GL.iNet - Flint 3 (GL-BE9300)

GL.iNet Flint series routers run OpenWrt and are very powerful for the price, they are exactly what you're looking for. The 2 has been around long enough that everything is stable and the price has come down a lot, the 3 just got released and will probably have firmware bugs for a while. Importantly you can install cake on them, which is the single biggest difference maker for gaming.

Not for good, look at Gl.inet if you want the most amazing and opensource routers, Flint 2, 3 and it's travel routers as slate 7, (look at them in YouTube) are at own level, better than Synology at each parameters, with extreme software capabilities, and easy to manage but not less powerful neither locked in anyway (os is an skin on too openwrt but also compatible with official openwrt releases), if you need sdwan, vpn-whatever (even tor), bland, multiple segregated networks etc is ts they right stuff, I'm very impressed (I come from Mikrotik).

1. This is for my career, to develop my skills professionally but also so I can have complete control over my stuff, I’m tired of owning nothing and forced to be happy about it, a home lab not only for tinkering also gives me full control over my stuff 2. It would be a massive step up, the **GL-RM1 KVM** would let me access my lab away from home, especially at work when it’s pretty slow like it is now, the **GL-BE9300** would replace my bog standard BT hub whatever that lacks support for port forwarding and its such a burden on it, with or the **GLBE3600**, I can keep my network isolated from everything else and let me run a Minecraft server. I would also take it with me to Ireland with my laptop 3. I google it on ebay, then reddit and youtube, if there’s something I really want, I buy it 4. special mention to framework, they absolutely deserve it, a framework desktop would be cool to win, could run a local LLM instead of not owning chatgpt and being happy. We are replacing our networking equipment with Ubiquti UDMs, would love to win one of those, but also a full size dell server

Hey thanks for this ga! I enter for the Flint 3 and Comet PoE. 1. I got into self-hosting because I wanted more control over my data and a hands-on way to learn how servers and networks really work. My proudest project so far is an open-source website I’m building (not yet public) to make home automation easier to understand. The most expensive piece of equipment I’ve bought is a the PoE switches. 2. Winning the Flint 3 would be a huge upgrade for my setup. My current router has started to struggle with the number of devices I have, so Wi-Fi 7 and multi gig ports would really help improve reliability and speed across my network. 3. I usually find gear through Reddit, YouTube reviews from channels like ServeTheHome, and tech blogs that focus on homelab and open-source projects. 4. For a future giveaway, I’d love to see something like a compact Proxmox-ready mini server or a Synology NAS, both are great for anyone building out a homelab. Thanks!

GLinet Flint 3 or 2 Both are rock solid

That would be so awesome to replace my aging Aruba AP by the Flint 3 as I could finally use the bandwidth my provider is offering me… My most expensive equipement is actually the storage pool. My Synology NAS was expensive, but filling it with 5x14TB turned out to be as much expensive if not more. Paired with the comet remote KVM, I feel that this would be quite a nice combo. The start of my journey began with the NAS, and upon discovering the power of containers, I ended up bringing old desktop from eWaste and try everything I could think of, from pfSence to VMware Esxi to Proxmox… I feel that every day a new project arises. Last year I created a pool pump monitoring system so it would detect sunshine heating my solar pool heater and only turn on the pump whenever there would be a benefit, in temperature delta, which obviously doesn’t exist when the sun isn’t shining. Fun stuff

flint 2 is better , flint3 seems like a down grade, i personally had the ax86u and just now use it as a node, main is axe16000 https://preview.redd.it/1pg79cu7xcvf1.jpeg?width=1200&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=8ad53ab8bca885e17aea6787c810fbc85c93254d

I recommend Gl.Inet routers. Specifically the [Flint 3](https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/flint-3-gl-be9300-tri-band-wi-fi-7-home-router) or the Flint 2. They offer a pretty great range of options at a very reasonable price.

It does offer its own DHCP server

I mean, it is. It's just got closed source drivers which the main project can't ship with. But the Spitz AX started out similarly (namely it's qualcomm modem) and now has a functional stable build including that part, so...

Check out the [Flint 3](https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/) from GL.iNet that comes with OpenWRT that lets you install VPN config's and other much better cool stuff. I have one of their travel routers and it is great. My next home router will be from them. It's cheaper than the Netgear and about the same as the Asus on Amazon. I wouldn't buy a TP Link.

**1. What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey?** What's one project you're most proud of so far, and what's the most expensive piece of equipment you've acquired for? I work in IT and I'm interested in many aspects of IT. So setting up a homelab to learn more about hypervisors, imaging computers, Cisco networking gear, firewalls, and everything lets me play an learn to help me in my IT career. My favorite project was setting up my network rack earlier this year. I got Gigabit fiber last year and had switched to an OPNsense router a couple months before getting fiber. I had bought a 9u wall mounted network rack, and finally got it installed in my laundry room where it's out of the way and out of sight. I have a 24-port keystone patch panel, a Cisco 2960-X POE+ switch, my HP Elitedesk SFF pc with dual 2.5Gb nic that runs my OPNsense router, and the fiber ONT next to the router. My most expensive piece of equipment would be the switches I have for CCNA study. Various Cisco models I've picked up off the used market. 2. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway **help you take your setup to the next level?** I would definitely love to have both of the routers in my home. I'm not sure if I would use the Wifi7 home router in AP mode or not, but the travel router would be amazing to have on work trips so I wouldn't have to deal with the stupid captive portals that hotels have everywhere. 3. Which channels do you most frequently use to **learn about or purchase IT equipment?** r/homelabsales is a great place for seeing what everybody has or is wanting. On YouTube, I often catch Raid Owl, LTT, Jeff Geerling, Hardware Haven, Wolfgang's Channel, Jim's Garage, and Craft Computing are just a few I watch for homelab stuff, and to see what gear they are running. 4. Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, **what is one product from another brand** (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize? I would think a NAS of some sort that could hold a minimum of 4 drives, and up to 8 if possible would be a great giveaway. Everybody needs storage, and SFF/mini pcs just don't have that capability.

