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).

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.

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

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.

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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 ;)