Any news? I guess it didn’t go too well lol
We have Firmware 4.2.0 release2, which will be stable enough soon. What bugs or features are you most concerned about?
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It went ok, but I ended up using my axt1800 (on a custom firmware build) more for some other reasons that don’t really matter.
That said, as evidenced by the previous reply, you should still consider the firmware to be solidly in flux.
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There aren’t really any specific bugs in particular that I’m worried about, the main concern surrounding the purchase is spending £120 on a device which either doesn’t function as ought to or things break after installing updates. Seeing as I only use a MangoV2 and its been around for so long I feel my experience with GL.iNet products has been positive but perhaps based of the length of time its been analysed for issues. The MangoV2 has a bare bones type of feel which just works for simple VPN use but the higher end models come with lots more options and functions which in turn means lots of options and functions that can go wrong. Can we just get a MangoV3 with the same throughput as the atx1800 
What type of wifi speeds were you getting? I know firmware will constantly be up and down with negatives and positives but its really a matter of how detrimental the negative downs are and how frequently they occur. I can do with a few bonus features like tail scale not working because I’ll never use them anyway but if them not working impacts upon functionality of the device and its VPN speeds then its not a very stable position, especially in exchange for over one hundred squids
Also, when you say custom build, what elements of it have you customised?
Been running Snapshot builds since January
Early builds speed was still down 200-300mbps
Most recent February builds speeds are back 800mbps+
Adguardhome still uses a huge amount of RAM but is stable
The newer features like zero tier and tailscale are still kind of a mess
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Would you get even higher speeds if Adguard was disabled meaning more free RAM? I ask as I use Brave so already have an ad blocking mechanism in place
I don’t think it would make much difference. The Speeds I am referring to is using IPerf3 Client to AP and AP to AP. The router is pushing 450mbps Surfshark VPN Tunnel on a 800mbps residential connection.
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Is that WireGuard protocol or OpenVPN?
WireGuard protocol is used
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3mbps, because that was the limit of the wifi at the hotel.
All GL.iNet features removed, vanilla luci build (with some additional packages) built via gl-infra-builder
Ah, that does kind of limit the speed testing abilities then lol
I barely understood any of that. Is it something that can be learned through YouTube tutorials or do you need good knowledge and specific hardware?
I have the impression the stock firmware will be more than enough for you. Why don’t you just try it and decide for yourself?
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Basically I’m running on something that strips out all of the stock firmware features and runs on something a lot more basic - where there are fewer things to go wrong. There are a lot of “features” that have been stuffed into the newer GL.iNet builds that might be nice to have in a home router setup, but that are irrelevant to me on the road. Conversely, there are features that aren’t in the stock firmware that I kind of want - encryption on the SD card, NFS support, actual Tailscale support, rsync, etc. The gl-infra-builder allows you to (sort of) build a custom firmware, though there are certain limitations (like, you’re still stuck on using vendor-supplied kernels for the MT3000 and AXT1800).
My personal experience is that if you can get one of these builds dialed in, they are far more robust than the stock firmware, for my application. I don’t know that I’d want to run either of them as my main router, but they’re fine for what I’m using them for.
The wifi side is probably more stable on the AXT1800 side at the moment, and there are at least moves toward mainlining it into OpenWrt, at which point it will benefit from far newer kernels. Long-term MediaTek probably has better support than Qualcomm on OpenWrt, but? Dunno.
My feeling is that the stock firmware is going to be in flux for a long time, but I may be wrong about that (I hope I am!). It’s sort of like back in the days with DD-WRT where the whole game was just a crapshoot. No regression testing, highly variable performance from one build to the next, with each particular model breaking in various ways between releases. If you found a good build for your particular model, it worked well, but the whole experience was a roller coaster. OpenWrt has always been better in that regard, but the GL.iNet firmware is kind of two or three levels removed from that. Pretty, with lots of “features,” some of which occasionally work, but it can also feel like trying to haul water with a leaky bucket. I think the best way I would describe it would be “not enterprise ready.” Fine for hobby projects and probably around the house, but I wouldn’t deploy it anywhere that would require a truck roll to reset it.
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I wish they would create a high performance up to date router for nothing other than VPN use. Lots of people want their VPN physically isolated from all devices for better security and reliability but have to accept all the other stuff along with it. I don’t even know what tailscale actually is and I’ve heard nothing but bad things yet it comes pre bundled and removing it could probably break something. A decent stand alone VPN router with constant updates must exist somewhere?
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Tailscale is fantastic - I’m not sure what you’ve heard that’s negative. GL.iNet’s implementation of Tailscale currently leaves a whole lot to be desired, but the actual product is amazing.
Sure. Get a cheap x86 box and install pfSense or OPNsense.
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I don’t know what a x86 box is or how to install and manually configure it all
I mean, look - combining with the other thread, if your goal is a $50 router that’s perfect out of the box and has all the features you want, you’re probably not going to find it. The more you spend, the more you’re likely to get.
Sure, low end pfSense/OPNsense appliances are about $200, depending, and they don’t do WiFi - you’d need another $100-150 for a decent access point. Then again, you can run them for 6-8 years easily and just upgrade the wireless side of things and leave your main network unmolested. Sure, it’s not for everyone, and you have to really amortize the costs differently. But you can have a ton more flexibility and performance, not to mention upgradability.
I got my first pfSense install in 2010, and the config I am running today is a direct descendant of that install. I’ve been on 4 different pieces of hardware in that time as my networking needs evolved (with one nasty hardware failure), but the base config has moved to each new machine with zero hiccups. I’ve never had a crash, never had it crap on me (aside from the one C2XXX hardware failure). It’s just worked for 13 years. I’ve also been through about half a dozen generations of access points in that time, going from early 802.11n to newer AX stuff. I don’t even want to count the number of random travel routers I’ve purchased in that time.
My point in all of that is to say that yes, it’s not a $50 router, but it also doesn’t behave like one. Those kinds of installs are for more serious, long term investments - for when you’re looking at keeping your router for a decade, not for a year. It’s just a different mindset.
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I’m happy to invest a fair price but it would have to be in a fair product. I wouldn’t expect much for £/$50 but I wouldn’t want to invest loads of money on a device that I’m too potato to actually use. By the sound of it I would probably need to learn all sorts of stuff which I know nothing about which will take time, the whole thread started because I’m tired of paying for 500mbps and only getting about 25 lol. What do you think about this? The best VPN router solution | Vilfo
I mean… $5/month is kind of crazy for that level of features, on top of a $400 piece of hardware. I use both VLANs and QoS, so I’d need to spend $50/month, apparently, for a business license. No thanks. I mean, crap, I could by professional level support from Netgate for 2/3 of that price.
Both Netgate and … whatever the company behind OPNsense is sell overpriced hardware with the software preinstalled if you want to go that route. There is somewhat of a learning curve, but honestly it’s really no worse off than learning GL.iNet’s firmware. The UX is good for both, and the documentation - especially for pfSense - is great. OPNsense is allegedly easier for non-BSD people to learn, but I’ve got 15 years of tech debt on pfSense, so caveat emptor. The big caveat to both of those is that you don’t want either of them to do wireless.
I have no doubt that there’s a decent Linux based firewall out there. I think I’ve seen ads for like Firewalla and some other appliances. But honestly I’m not in the market so I don’t look too closely.