I'd avoid if you have a bigger, multilevel home. Getting terrible range with flint 3 compared to previous router from t-mobile that worked everywhere in my house. Think i need to go with a mesh system, looking at the TP link deco BE63

I own a Flint 3, runs openwrt out of the box. Fantastic router so far.

1 - licenses or support which "magically" triple in cost throughout the time! 2 - the flint 3 would allow me to finally ditch the router thats on its last legs 3 - purchasing wise, ebay :D as well as ebuyer 4 - no so much as from another vendor, but more a combination of items to have a scalable NAS solutions, where not only the drives but the compute can be expanded as well as expandable backplane - think lego style NAS or the blade hyperconverged environment scaled back for homelab

1. Desire to have devices tailored to my personal usage scenarios, with all the features I want, but also without inherent extra functionality that compromises security, nor restrictions that hurt the experience - got me into self-hosting. **When one can't buy what they want, making it is often the most straightforward solution - at least when it comes to computers.** **My most expensive project to date is a DIY NAS.** It started as a compact, lightweight and stealthy ARM system inside Playstation 2 case, only revealing its true nature if one looked closely at the ports in the back. However, after some time I grew disenamored with the original concept, so first moved the hardware into a standard NAS case to increase the number of spinning disks and improve their cooling, and later upgraded it to a less interesting, conventional - but also very reliable - x86 system. Of the original components, only a pair of 18TB WD HC550 drives are still in use - everything else was replaced. For this project, single most expensive item was one of the 20TB Toshiba MG10 drives. **The project I am most proud of is a DIY 802.11be router I built last week.** Wanted to build one using Qualcomm AP-grade hardware for years, but was hesitant, only having prior experience with MTK AP hardware, and overall rather limited experience in the field. My wireless router is far from perfect, but fulfills its purpose well, all while being quite compact and travel-friendly, and running latest OpenWRT and WLAN firmware giving me some peace of mind. I am very grateful to everyone who guided me and helped me out on this journey! For this project, single most expensive item is the base device - Rock 5B itself. 2. **While I love it, I also have to admit my DIY wireless router's limitations.** For starters, I used a miniPCIe WLAN card - since it was easier to source, didn't require external power and was much more affordable than its m.2 counterpart, which was also an important consideration in my first foray into 802.11be. This choice results in lower signal strength than typical high-end 802.11be routers or physically larger m.2 cards with external power, more on par with compact/travel routers. Next, I'm having trouble with MLO, one of the key 802.11be features, and have to rely on a single band until I resolve this issue. My wired network infrastructure being 2.5GBe, main WLAN clients equipped with capable BE201 & QCNCM865 802.11be adapters supporting 320MHz channel width on 6GHz band, and most important traffic being LAN to WLAN potentially saturating 2.5GBe link - there is definitely room for wireless performance improvement, particularly far from AP. **Flint 3 with its superior wireless performance would greatly improve my experience, and take my network to the next level!** Comparing my DIY implementation to Slate 7, while RK3588 has more raw power, my device is also physically larger, and requires external dongles for additional LAN interfaces. Frankly, Rock 5B with its single built-in 2.5GBe port (and 16GB RAM+256GB EMMC on the particular board) is much better suited for server duty - which it operated as before I started my 802.11be experiments. For additional peace of mind, I strongly prefer not to utilize networking appliances, particularly wireless APs & routers, in any other tasks - otherwise, instead of assembling a standalone wireless router, would just stick my wireless AP card and WWAN modem into the NAS, set up virtualized OpenWRT, and call it a day. Under the circumstances, **Slate 7 is an overall much more balanced device, and would be noticeably better in the travel router role than my DIY one.** **I'd love to win both Flint 3 and Slate 7, to cover all my usage scenarios, and return my Rock 5B currently acting as a 802.11be wireless router to server duty.** 3. I mostly read **cnx-software.com** , **r/homelab** , r/datahoarder , r/thinkpad and notebookcheck.net . Aliexpress, eBay, local online stores for purchases. 4. **I'd personally love to see giveaways of higher-end NASes and mini-PCs with extensive storage options.** Minisforum MS-A2, Aoostar WTR Max and the likes; machines, purchasing which is often hard to justify, but nevertheless spark one's imagination with their capabilities.

I would upgrade to the [Flint 3 from GL-iNet](https://store-us.gl-inet.com/products/flint-3-gl-be9300-tri-band-wi-fi-7-home-router/?utm_source=website&utm_medium=productpage&_gl=1*j3swwd*_gcl_au*ODYwMjI2NTEuMTc2MTgzNDM2OQ..*_ga*MTQzMDE2ODAzOS4xNzYxODM0MzY5*_ga_34T6Q5NL0V*czE3NjE4MzQzNjgkbzEkZzEkdDE3NjE4MzQzODMkajQ1JGwwJGgw). Make sure you also upgrade your modem from your ISP. That is often missed and can affect performance of routers you may purchase.

Gli-net Flint 3. You’ll never buy anything else…

1. I fell down the rabbit hole when I started searching about ways to avoid giving money directly to the multi billion and trillion dollar companies. I am purely driven by spite to not give them my money. - One of my most recent project that I found really fun was modifying a typical enclosed server rack into a noise isolated one by buying some acoustic foam and zip tying them to the inside of the rack, and creating my own temperature control system using a temperature probe on the inside, a couple of fans around the rack, and a raspberry pi to spin them up or down based on the temperature. - Most expensive piece has to be a used Poweredge R6515, and its processor and ram. 2. I would mainly use the prizes to help the smaller setups at my family and sibling’s houses that act as off-sites to my main setup, in addition to being their local node. Both setups use Gl.inet routers, so the wifi 7 devices would be a nice upgrade. 3. I usually learn from Reddit, there are so many subreddits I’m following, including r/homelab. For purchasing, I usually prefer buying secondhand when possible, so Facebook Marketplace or r/homelabsales when I need something I can’t find more locally. 4. I would be interested in possibly a stackable single board computer system, where the compute and storage could by hyperconverged, would be really interesting to try something like that out. Would like to win either the flint 3 or slate 7

