GL.iNet GL-SFT1200 (Opal) Portable WiFi Travel Router, Mini VPN Wireless Router for Fiber Optic Modem, Mobile Internet WiFi Repeater, Dual Band Openwrt Computer Routers, Home/Business/RV/Cruise

I wish I could give this SIX stars. Not only is this a VERY CAPABLE portable router, it is a super-powerful, user friendly, intuitive, whole-home router. When I bought this, I was merely looking for something that would allow me to port forward through a VPN and over-come my mobile provider's unforgiving home internet hardware and configuration. Boy did I get my 40 bucks worth! Not only does it support OpenVPN from a gigantic line of VPN providers, you can manipulate virtually every single setting in the thing and it makes my cellular home internet viable for my home lab. The router interface itself is based on OpenWrt (a lightweight Linux distro for routers and things) and has been cultivated with both the novice, security conscious user AND the advanced, home-brew, hobbiest network engineer in mind. You can setup multiple VPN profile types to support all kinds of needs and quickly switch between them. Advanced ad blocking, interfaces with dynamic DNS services, advanced firwalling, distributed networks and VLANs, and basically anything else you can think of that you might need. I'll try using my phone to tether with it soon. Right now, I'm having too much fun with the available items that are just standard. Because its software is a lightweight Linux system, there are hundreds of installable packages for this. If you have experience working inside Debian, you can run this thing and make it as powerful or as ubiquitous as you want or need. I'm anxious to find out if I can connect external storage to it because it's only got 128 MBs of storage on board. Don't let the size and price point fool you. In experienced hands, this thing is a NetGear & TP-Link exterminator that will NOT bog down your network.

Sometimes things just delight you. This is one of the products. On a recent trip to Europe, I stayed at many hotels. It was nice to connect one device and share the connection instantly with all devices. Easy to connect to, easy UI, fast, reliable, takes little power from USB-C so you can even power it with a small power bank. USB drive to stream own media. Built in VPN. …. Wow wow wow. It even saved me one time. I was at a nice small cozy hotel but their WiFi only worked outside my door (in the hall). No problem. I simply connected the router to a small battery bank and left it outside of my door. My devices connected to it and the router was closer to the hotel WiFi transmitter so I could use internet in the room. I know it’s not a topical example but it was so awesome to be saved this way. I use it each time I work from a coffee shop too. Why not. One WiFi connection, VPN, all my devices go online and are safe (VPN).

The GL.iNet Opal is a gem like it's namesake says. Bang for your buck, this is one of the best value in routers that exists. That said, it is an older router with limitations. Know before you buy: Look, this is NOT a power router with huge throughput for OpenVPN, WireGuard, or your favorite commercial VPN. It will work just great if you need to do normal day-to-day work, but if you're trying to move large files or backhaul multiple video streams via VPN, there are limits to its throughput. The reason is simple: VPNs use a lot of CPU and memory for the overhead of encryption. At this price-point you're not getting a huge processor or a lot of memory. If you need a lot of VPN throughput, then look at GL.iNet's higher-end travel routers for the same form factor and the throughput performance you are looking for. For everyone else, this is the travel router you want. It is an OpenWRT router (though not capable of the newest builds) and will support all of the features you would expect on a router 2-4x the price. Very easy to setup and administer to share an internet connection through tethering to your cell phone or sharing a public WiFi. This device is also easily setup as a VPN server behind your typical NAT primary router by port forwarding. Range is good for the travel form-factor and power consumption. It doesn't hold a candle to the range of my primary router at home, but it still covers the entirety of our 6,000sf home, just at lower signal & throughput a the furthest distances.

Good cheap travel router. I have used this router at multiple locations while on vacation and it has worked flawlessly everywhere, there is some setting up initially depending on the location, but after that it makes life way easier since I do not have to connect all my devices individually to whatever location wifi I am using. I have used the repeater function in hotels with no ethernet port and when there was issues withe the closest wifi at the hotel, I just switched to a different signal and it alleviated the spotty connection problem without having to wait on the hotel service to fix it. I have used it through ethernet mode and it worked as normal, all my devices automatically connecting without having to struggle to log in each device individually. As a dumb simple wifi travel router, you cannot go wrong with it, especially if you have a family you are lugging around with you. It does have other functionalities, but this is an older model and does run slower when trying to balance a VPN or network sharing function, if it is necessary I would suggest going for a newer model, but for what this device does and a price point under 40$, I would say it is more than enough for most, who just care about connecting multiple devices faster.

