Hi everyone,
I'm using a GL.iNet AXT1800 (Slate AX) as a travel router, and I encountered a strange but repeatable issue that I'd like to report and understand better.
Setup Summary:
At home, I configured the Slate AX to use my smartphone’s Wi-Fi hotspot as the WAN source. Everything worked great: other devices connected to the router and got Internet through the phone’s hotspot.
Then I took the router with me to my vacation apartment in the mountains.
Problem Scenario:
Once there:
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I powered on the router (no WAN configured yet).
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I connected my smartphone to the router’s Wi-Fi LAN as usual.
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I tried to access the admin panel at 192.168.8.1, but the browser timed out.
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I tried the same from my wife’s phone (also connected to the router’s Wi-Fi): same result — no access to the admin interface.
At this point, I was stuck: I couldn’t reconfigure the router because the admin panel was unreachable.
What fixed it:
I had an idea: I re-enabled the Wi-Fi hotspot on my own phone, the same SSID the router was previously connected to as WAN.
The router connected to it automatically (confirmed by the LED turning solid).
Immediately after that, my wife’s phone (still connected to the router's Wi-Fi LAN) was able to access the admin panel at 192.168.8.1.
I then reconfigured the WAN to connect to the apartment’s local Wi-Fi and everything worked fine again.
My concern:
It seems that the admin panel becomes unreachable when no WAN is active, even though I'm connected to the router’s LAN Wi-Fi.
Question:
Is this expected behavior?
Is there a setting I need to enable to keep the WebUI accessible at all times from LAN clients (even when no WAN is up)?
Is this a bug or a limitation in the current firmware?
Workaround:
Next time, I’ll bring a short Ethernet cable and connect directly to the router’s LAN port to access the admin panel if Wi-Fi access fails.
Still, I believe the router should always allow access to the local admin panel from clients on its LAN interface, regardless of WAN status.
Thanks in advance for any insight!