1. I got into self-hosting a few years ago mainly out of curiosity — I wanted to understand what really happens behind all the cloud services we use every day. It started with running a small Pi-hole instance on a Raspberry Pi, but it quickly spiraled into a full-blown homelab setup. The project I’m most proud of is my Proxmox-based cluster that runs a mix of personal services — Nextcloud, Home Assistant, and a self-hosted GitLab instance for my development work. I’ve also set up a reverse proxy with automatic SSL renewal, which was a huge learning milestone for me. The most expensive piece of gear I’ve invested in so far is a used Dell PowerEdge R720. It’s been the backbone of my setup, but it’s definitely showing its age in terms of efficiency and noise. 2. I’d love to win the Comet PoE paired with the Fingerbot add-on. I do a lot of remote testing and management, and reliable out-of-band access would be a game-changer. Having the ability to remotely control and recover devices from anywhere (especially when something inevitably locks up) would make my lab way more resilient. Alternatively, the Flint 3 looks incredible — I’ve been looking to upgrade to Wi-Fi 7 and bring faster wired connectivity to my core network. The 2.5G ports would really help with internal transfers and my NAS setup. 3. I usually browse r/homelab, ServeTheHome, and YouTube channels like Craft Computing and Lawrence Systems. For purchases, I’m often on eBay for used enterprise gear and Amazon or Newegg for newer components. I also keep an eye on vendor refurb stores and Reddit’s r/hardwareswap for deals. 4. I think a Synology NAS or TrueNAS Mini would be amazing for a future giveaway. Reliable, expandable storage is something every homelabber can appreciate, and it would complement GL.iNet’s networking gear perfectly.

no it is, just closed source wireless drivers

Gl.inet flint 2 or flint 3. Both units are capable of utilizing sqm, which will reduce bufferbloat. Flint 2 is what I mainly recommend, it's a beast.

I understand your point about core differences, but performance with vpn has drastically decreased. So I guess flint 3 has a less powerful CPU Flint 3; OpenVPN Speed Up to 142 Mbps; WireGuard® Speed Up to 644 Mbps Flint2: OpenVPN speed up to 190 Mbps; WireGuard® speed up to 900 Mbps

The cpu goes from 2ghz to 1.5ghz, which has an impact on speed when using a vpn. Flint 3; OpenVPN Speed Up to 142 Mbps; WireGuard® Speed Up to 644 Mbps Flint2: OpenVPN speed up to 190 Mbps; WireGuard® speed up to 900 Mbps I hope this will have no impact on the QoS/SQM.

1. I have always been into messing around with computers (dad's a dev, my degree is in electrical engineering but I work as a dev). Recent years have made me want to move away from big corporate cloud solutions for various services (think degoogling, in spirit anyway), so I've started hosting things at home. Hard to say what I am most proud of, as usually that tends to be just the most recent thing. For example, I recently wrote a bash script that allows configuring wireguard connections in separate network namespaces and adding the systemd services to start those up upon boot. ProtonVPN Linux clients are lagging behind their windows counterparts, so this allows me to have split tunnelling by just using a basic wireguard setup, agnostic even of the vpn provider. Now I use this on my seedbox (sharing Linux distros, right?) and my devbox if I want to isolate a single app to just the wireguard interface. The most expensive piece of kit is probably my main devbox, which is an Intel NUC. Most homelab hardware I buy old and second hand. For example, my opnsense box cost 30 british pounds. 2. In our current place, the wifi router is a bit weak for the size of the house and the router is old, wifi 6. Extra access points could help, as could the Flint 3. Would also facilitate moving to 2.5G setup at home (currently everything except the opnsense box is 1G). 3. Google, Man pages, vendor datasheets, r/homelab, r/selfhosted, endless debates with my dad. 4. I've always been partial to custom router builds. My opnsense box is a Lenovo Thinkcentre 990 from more than 10 years ago. I would like to have something a bit more modern and less power hungry (and support for AES-NI). There seem to be a lot of these N100 and N150 boxes with multi port NICs and passive cooling just for this purpose. Something like the Protectli Vault devices, but WITHOUT pfSense. I choose the Flint 3, or alternatively the Comet (GL-RM1)

yes. Flint 3 has weaker cpu but adds 2.5g on all ports and wifi 7. It's a tradeoff depending on needs. I was going to upgrade but stuck with the Flint 2 since I heavily use the vpn over a gigabit fiber connection.

