpenWRT anytime or just run ROS on MikroTik.

Been using my travel router for quite a while now and it still comes with regular firmware upgrade, though not on the latest OpenWRT build. But not a major problem for me, since I normally don’t chase after the fastest and greatest Linux kernel.​

 

[BradenHeat]

oh yeaaaa

hopefully the specs are up to par......

and hopefully with MLO


Currently with Firewalla Purple + Unifi Express, which has the best balance....





https://www.gl-inet.com/campaign/ces2025-products/#form

 

[halocast]

Looking forward to flint 3 but seems like nthing so far from them

 

[TanKianW]

basically it might be a good all in one , main router + ad blocker + good and decent firewall + extended 2.5G for another wifi 7 4by4

but the chipset they are using....

This will be an easy drop-in replacement for my Beryl connecting to my mobile NAS with a 2.5G LAN.

Looking forward to the upgrade. The touch screen is a really nice and useful touch.​

 

[Elijahonli]

*Connection Mode: Tethering, Cable, Repeater and Modem*

The Different connection mode of the GL.iNet router. Extremely useful to frequent travelers or staycation families like mine. Sometimes the internet connections in cafe, hotels, hostels, rental place, villas, and hotspot could be very dynamic. And the router proof to be very versatile in this area.​

Connecting (LAN Cable) to Fiber internet with 1G speed upstream:

Connecting (USB) to Phone or mobile USB dongle tethering:

Connecting (USB) to 3G/4G Modem:

Connecting to existing Wifi as a repeater:

The mobile modem, mobile hotspot (Mifi) and mobile USB dongle I used:

*NOTE: Here I am using an industrial mobile modem carrier card that allows me to change out the modem cards and easily powered off a USB type C connector. It is running a compatible Huawei 4G modem

When using the custom 4G dongle or the huawei one, what speeds are u getting when connecting via RNDIS

 

[TanKianW]

When using the custom 4G dongle or the huawei one, what speeds are u getting when connecting via RNDIS

Can't recall. Maybe around 100M? But most of the time around 10-20M (subject to reception), which is still usable for internet browsing.

In recent years, I have not been using the router with the USB modem dongle, and have only been using the mobile router in hotels and staycation apartments which are connected to WiFi or LAN cable. On the move, I just use the 4G/LTE e-sim on both my iOS and Android phones.​

 

[TanKianW]

**Open for Pre-Order: GL.inet Slate 7 Travel Router**

Too bad, I missed the super early bird price at USD96 coz did not check my email. Only managed to pre-order at USD114 with 5% discount promo code. A worthy upgrade to my travel router for my year end vacation trip. A shout out to those interested to secure a unit.

 

[halocast]

Still not much new on their flint 3.

 

[seowbin]

Actually what's the point of getting wifi 7 router for travel ?

Seems like CPU also not much faster than before if it's for VPN.

 

[xiaofan]

MediaTek Filogic 820 is 100% a mistake as it is a WiFi 6 chipset, same for FiLogic 830.

Filogic 860 and Filogic 880 are for higher end WiFi 7 routers.

MediaTek leaves lower end BE3600 and BE5000 market to its subsidiary Airoha (AN7563PT). This is a very weak dual core CPU in terms of CPU raw power. Wireless side these routers will still be quite okay using MefiaTek WiFi 7 chipsets.

Qualcomm IPQ5312 is popular among BE3600 grade dual band WiFi 7 routers. And indeed it should be the CPU used by Slate 7.

https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be3600/#specs

CPU	Qualcomm Quad-core, @1.1GHz
Memory / Storage	DDR4 1GB / NAND Flash 512MB

More information about Qualcomm WiFi chipsets.
https://wikidevi.wi-cat.ru/Qualcomm

 

[BBCWatcher]

Actually what's the point of getting wifi 7 router for travel ?

Wi-Fi 6E (or 7) might be somewhat useful in destination countries where 6 GHz channels are available and with devices that support those channels. Currently the 6 GHz channels are less congested, and they offer the least range — not a bad thing for a crowded hotel or convention hall. Wi-Fi 7 also offers some "anti-congestion" features at least when the whole network (including client devices) is Wi-Fi 7.

But in this case — and assuming a 4G LTE or 5G WAN link for example — you'd probably configure a narrow 6 GHz channel. You're just trying to pick a channel with less interference in this situation, and you only need enough throughput/bandwidth to keep up with the WAN connection.

Seems like CPU also not much faster than before if it's for VPN.

On average wireless routers that support newer Wi-Fi standards have higher performance processors (with more memory and onboard flash storage). On average. But VPN performance involves a lot of variables.

 

[xiaofan]

Wi-Fi 6E (or 7) might be somewhat useful in destination countries where 6 GHz channels are available and with devices that support those channels. Currently the 6 GHz channels are less congested, and they offer the least range — not a bad thing for a crowded hotel or convention hall. Wi-Fi 7 also offers some "anti-congestion" features at least when the whole network (including client devices) is Wi-Fi 7.

