I am not going to argue. I am not satisfied of our R&D myself. I am trying my best to improve and I believe we improved. But users' expectation goes even higher.
If you know, sometime ago, there was not even a good firmware download page.
Our firmware release was slow and is still slow. We are trying to schedule each firmware release so that everything is transparent and fall under expentations. Recently we are moving everything to higher OpenWrt version and SDK v4.6 v4.7 etc and it involves a lot of work. We do need some time.
About bug tracker. Yes we had one public but if you really used that, you will know it is a mess. Everything will send to the bug tracker and consumes us a lot of effort to verify if it is a bug or not. Most of the report was not taken care.
We have the forum and email ticketing system, which we have thousands of reports each month. It is enough for us to get user feedback and fix the bugs. Before we can run everything smoothly we will not set up a public bug tracker.
About bugs, yes there are too many. Please understand we fix more bugs than you thoughts. Software is just so difficult. With the mature of our firmware we hope the bugs can be well mananged and fixed quickly.
About support, actually we recuited quite a few support guys and have R&D guys here for support. We also have helpers from users and we really appreciate that. No matter you criticize or help to answer questions we are welcomed. Please understand we are not omitting your requests but sometimes it is slow and not every request can be fulfilled. A little applause will give our guys confidence to do better.
I miss the option: Support is nice and friendly, if you approach them nice and friendly as well.
Sometimes a bit slow, but hey, that's what you pay for. If you need responses in less than 24h, go with equipment that has SLAs. Never had any issues that made me angry - but I am an IT technician by myself, I know the issues of providing support.
Maybe, just maybe, it would be good to have a contact form for getting support that will try to ask all the important questions before. Like model, firmware and perhaps "type of issue" so it will be easier for the support team to decide what to look into? Could be combined with a page inside the router that will show all support information (hardware, firmware, connection type, last 20 err.logs, whatever) ready to copy'n'paste for the user.
Claiming the 'only' problem with a Wi-Fi router is Wi-Fi itself is like saying the 'only' issue with a car is that it doesn't drive. For a Wi-Fi router, stable Wi-Fi is its primary functionâwithout it, the device fails at its main job.
This is a known issue, as users often perceive unexpected behavior as a bug.
To address this, I propose the following: Once a potential bug is identified here, open a ticket in your bug tracker and include the user who reported it. This allows him to provide further details and participate in the resolution process. All related questions, screenshots, and logs can be collected within the bug tracker and will not mess up the chat here.
Personally I think GL.iNet treats its customers much better than other manufacturers, you do realize that with other manufacturers the solution to every problem is a factory reset? and that's the first thing support will tell you to do?
We have a special flag in our bug tracker for these kind of customers. Plus we are officially allowed to transfer them to a support person that "explains" them nicely how to behave.
I agree that GL.iNet treats their customers better than others, and defended them in other threads. Not sure why you have the idea that I am complaining. I expect that beta software will have flaws. Personally, I reported a potential problem in the beta and am already in contact with GL.iNet who have been helpful and asked for logs and provided suggestions for solving the issue. My potential problem occurs with both keeping settings and a factory reset. Again, this is normal beta stuff and my intention with any report is to help GL.iNet make the software better, and not for the sake of seeking support per se (if there is an actually limiting problem I would just go back to stable version).
Hi @alzhao, I feel you asked the wrong question. I think a better question is:
How do you feel about GL iNet as a company.
To that question, as a longtime user, who owns multiple GL iNet routers, and in the past as someone who has recommended GL iNet routers to others, I am disappointed.
I can point to many GL iNet posts over the last several years where statements and commitments have been made in regards to firmware, that have not been followed through. I feel that you directly (@alzhao), and others at GL iNet have consistently overpromised and under-delivered. In my experience, there are many more issues with your firmware release process and quality today, than were present four years ago when I made my first post about issues with firmware. GL iNet firmware quality is going the wrong direction.
Here is a recent example of overpromising and under-delivery. In May, GL iNet wrote a blog post on multiple security issues in a list of your routers that would be fixed with new firmware releases within 3 months. Can you explain why this did not happen for most of the routers in this list? See:
NOTE: This blog post has recently been edited, and significantly changed without changing the date, or noting the changes. I have a PDF copy of the original post which lists several more routers that GL iNet promised to fix.
Although I use multiple of your routers daily, and this post will go through my primary GL iNet travel router to a GL iNet router running as a VPN server, I have no plans at this time to buy or recommend any GL iNet products. I no longer trust that GL iNet can deliver a stable, secure router.
I'm not saying you're complaining, if that's how you understood it, then I'm sorry. I'm just criticizing that most people keep their settings, moving from version to version, when no manufacturer recommends it. Often, we can solve the problem ourselves by restoring factory settings. I think they should think about something like Trello, or their own tree-based form with answer choices that leads the question to the appropriate folder on their side. Answering every question personally, when there are thousands of them a month, is a mistake. Support should help with simple hardware issues, and services implemented by GL.iNET. I understand that the software is based on OpenWRT, but as I mentioned earlier, installing even SQM should disqualify me from getting any help from support. If I were GL.iNET, I would also consider making it harder to log into Luci by hiding this option in their software. Of course, there are people who will do it anyway, but hiding this option would make many people aware that tampering with the settings from Luci is not supported.
That's why I say that from the point of view of GL.inet it is reasonable to develop one software, e.g. 4.6.x, with implemented services. And leave version 4.7.x with new functions in a very long slow testing phase. Because you have to choose stability or new functions, unless the company really has large resources of programmers.
I disagree with having to reset my settings in order to upgrade. No device I own requires that. Imagine having to wipe your laptop every time thereâs an OS update. I wouldnât touch such a thing with a stick.
Anyway, itâs great that GLinet staff is here. They seem to listen to requests and implement them. I personally havenât noticed any issues with their firmware. However, I switched to vanilla OpenWrt a while ago to be able to use various packages and not waste time figuring out how they fit with proprietary additions.
I agree itâs better to underpromise and overdeliver
If underpromise you will be criticized immediatelly.
When someone want to have a talk with you, trying to get some message from your mouth, then record these message as your promises, then use these as a tool to attack you later, and omit anything that you have delivered, it is hard to continue these conversations.
I think you guys are doing great! Keep the updates coming and ignore the negativity. I like what I'm seeing in 4.7 so far and even though I'll stay on stable version for the time being, everything has been running good.