1. What inspired you to start your selfhosting journey? Well, my self hosting started in the late 90s, with bits and pieces including a small power supply salvaged from a vendor-specific system. A Pentium 133 and a legendary Gigabyte GA-5AX, but there we go. The hard drive might’ve been 1Gb or something else similarly tiny by modern standards and I think I might’ve had 16MB sdram in it. I ran SmoothWall on it and shared a 64K isdn dialup connection on firstly a coaxial bus network and then later I had a 10Mb hub and two 10Mbps Ethernet cards over RJ45. I ran SmoothWall as I said, but I also learned my first Linux CLI and had a lil web server on it running some personal projects. No HTTPS, something that makes me cringe in modern standards! Suffice it to say, it has snowballed from there and I’ve had several generational upgrades. Always though it has been some kind of “NAS-and” server so always a network share for backups, following the 3-2 part of backup strategy before it became a term, “and” whatever else I’ve needed. At least Plex for a long time now, often a MySQL database server with multiple databases and PHPMyAdmin privately hosted for my side and hobby development projects. My current server is an Intel 12700T with 64GB ram, with unRAID as the host OS, and because we seriously outgrew our old home router (note my answer for question 2 below!!) it also currently hosts opnsense in a VM with hardware passthrough of NICs, as well as a pile of dockers doing various things from homeautomation, self-hosted media services, adguard, backup utilities, and still stuff for hobby development. But at least these days everything is HTTPS even internally using a public domain and split DNS, with Cloudflare Access authenticating my sessions over the internet through a CF Tunnel. The current iteration of my home server is the most advanced, stable, and well-documented instance I’ve had. It’s also the most expensive overall, given that I put X18 18TB drives in it and paid for unRAID, and a Plex lifetime pass! But I will always be most proud of that first SmoothWall, where it all began. It was my first server/router, and it even had a little custom wood PC case which was open but kept the parts mounted securely. 2. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? Well, I’d definitely like to win the Flint 3. It’s got a fantastic feature set. I really wish I wasn’t co-hosting my server and router at the moment. It means it’s much much harder to do routine maintenance. Even if the router was still my old under-capacity router, I would then lose adguard-home since it’s hosted on there. I’m also on WiFi 6, and while many of my devices support 6E, my separate Omada access point is just dual band, not triple band. No MLO either. So I would definitely hope for the Flint 3, to leverage WiFi 7 as well as triple band, I would be able to run two adguard home servers for some redundancy when I need to perform server maintenance, and the 2.5Gbps ports means I can leverage the 2.5Gbps ports now in my server for extra speed there also, as well as trying to figure out how to get wires to my desktop for using the 2.5Gbps port in it too. Now that my stepson is getting older and smarter, integrating Bark in a balanced mode to both keep some restrictions in place while nonetheless giving him an appropriate amount of freedom would be another great use I would put the Flint 3 to. In the unlikely event I were to win two prizes, my second would be the Comet PoE. Surprise surprise, that would plug in primarily to my server as it’s downstairs in a cupboard and I have to stretch a 5m HDMI cable to the family TV when I need access! But of course the wireless keyboard doesn’t have strong enough signal so it’s a comedy of pacing back and forth and hoping I don’t make spelling errors and have to start over!! :D It would also be useful for plugging in to the PCs and such of friends and family when I am called on to fix things as not everyone has wifi built in and I don’t currently have a spare wifi card, making it way more complicated than it needs to be. The PoE is just an extra level of convenience that may or may not be used much, however as my current 8 port switch has POE ports it makes sense to leverage it! 3. Which channels do you most frequently use to learn about or purchase IT equipment? 99% Reddit and 1% pcpartpicker! I use the latter for price comparisons and they also allow you to select key features you want, narrowing down which items are compatible with my needs. Getting your hardware on there with the specs, and listing your own web store as a supplier for it, should help bring you some sales! 4. Looking ahead, if we were to do another giveaway, what is one product from another brand (e.g., a server, storage device or ANYTHING) that you'd love to see as a prize? Network switches with 8, 12, 16 ports where like maybe 4 total or maybe an 50/50 are PoE+ capable. Built in PSU for less cable mess. 2.5Gb ports. 5Gbp ports even? These are kinda rarer and thus more expensive but why not look at 5/2.5/1000/100 support? It can only future proof stuff. Also I have a couple of random ideas here for your product ranges, some are likely niche but why not? Routers with 6 or 8 ports, I had a 10 port Mikrotik at one point and was using 9, I had everything wired in for speed and it was great! Routers than can do PoE on a couple of ports, maybe literally 1-2 in order to keep the power supply limits still low but in the case of the Comet PoE what better than a port ready to power it? NVMe 1x port for running a caching proxy, or updates mirror etc. NOT a NAS, but a fancy cache, whether it’s got an application built in or whether it’s just some storage that can run a docker to do jobs, but ofc with whatever caveats around performance. Thanks for the opportunity and good luck everyone!

Prioritize a UPS and a simple NAS; KVM is nice insurance, and Flint 3 will help WireGuard speed. UPS: grab a used APC Smart‑UPS or Eaton 5SC, size for 10–15 min runtime, and put modem, router, switch, NAS on it. Use NUT or apcupsd (on NAS or a Pi) to shut everything down cleanly and test a pull-the-plug every few months. NAS: if same‑size drives, TrueNAS Scale with ZFS mirrors is painless to grow and fast to resilver; mixed sizes, go Unraid. Use CMR drives (Red Plus/IronWolf), schedule scrubs, and do 3‑2‑1 backups (rclone to Backblaze B2 or a rotating USB disk). Keep snapshots for quick “oops” recovery. Flint 3: enable WG acceleration, set MTU \~1420, persistent keepalive 25s, and only route subnets you need; Foundry will feel snappier. Remote KVM: great for BIOS/boot loops when Tailscale SSH can’t help; put it and a smart plug on the UPS, and you’ve got out‑of‑band plus hard power control. I’ve paired Grafana and Tailscale with DreamFactory to expose a local Postgres as locked‑down REST for small internal tools. So: used line‑interactive UPS + NAS you’ll actually back up, Flint 3 for WG, KVM for the rare oh‑no moments.

The flint 3 is definitely weaker. The 2 was able to get 900mbps over the VPN client, the flint 3 gets about 550mbps.

Gl-inet Flint 3 (I have this and get about 650mbps over VPN) or firewalla gold SE (when I had this I got about 400) https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/

Nah I wish I could but the way the router is aligned vs how the next room is designed is extremely awkward. I probably am going for the GL.iNet Flint 3 router though.

I think I dialed in my choice to this router. I’ll definitely document my experience in the subreddit. Thank you!

I’ve heard TP-Link routers are extremely unstable and users would recommend avoiding them. Maybe I’ll do more research for this one but I have my eyes on the GL.iNet Flint 3 router as of now

Yeah I did buy the Flint 3 router but it completely transformed my WiFi, especially on MLO with my WiFi 7 devices. I don’t get any jitter, latency spikes, or disconnects and everything is smooth

Flint 3 is a downgrade. Poor CPU without real OpenWrt support.

