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Review on πŸ”Œ GL.iNet GL-AR300M16 Portable Mini Travel Wireless Pocket Router - Multi-purpose WiFi Router with OpenWrt, Dual Ethernet Ports, OpenVPN/Wireguard VPN, and USB 2.0 Port by Jim Booth

Revainrating 4 out of 5

For Uboot mode, make sure to connect the Ethernet cable BEFORE turning on the device. Can't beat GL.iNet for small OpenWRT routers.

These are the best mini routers. I use GL-AR300M16 for ROOter and prefer Qualcomm Artheros chips (GL-AR300M series) to MTK chips (GL-MT300A). They appear to be smoother, a bit more reliable with wireless, and just fewer quirks (not that MTK has many of these, this one just seems flawless). If you use for ROOter, check or ask on the forum, because sometimes (at the time of writing) the firmware for many, including AR300M models, is not on the site (modems and men), but it may be on the forum. Finally, I'm not sure if it's that important on other models or chips (like MTK), but if you need to access Uboot mode to change or update the firmware (when I download the ROOter firmware) , make sure you connect an Ethernet cable to your computer BEFORE plugging the power cord into the router (by holding down the reset button long enough to access Uboot, as per the documentation). Otherwise the connection will fail (just time out) when connecting to the Uboot web interface at 192.168.1.1. If you connect the cable and set a static IP address on your computer before turning on the AR300M, Uboot will appear as soon as you try to access it. There's a use for it - that may change in the future), but the AR300M has both 16MB NOR and 128MB NAND and is kind of a different/new beast. I made a mistake with the default firmware! Very nice and flexible with many options! Can't beat them if you need some small routers for something.

Pros
  • understandable even for the old
Cons
  • a bit of trivia