I’m based in the US. I’m about to go travel to different countries in Latin American and stay in AirBnBs. I used this once in Colombia, but my buddy who is much more technical than me set it up with the ethernet cable.
That being said, I have another friend now who is helping me set it up and he recommends using the repeater since the router and modem aren’t always accessible in AirBnBs. That said, I’ve tested it in a few places, including my own, and I’ve found that when I do a scan for local wifi networks sometimes it finds 5ghz (like at my place) and other times it doesn’t find them, and only finds 2ghz. Also, I’m not sure what the specs will be in these other countries.
I also just purchased the GL-AXT1800 (Slate AX), which I haven’t set up and tested yet, but I read in another forum that someone was having problems finding 5ghz networks as well.
My entire trip and livelihood will be depending on these, so I need to make sure I get them figured out soon.
Has anyone had similar issues? Why does it find it sometimes and not always? Is there a setting to make sure it always finds all types of networks?
If you look at the specs of a MT300N-V2, it is a 2.4GHz only device, so I cannot see how it ever connected on 5GHz. I have no experience with the Slate AX, but I do have the original Slate, GL-AR750S, that works well on both 2.4 and 5GHz. I have spent most of this year using it in Mexico, Central and South America. Depending on the hotel or Airbnb, I have used both Ethernet or W-Wan for my WAN connection, and normally use Ethernet to my PC, and WIFI for my local network for phones and tablets. All my internet traffic goes through my private VPN servers that I control. To make sure I don’t get blocked and to work around different VPN issues I keep finding while traveling, I use a mixture of Wireguard, OpenVPN and SoftEther VPN servers/clients.
I have read a bunch of posts in this forum on different problems reported on the Slate AX, which it is one of several reasons that I am sticking with my tried and true AR750S, as it just works. When you are on constant travel, and you depend on your router, Just Works is my highest priority.
Thanks for the feedback. That’s good to know. I’ll have to follow your lead.
It’s really odd. I’m connected to 5ghz right now at my place via wifi. I just did an inspection. Also, I confirmed by the AirBnB owner in the Columbia that she had 5ghz (but we were connected by ethernet).
Are you sure your home router is not transmitting on both 2.4GHz and 5GHz with the same SSID? There is no 5GHz radio in a MT300N-V2
An Ethernet connection overrides a WWAN connection, so you were using the Ethernet connection.
Yes.
First off there is a big different between 2G, 3G, 4G and 5G as these are cellular specs, and 2.4GHz and 5GHz which are WIFI frequencies. They are NOT related to each other.
I don’t have any hands-on experience with non-GL iNet travel routers.
3G and 4G are normally phone modems, that use cell signal for WAN, that can be part of a router or separate. GL iNet sells some, but I have no experience with them.
Just as an FYI: GL iNet has announced that the GL-750S-EXT is an End of Life product. That said, they said they plan to support it for two more years. For me, this is a non-issue as I already own it. If my router died tomorrow, I would replace it with the same model, as I need something stable, and it normally takes GL iNet awhile to get all the problems worked out of there new hardware and software, and they are going through major changes in both right now.
showed up. So I’m a bit confused. Is this the same model that you use? And does that mean that it’s being End of Life’d?
If so, what other model will you replace it will that will support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz?
Also, again excuse my ignorance, but I think I mean to ask if there are other networks in other countries between 2.4GHz and 5GHz (e.g. 3GHz or 4GHz)? And if so, are they supported by the products?
I really think that GL iNet should make their EOL notices a bit more easy to find. Having to search their blog to find the notice just seems wrong. They say that they will keep selling the GL-AR750S-EXT until they run out of units. If my router breaks, and I cannot find a new or used GL-AR750S-EXT, I’m not sure what I would use.
The WIFI spec is fairly universal, with some minor changes between countries. There are ways to get GL iNet routers to handle country specific frequencies, but they don’t make it easy and they don’t document it well. For Latin America, I have never had to change my router set for the US to a specific country.
On that blog, it says that they already have a replacement, the GL-A1300. Does that mean that it does all the same things - most importantly scan and support both 2.4GHz and 5GHz?
The GL-A1300 is a very new router, and I do not own one, so going by the published specs it should scan 2.4GHz and 5GHz WIFI without issues, just as your new GL-AXT1800 should scan both 2.4GHz and 5GHz WIFI without issues.
The GL-A1300 uses a different CPU architecture then the GL-AR750S-EXT and uses a different OpenWrt architecture branch for its base code. It only runs with the brand new GL iNet 4.x firmware, where the AR750S production firmware is still using the old but very stable 3.2x firmware.
Both the GL-A1300 and the even newer GL-MT3000 look interesting as possible future routers for me, but I’m going to give the GL iNet engineers at least a year to work out the firmware, and also watch to see which product gets the better support from the OpenWrt community before I buy one. Until then, I hope my AR750S just keeps on working for me, as I plan to be outside the US for most of 2023, and I need a router that Just Works.