My GLiNet Flint 2 with some tweaking is far better than any of the gaming and non-gaming routers I've had that were double the price or more. The flint 3 is out and I'd recommend anyone in need of a new router to just get that one, I personally don't really need to upgrade right now so I'm not gonna bother, too much of a hassle lol.

1. The inspiration was pretty much just for fun, but when it also proved to be useful for work i was hooked. 2. I am currently working on building a new setup (Kubernetes cluster) and replacing my old router and maybe adding some KVM capabilities certainly wouldn't hurt. Also some of my neighbours are allowed to use my WiFi, but their connectivity isn't that great with the one I have at the moment. So I have been contemplating an upgrade, but it is not at the top of my "to-buy" list 3. Mostly different forums for learning, as well as the occasional local meetup. Great resources for learning things you didn't even know that you should know. And then after that it is just finding a book/pdf/website with the full documentation for the thing. For buying stuff I mostly use dustin.dk or Labtech Data (a couple of local stores). 4. Any Nvidia Jetson module. Mostly because I think it would be fun to play around with. I would definitely go with the Flint 3.

All ports 2.5G. For an all in one it's absolutely fine and a great upgrade from the original flint

I would wait for the [Flint 3](https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be9300/). It should be somewhere around your price range and they make great affordable routers.

1. My inspiration for selfhosting was to get away from cloud dependencies, and own my data. Being dependent on cloud services, where costs increase year over year, and not really having the full control of them that I want. My homelab is a modest custom NAS, I use it mostly for data storage like my personal photos and ripped dvds (my dad was a big collector). Running unraid it is a catch all for my services, and my proudest use is always being able to get a game server running in just a couple of minutes whenever my friends want to play something new. Most expensive is the hard drives, 14TB drives don't come cheap! Comparatively the nas is built from leftover parts I had after upgrading. 2. My current wifi setup uses wifi 6, but with more and more devices now moving toward supporting wifi 7 it would be a nice speed boost to have a new router in the house. 3. I started as a wee lad watching LTT, but these days I'm a big fan of Jeff Geerling and Hardware Haven for their reviews and projects. 4. Storage! Can't ever have enough of it. But alternatively a simple NAS would be a great prize, would definitely be a big help to users who don't have an offsite backup yes, to dump at their parent's/friend's house. I'd like to win the Flint 3 and Comet.

Flint 3 has 680 mbps on both wireguard and openvpn. Not 142 mbps on openvpn like you claimed. Yes wireguard is weaker but openvpn is much higher speeds due to dco mode.

Not too much difference in general throughput performance. Both the Slate 7 and the home routers (Flint 2/3) are quad-core CPUs, but if all you have is a small apartment and a few devices then the Slate 7 is perfectly fine. I'm using mine right now for 1 laptop (wired to LAN port of Slate 7) + 2 iPhones (one on MLO Wi-Fi and the other on 5G). CPU temp is around 73C and plenty of memory left. Flint 2 or Flint 3 will make more sense if you've got a bigger space. Because bigger antennas = better range.

Slower is not necessarily true. There are people who get faster speeds on their Flint 3 than they did on Flint 2 due to WiFi 7. It’s surprising how many people have this misconception that processor speed = WiFi speed.

I would **hope** someone buying a Wi-Fi 7 router would have Wi-Fi 7 devices! Haha And no idea what you're basing the "slower VPN" on. The Flint 3 is not "slower" at VPNs. It has a **lower maximum** VPN speed. These are two very different things. And for most people, they will not even be getting 600+ Mbps on both ends of their VPN connection anyway. I've had to explain these things multiple times on the GL.iNet subreddit, unfortunately.

Flint 3 has claimed OpenVPN throughput 680 Mbps; Flint 2, 190. The OP needs Gigabit.

I am now torn. The absence of 10G wan I needed - ISP wants test 10g. One of the slowest WiFi 7 implementation in category. Wireguard speed lower :/. Wanted to have flint 3 next to my 2, instead of my current Wifi7 router. (Cheapest available on the market at the time of purchase, but it might be faster as flint 3)

Flint 2 is the best you can ever get at that price. A little more - $30 —and Flint 3 will last you 10 years plus! 

The Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) is in a different league than the BE3600. It’s a real tri-band Wi-Fi 7 router with stronger hardware: * Tri-band with 6 GHz: solid for Quest 2/3 or newer Wi-Fi 7 devices. * Multi-Link Operation (MLO): can combine bands for lower latency & better throughput (with Wi-Fi 7 clients). * 320 MHz channels + 4K-QAM: lets it push much higher speeds on the 6 GHz band. * Better radios & more streams: so range and stability are stronger than budget Wi-Fi 7 models. I’ve personally tested the Flint 3 and was impressed with both its performance and ease of use. Our full review should be up on the site soon, but I can say it’s a much more future-proof pick than the BE3600 if you want to actually take advantage of Wi-Fi 7 features. That being said, I haven't had the opportunity to directly compare it to the Flint 2. If the new Wi-Fi 7 features aren't a priority, you might be able to save a bit of money by getting that one instead.

You're not wrong, but It's a little more complex than that. They used a Qualcomm chip in the Flint 3 and Slate 7 and Qualcomm are not interested in open source support for their SDK. These products are unlikely to ever have the same level of support by the community lead OpenWRT project because of this. The Flint 2 and Beryl AX used Mediatek chips which is well supported by the open source community. The Mediatek Wifi 7 chips support in OpenWRT (I have an Asus BT8) is improving, and does currently work with somewhat mixed results. I'd call it a work in progress, at present. It's serviceable if you are a dedicated nerd, and performance/support will improve with time, but the nature of OpenWRT being community developed means it will always lag quite a bit behind the 1st party "off-the-shelf" products. The good thing with investing into OpenWRT supporting devices, even if they arent currently entirely stable, is that you will retain support and updates for significantly longer that the OEM would provide. That said, Wifi 7 is absolutely not essential and Wifi 6 devices are getting so cheap that I would probably suggest picking up something like a Flint 2 on sale (which happens reguarly) and waiting it out.