The router performance is about the same as the Tenda AC1200 AC8 it replaced. It does that with MUCH smaller antenna and only two of them compared with 4 antennae of the AC8. Prepare for very small fonts in the start up instructions! I did have an issue and needed to go online to the site for clarification. Possibly due to language differences there was confusion as to which password to enter into the router once it rebooted. Either the new router password or the host password. That was resolved and the router has run smoothly since 12/11/24. It was setup in our house but it will be transferred to an office environment shortly where its host and password will again be changed before it settles into service at that location. Based on its performance we ordered three more. This router was approved for use by our national organization. We also bought the carry cases for them as Amazon offered a case designed for this router. We do need a case to protect the router when not in use. If you use "WISP" mode to connect to the host wirelessly this router does not have one. Its equivalent mode is "Repeater" and it works the same as WISP as it connects to the host and on to the Internet in our case. We have not used the router in any other mode, however we expect that it will meet our expectations. There are two LAN and one WAN port along with a 2.0 USB port. With its small size we may use a switch for allowing access to other devices. A four port switch device is very light and won't interfere with portability this router affords. The color blends in very well with our office surroundings. The AC8 was only offered in black or white colors and with 4 large antennae it did not blend in very well. Packing it for travel or storage was very annoying. This Opal router works well and has side benefits. The antennae design worked well in a TP-Link access point we used several years ago. The Internet speed test we ran did not differ very much from the AC8 design so we expect about the same performance from this smaller unit as compared to the larger Tenda AC8 design. I also bought one for our house. A nice touch was the power supply and cord. Both match the unit color and the plug has a unique design. The cord is a flat design that FOLDS very nice within itself. I am NOT going to purchase round cords any longer. When one coils (folds) this cord just follow the contours that you see when you first look at the unit in the box. You can then fold it back into the same size. I took a photo of it so I could refold it correctly and it DID! A nice small package without using an elastic. Its funny how the little things add up to a nice design. The Gli folks have a nice design throughout the product. Even the box design is very well done. BTW the route unit takes up about 1/2 the box and the cord and power supply take up the other half. The router is in a soft sleeve and one will realize it is only 1/2 of the box size. The plug of the power cord will need a 10 second assembly. It seems to be a universal plug that allows the unit to adapt to US, EU and other electrical systems. The contacts assembly are separate from the remainder of the cord assembly. The instructions indicate how to connect the contacts to assemble it to the cord unit by aligning the contact unit with the cord unit and then clicking the two into place with a slight twist of the wrist. Sounds complicated BUT it is like aligning an aspirin bottle top with the bottle edge and slightly twisting the top on. The U.S. model has a standard U.S. plug contacts. The units going to the EU probably have the EU type contact assembly. Slick! We do not need speed greater than the AC1200 standard right now. However, if we need more speed or more features the GLi company will be the first place we will look. GLi put a lot of thought into their design and it makes me confident that their electronics are designed with the same care and detail.

Updated Review: On a recent trip overseas I had better luck with this thing, even successfully logging into a hotel's captive portal. HOWEVER, it's totally hit or miss. I got more success when I disabled the 5G radio and just used it in 2G mode all the time. Three different hotels over a 20 day period and a total of about 5 reboots -- it generally worked. However, on morning of my last day it seemed to crap out. I'm so tired of troubleshooting this thing. So many times I've resorted to the "nuclear option" of resetting the firmware and re-entering all settings and passwords. I don't want to do that anymore. I want to get something better, but I see comments like this for all the other "travel" sized routers too. Again, I think that deleting WAN access points no longer needed (like hotels you're not coming back to) is one part of this multi-faceted problem. I use a VPN with this device, but the real advantage is that after you connect this router to the host network, ALL your already paired WiFi devices then auto-connect to the router when you move from hotel to hotel. This is the convenience I'm seeking, but unable to get reliably from this model. Prior Review: Before traveling I had it set up for a few months at home and it worked fine in repeater mode for weeks without reboot or tweaking of any kind. I had my phone and tablet connect to this router and they were able to re-establish Wi-Fi connection without problem as I came and went. The device apparently was able to routinely re-negotiate DHCP leases transparently. No hiccups at all. I would give the device a 4+ rating. (My gripes would be with the organization of the web pages on the interface.) However, after more than four weeks of travel I have to downgrade my rating of the device due to near endless frustration trying to connect to “captive portals” some of my hotels use. Before upgrading to firmware 4.3.25 I was NEVER able to connect the device to a captive portal (where you need to log in on a web page and provide additional credentials to gain Wi-Fi access). I have spent hours and hours scouring the web and YouTube videos seeking help, but nothing seemed to work. At the three week mark I decided to upgrade the firmware to 4.3.25. It then seemed I was able to get through at least one captive portal. Just once, but not at the next hotel. Again, I spent hours on this. I finally decided on the nuclear option: reset the device to factory settings and reconfigure. That worked! For the next two hotels I didn’t have any problems. However, at a new hotel last night the device worked for an hour and then it is unable to reconnect to the internet — and there’s no captive portal here. My next step is to do a factory reset again, reconfigure, including VPN credentials, and I expect it will work again. One action that might correlate with this problem is deleting access points for hotels I’m not returning to. I am hoping for a firmware upgrade that will fix this annoying and recurring issue. I do not want to be doing a factory reset at each new hotel!

Excellent product overall. For a portable travel router, I was very impressed with the ease of setup, connection reliability and user-friendly interface. The administration console is light years ahead of other more expensive routers I've used in the past. The flexibility, security options and elegantly designed interface outshine the modest cost. Put simply: it just works. Some of the more prominent names in home networking products can take a lesson from these folks on intelligent design. Considering all the available features and functionality for the price, a clear winner in my opinion.

I am very satisfied with the purchase. This is the cheapest and simplest device in the series. However, it allows you to set up a VPN server without any hassle or complicated procedures. My VPN service provider is not in the pre-installed settings, but I easily downloaded the profile from their website and activated it on the device within seconds. I think that for demanding users with high traffic, this router is too underpowered, but for home multimedia use for two people, it is quite sufficient. I was pleased with the presence of a mechanical switch with a customizable function; for example, I configured mine to turn Tor on/off. The web interface is very pleasant and informative, and the mobile application is also good. I haven't used Chinese products for a long time and was pleasantly surprised by the quality of the software. I recommend it to anyone looking for a cheap and high-quality solution for VPN.