But in this case — and assuming a 4G LTE or 5G WAN link for example — you'd probably configure a narrow 6 GHz channel. You're just trying to pick a channel with less interference in this situation, and you only need enough throughput/bandwidth to keep up with the WAN connection.

On average wireless routers that support newer Wi-Fi standards have higher performance processors (with more memory and onboard flash storage). On average. But VPN performance involves a lot of variables.

Just take note GL-BE3600 does not support 6GHz band.

The CPU used is Qualcomm IPQ5312 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 at 1.1GHz. Although it is a low end CPU for WiFi 7 routers, it is actually pretty decent in terms of CPU power.

 

[BBCWatcher]

Just take note GL-BE3600 does not support 6GHz band.

Yup, and that's why I mentioned it. A travel router for someone working in countries with 6 GHz channels and in crowded Wi-Fi environments really ought to support 6 GHz channels. That's kind of the whole point.

The Wi-Fi Alliance really ought to have some other branding for Wi-Fi 7 devices that don't support 6 GHz channels. Something like Wi-Fi 7L ("Low"/"Limited") for example. Otherwise it'll be endlessly confusing.

The CPU used is Qualcomm IPQ5312 quad-core Arm Cortex A53 at 1.1GHz. Although it is a low end CPU for WiFi 7 routers, it is actually pretty decent in terms of CPU power.

Yes, you can get reasonable VPN performance between your travel router and a "home" network as long as you're reasonably careful about VPN technology choices and settings.

 

[TanKianW]

Actually what's the point of getting wifi 7 router for travel ?

Seems like CPU also not much faster than before if it's for VPN.

The point is no need to be fast. Competent enough to run my VPNs (WG or Tailscale), Adguard Home, file sharing over USB will do. And providing a single point wifi to all my family members when staycation, hotel hoping or AirBnB where they access from a single secure point. IMO, Wifi 7 is just an "added bonus" when I upgrade my travel router.

Sufficient for me to stream my transcoded videos from my PLEX server in Singapore. Or back (sync) my vacation photos back to my storage server at home will do.​

 

[xiaofan]

Still not much new on their flint 3.

Flint 3 will be more geared toward home WiFi router market as it is not a travel router.

Maybe Flint 2 (Filogic 830 chipset) is so popular that they would like to sell it for a bit longer time.

Not so sure which chipset Flint 3 will use. It is actually not easy to beat the CPU performance of the MT7986A CPU in the Filogic 830 chipset, unless it uses MediaTek Filogic 860/880 or Qualcomm IPQ957x/955x chipset. Let's see. Unlikely it will use the flagship Filogic 880 or IPQ957x chipset though.

Anyway, 6GHz band support is useful, as well as the all 2.5Gbe ports wired spec. So it will still be a good upgrade for those who want to have triband WiFi 7 with 6GHz band.

 

[xiaofan]

The point is no need to be fast. Competent enough to run my VPNs (WG or Tailscale), Adguard Home, file sharing over USB will do. And providing a single point wifi to all my family members when staycation, hotel hoping or AirBnB where they access from a single secure point. IMO, Wifi 7 is just an "added bonus" when I upgrade my travel router.

Sufficient for me to stream my transcoded videos from my PLEX server in Singapore. Or back (sync) my vacation photos back to my storage server at home will do.​

Indeed IPQ5312 CPU used in Slate 7 should be fine for this purpose. It is also faster than the CPU used in Beryl AX (MT7981B 1.3GHz dual-core processor, Filogic 820 chipset).

Slate AX IPQ6000 CPU (quad core Arm Cortex A53 at 1.2GHz is actually slightly faster than Slate 7 IPQ5312 CPU (quad core Arm Cortex A53 at 1.1GHz).

But interestingly FiLogic 820 has faster OpenVPN performance than the other two. Strange.

Slate AX: OpenVPN speed up to 120 Mbps; WireGuard speed up to 550 Mbps

Slate 7: OpenVPN speed up to 100 Mbps; WireGuard® speed up to 540 Mbps

Beryl AX: OpenVPN speed up to 150 Mbps; WireGuard® speed up to 300 Mbps

 

[seowbin]

The point is no need to be fast. Competent enough to run my VPNs (WG or Tailscale), Adguard Home, file sharing over USB will do. And providing a single point wifi to all my family members when staycation, hotel hoping or AirBnB where they access from a single secure point. IMO, Wifi 7 is just an "added bonus" when I upgrade my travel router.

Sufficient for me to stream my transcoded videos from my PLEX server in Singapore. Or back (sync) my vacation photos back to my storage server at home will do.​

i brought one unit from china. can load the same firmware as this gl-inet router for fun because it is cheap like <200rmb but till now haven't play with it.

I am still hoping to have a wifi dongle (which I always connect to a power bank) to share the 4g connection while I'm travelling (in JP/TW, etc) . If the wifi dongle can do VPN (for jumping over the GFW) , it will be world best for my use case since I have a 4G china sim card with me which I pay subscription every month.

Other than that, typically I don't need a VPN. If I need it, simply run the VPN software.

So, I'm still trying to figure out why people need to buy this portable wifi router along especially if the rest of the family members just need wifi connections without VPN (unless for China use case).