1, I've started self hosting because all routers I have seen were either too expensive or not customisable enough, and I have accumulated enough gift cards to buy an ok switch 2. The flint 3 would be really useful, since my access point is just an ancient tp link and my house is pretty big, so I usually don't have good signal in my bedroom or in the living room. So I need to whip out the 20m cable out everytime I wanna watch netflix or when my sister wants to play Roblox. 3. I usually use YouTube or reddit for inspiration, And Google for research, also planning to get some drives from serverpartsdeals (2x 4tb) not really much but that's all my family needs. 4.Hard drives, Maybe a serverpartsdeals collab or something? The flint 3 would be a huge upgrade over my ancient TP-Link Access point

1. BPI-R4 (MT7988), most powerful but not recommended for Wi-Fi due to Wi-Fi NIC issues. 2. GL.iNET Flint 2 (MT7986), currently best supported device for Wi-Fi. 3. BPI-R3 (MT7986), like Flint 2 but with SFP. Flint 2's Wi-Fi will be better though as it is not a dev board. 4. Flint 3 (Qualcomm IPQ 53xx), for Wi-Fi 7. Not open source OpenWrt due to Qualcomm but close enough if you intend on only using hardware offloading. Weaker CPU than Flint 2. 5. Other Qualcomm routers with the [openwrt-ipq fork](https://github.com/qosmio/openwrt-ipq) so you can still use mostly latest open source bits along with the latest closed source bits. See [forum thread here](https://forum.openwrt.org/t/qualcommax-nss-build/148529). No idea about the Wi-Fi 7 stuff though. 6. ASUS ZenWiFi BT8 (MT7988) has a preliminary build [here](https://github.com/dangowrt/owrt-ubi-installer/tree/v1.0.1-bt8) but it's not officially supported as far as I can tell outside of one person working on it. 7. TP-Link BE805, in hopes of future support since it's MT7988 but someone will need to buy the router and figure out a relatively painless install method first. All of these will support hardware NAT at least, and usually PPPoE too. Other types of offloading will probably be difficult outside of OEM builds. Both MTK and Qualcomm NSS support hardware QoS with fq_codel even, but not with the open-source drivers.

I've had this router for 3 years now and for the price you can now get GL.Inet Flint 2 which is a much better choice. Or, better yet, order the new Flint 3 which is even better.

I recently got the GL-iNet Flint 3. All good so far,

1. ⁠I dove into the homelab world because I was getting tired of relying on cloud services for everything and wanted to actually learn how to host my services during the pandemic. It started as a lockdown hobby and just spiralled from there! My proudest project is getting my full media server with the arr stack running perfectly in Docker, and setting up a reverse proxy. It’s all running on my power efficient mini PC, which is definitely my most expensive piece of gear once you add up all the SSDs. Having a totally silent server in the corner of the room is just the best. 2. ⁠Winning gear from this giveaway would seriously level up my setup. The Flint 3 is my top choice, since my whole lab is bottlenecked by the cheap 1Gbps router from my ISP, and having those 2.5G ports would finally let my mini PC, nas, and desktop communicate at proper speeds. My ISP router is also Wifi 5 and super slow. But honestly, I’m almost as excited about the Slate 7. I’ve always wanted a proper travel router to stay secure on hotel Wifi, but I never got around to buying one because of finances. 3. LTT, HardwareHaven and whoever pops up on hen I search for stuff 4. For a future giveaway, I think a solid UPS from a brand like APC or CyberPower would be a great prize. It’s one of those essential pieces of gear that I’ve wanted forever but keep putting off because of the price. Just knowing a random power flicker won’t corrupt my data or bring my whole setup down would be a huge peace of mind.

I recently replaced my old TP Link with GL.iNet GL-MT6000 (Flint 2) WiFi 6 after having read a lot of comments on Reddit threads recommending it and I couldn't be happier. For a bit more money there's the Flint 3 version that's the newest WiFi 7 variant of this router.

Flint 3 is working super nicely. I have a WireGuard server set up which has come in quite handy.

1. I had an old gaming laptop I wasn't using and hadn't touched a linux server since college. It was a fun project to set it up as an exit node to protect my data as well as a host for Foundry VTT. 2. The Flint 3 router would be a big upgrade for faster speeds over wireguard, and my current router is still WIFI 5 so would be a bit of future proofing. The remote KVM is also really cool, I currently just SSH into my server over tailscale, but being able to access my home pc from anywhere would be awesome. 3. Still learning a lot, but mostly through reddit posts when looking for specific solutions but also like craftcomputing on YT. 4. Storage and storage solutions are always needed, a UPS or a NAS would also be really cool

1. Owning my media is my number 1 reason to selfhost, look at those streaming services going up and up with their prices- insane 2. Most expensive piece of hardware is the Ubiquity poe 16 port switch- great for everything I want 3. I am probably most proud on the setup of wazuh in my Homelab to check for intrusion/bad actors 4. I am already rocking the flint 2 as my Router and would love an upgrade to the flint 3, I also enjoy one of your travel routers which doesn't really need an upgrade

flint 3 or hap-ax3 will suit your needs, for gaming purpose, just plug in CAT6 RJ45, you will see the differences.

how about gl-inet flint 3 or gl-inet slate 7 ? both have wifi 7 and flint 3 also has 5 2.5G ports

flint 3 is based on openwrt. i’ve tried to configure vlan or many things more on luci (openwrt dashboard) and i have to say it’s hard for me to do that. i have experience with cisco, mikrotik, …, i did many things like vlan, vpn, access group, access list, firewall, … but can not do a single thing with luci dashboard. it’s completely useless.

I have Flint 3 it works great, can totally recommend, not sure how it works now, but I got it very cheap on preorder. If it's still cheaper than Asus or Netgear and I am 99% sure it's since it's WiFi 7, which Asus/Netgear set crazy price tags for, Flint 3 is a damn good option.

1. The Inspiration originally came from my old man, as he works in the IT Sector and I've always been interested as a kid. Fast Forward 15 Years, I came across the Homelab Reddit thread a few months ago and it reignited that urge to start learning and building. Gone from having a simple a Optiplex running Ubuntu to having a Full 2 Node Proxmox Cluster and a NAS Running all sorts of Applications. 2. The Flint 3 would enable me to move away from my Domestic ISP Router, and dive into a deeper aspect of networking and enable me to take control over the little things. (Been wanting to move away for the past 10 Months or so) 3. Predominantly Reddit Threads, Discord Communities and also IT Folk who I know work in the area, I'm actually pleasantly surprised with how the Homelab communities help with questions. 4. An Entry Level NAS would be amazing, especially for folk who are looking to move away from Pi's or Older Hardware they have chopped and changed to turn into a makeshift one. I would love to win the Flint 3 Personally, finally give me that little bit of extra control over my network! Good Luck All!

1. I am a programmer by trade and love programming/Linux/emacs but didn't start getting into home lab stuff until about a month ago. I have always had so much to do so i ignored setting up server stuff bc of the cost. Now I could afford a dedicated server and that is coming in the mail soon! I ordered the parts separately but in total it's $1000. As for most proud of, I am very new to all this however getting vlans working was super fun. I have a mini PC running opnsense which connects to a switch then connects to a flint2 router. I originally thought I was going to flash vanilla openwrt so I decided to get the flint2 but regret getting it over the flint3 because I am not used to having stock firmware be this open(and wifi 7 seems cool). My next goal is to setup wpa3 eap as currently I have a hacked together solution if having 4 different wifi networks each connect to a specific vlan and I hear I can connect. I also need to setup ipv6 properly. 2. The two things that I would have a use for would either be the flint3 or the comet. My Dad is always in his shed the wifi signal is very weak there so the smart tv in the shed will sometimes not get any signal. He currently uses our isps router wifi which I would like to change. If I got a flint3 router I would keep that one inside then put my current flint2 router in the shed. I also am planning on starting with IOT stuff soon so it would be perfect to connect to devices around the shed. I am still new to vlans so the comet would make it MUCH easier to test if I did stuff correctly. I don't have a monitor in my closet with all my server stuff so I had to unplug everything when testing my minipc that runs opnsense and frequently break things so a comet would help a lot with that. I was actually thinking a lot about this problem a few weeks ago and was unironically thinking of getting a 20 ft USB C cable with a dock then found out that the comet existed then decided that my money is better spent on IOT and hard drives. 3. Hardware haven and home network guy(helped with setting up opnsense). 4. I think you guys should consider giving away some working system that shows why your products are amazing. One really cool pair would be giving away a comet, a small NAS and a flint3 running tailscale to pitch the perfect backup setup. The Nas could probably be a cheap one designed for compressed cold storage and relatively small. The big downside of this is that the Nas still be relatively expensive. The other idea I have for you guys is to giveaway a third party wireless AP that can connect to your flint3 router to extend the range. Thanks for having super open hardware! It's refreshing to see I can literally ssh into my router when my ISP gives me a modem/router that I have to literally login via the internet that barely has any functionality (I dislike optimum). Sorry I wrote too much

I got Flint 3, and it works great.

I got Flint3, and it's been great.

Flint 3 + SQM. even tho with hardware acceleration off will trade off some throughput speed, but overall stability even when ur net underload won't impact your gaming much.

This is amazing timing. I legit just bought the flint 3 last night which I’ll get to as an answer to question 3. 1) I largely didn’t start because of financial reasons. It seemed cool but I just couldn’t afford it. Well right after college I landed a sweet job and they ended up upgrading servers about 3 months in and gave me the old one which was awesome since it was only like 3 years old. I’m most proud of setting up proxmox with my own few Minecraft hosts. It’s not much but I am also only a year into the job and do not know much of what I’m doing right now haha. The most expensive piece I have is the server which I think was around 3k when they bought it. 2) I just moved into my first home Sunday and can actually start making modifications, I think the kvm would help me access my devices remotely since I still have to work on site 7-4 5 days a week. 3) Definitely Linus Tech Tips and short circuit which is how I found out about the flint 3 from their latest YouTube video. 4) I’d love to see a NAS as a giveaway prize. There’s always giveaways for other devices but it’s kinda rare to see large storage systems. If I won’t I’d choose the Slate 7 and the Comet. Thank you for the opportunity!

1- Ive been building custom computers for years and there was this one guy who had a homelab and would always change/upgrade stuff. He liked to talk about what he did and it got me curious. 3 years later, I am hooked. The single thing I am most proud of is probably my Tdarr setup. Took me a really long time to polish and make it perfect then I moved the workdirs to a dynamic ramdisk. The most expensive single piece Ive bought so far is probably the 4070 ti I use for AV1 transcoding when it was new. 2-The Flint3 router seems really really great. My router right now has a single 10g port (for the homelab) and the others are 1G. So while the servers really fast, the rest isnt, even on lan. I had a 2.5g switch that broke when I moved in. My ISP provide me with a 3.5gbps home fiber connection, so I really need to do something about this. 3- I lurk a lot in /r/selfhosted , /r/homelab but also use AI a lot to find infos and potential issues/fixes when needed. I know its not perfect, but so far so good. 4- If I had to choose, Id love a cabinet + jbod. This is the end-game. Its getting harder and harder to justify expenses when everything works so well, but I still want to do better eventually. My entry is for the Flint3 router, thank you for what you do, And good luck all! Edit: I see I could even add Proton VPN to the router, which would be really great too.

Super excited about this giveaway—your gear looks perfect for leveling up any homelab setup. I'd love to win the Flint 3 (GL-BE9300) as my top pick; that tri-band Wi-Fi 7 with 5x 2.5G ports would be a game-changer for my wired/wireless chaos. 1. My self-hosting journey kicked off about 3 years ago when I got fed up with cloud services nickel-and-diming me for storage and privacy headaches after a big data breach made headlines. I wanted full control over my own data without Big Tech peeking in. One project I'm most proud of is my all-in-one media server running Plex, Jellyfin, and Sonarr/Radarr on a custom Proxmox cluster—it's served up seamless 4K streaming to every room in the house without a hitch, even during family movie nights. The most expensive piece of gear I've splurged on? A second-hand Dell PowerEdge R710 server (snagged for about $150 on eBay); it gave my humble rack the reliable backbone it needed for 24/7 uptime. 2. Winning the Flint 3 would supercharge my setup by finally ditching my aging Wi-Fi 6 router that's bottlenecking my lab's multi-device traffic. With Wi-Fi 7 speeds and those multi-gig ports, I could wire up my NAS and servers directly for blazing-fast backups and file transfers, while wirelessly handling IoT sensors, cameras, and remote access without lag. It'd free up bandwidth for experimenting with more VMs and containers, pushing my homelab from "functional hobby" to "pro-grade playground." 3. For learning and buying IT gear, I'm all over Reddit (shoutout to r/homelab and r/selfhosted for the deep dives), YouTube channels like Craft Computing and Lawrence Systems for tutorials, and then I usually pull the trigger on Amazon or Newegg for quick shipping and reviews. 4. For a future giveaway, I'd kill for a prize like a Synology DS1821+ NAS— that rackmount beast with expandable bays would let me scale my storage dreams without breaking the bank on enterprise hardware. Fingers crossed—thanks for the chance, and keep innovating! Can't wait to hear what everyone else is building. 🚀

This may overkill but get a gli.net flint 3 or even slightly older flint 2. I have 2 flint 2. You also have to worry about security updates. Long ago I got rid of TP devices.

* My self-hosting journey started when I decided to create a mobile RTS game with my sons. I wanted to teach them both game development and system design in a hands-on way. My first server was meant to be a simple development environment and Git host for our game project, but things escalated quickly. I later added a dedicated “production” server to simulate a live environment and a NAS to store our project data and run the game’s backend database. Eventually, I built an AI server (originally acquired from u/MadDutchDude on r/homelabsales) to handle inference tasks for the game — it’s now the centerpiece of the lab. It runs 6× Tesla P40 GPUs on a 100 Gb NIC, and I plan to use it to generate procedural game assets, balance logic through simulation, and test AI-driven behavior models. What began as a family coding project turned into a full home data center that supports everything from development to deployment. * If I won, I’d pick the **Flint 3 (GL-BE9300)** WiFi 7 router and the **Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE)** remote KVM. The Flint 3 would be a huge benefit for our household network — we have multiple PCs, phones, tablets, and test devices constantly connected for development and playtesting, and the current router is a serious bottleneck. The Comet PoE would be invaluable for managing the servers remotely; my rack is tucked away and sometimes hard to access physically, so being able to perform out-of-band management and remote reboots would save a lot of time. Together, those devices would improve both reliability and convenience across the entire setup. * I primarily use Reddit (especially r/homelab), YouTube (channels like GamersNexus and NetworkChuck), and ServeTheHome forums to keep up with the latest tech and hardware builds. Those communities have helped me learn a lot about server hardware, virtualization, and optimization. I source most of my equipment second-hand through eBay and r/homelabsales to keep costs manageable, and I enjoy the process of refurbishing and repurposing enterprise hardware for homelab use. * For a future giveaway, I’d love to see a GPU offered as a prize — something that could support AI workloads or creative computing projects like ours. GPUs are the heart of modern experimentation, from machine learning and data science to 3D rendering and game development. A homelab-friendly GPU, even a modest one, would open the door for many people to explore AI and computational creativity without needing cloud resources.

I like the Flint 3, though lack of support for VLANs kinda sucks :( it's probably top of the list though at the moment!

A major drawback to using a travel router as a permanent home router compared to normal routers is the wifi range. You'll find that the antennas of the travel routers are much smaller and lower powered than those of traditional routers meaning the range is hindered. If you live in an apartment then this may not be an issue, however if you live in a house, that could be problematic. Travel routers are meant to be used in close proximity to the connecting devices ie within a hotel room for example. So don't expect a miracle when it comes to the wifi range (compared to traditional routers). In regards to Beryl AX vs Slate AX, it would all depend on what you need. I doubt you would actually feel the difference in speed between both in the real world, but the Slate has an additional gigabit port that might be beneficial to hard wire one of your devices on your network. If you have a switch, then this advantage isn't really one to consider though. If you're really thinking about using a travel router as your permanent home router, then it's best that you think about your environment. If you live in a smaller place (studio or apartment), then it might work really well for you. If you live in a larger place with plenty of walls, then I would recommend getting another Flint. I hope this helps 🙂

Look at something like a Netgear R7800 and then flash it with OpenWRT If you want something that works out of the Box, look at the GL.Inet Flint or Flint2. They run OpenWRT under the hood. GL.Inet routers (preloaded custom OpenWRT build), Routers that you can flash with full OpenWRT support (such as the Netgear i mentioned) and Mikrotik routers with Wifi Built in, those 3 are probably your best/easiest ways to solve this.

No consumer grade router can handle 25Gbps, but there are not many people into those speeds. If you talk about normal things up to 2.5G there are a few good ones that will support with the OpenWrt - like the flint or the BPi.

Hi, I hade similar problem, I used Mikrotik than Ubiquity Edge X, but half year ago I have found GLI.net It’s OpenWRT by default and it cost similar to TP-Link. It have WireGuard, Tailscale and AddGuard as native app ;)

Exactly. Don't waste money on these shitty consumer routers. The only decent ones are from gl.inet that come with openwrt. If you need more, look into opnsense on something like qotom or other minipc, mikrotik, ubiquity and separate access points.

Poor performance, very poor routing performance. And overpriced.