GL.iNet - Slate 7 (GL-BE3600)

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. Self-custody of my data and privacy reclamation. The journey started with booting Arch Linux and ThinkPad tinkering. The project that I am most proud of is setting up my own network without hiring a technician over, and it has empowered me. The most expensive equipment I bought is a GMKTec NUCBox K6 2. Both the GL.inet WiFi 7 Router and Remote KVM would make remote management much faster and more efficient. It would also give me KVM-level access on my homelab servers, which is beneficial for OS switching, accessing the firmware, and waking up my connected devices on sleep 3. I learned from official channels, such as OPNsense and Pfsense, to learn about their software. For hardware, I check my equipment brands' official channels to learn how to effectively use my bought equipment, like GMKTec 4. I'd love to see a FrameWork laptop as a prize. It's not only valuable but environmentally friendly. It can be upgraded with newer components My choices: Comet PoE (GL-RM1PE) and Slate 7 (GL-BE3600)

1. It's been a while, but it was to learn more about Linux, servers, NAS, hosting. Then it evolved info providing services for the family, to try to prevent vendor lock-in for most stuff. It's also helpful when you want to test something without constraints for work, or just set up a quick PoC. Mostly proud of the smart home setup around home assistant, and the local media library, especially for the kids. Most expensive equipment that helps all of this is my Synology DS920+. Works great, but with more and more caveats recently. 2. The solo item would be the Slate 7. It would help immensely on our holidays and with some remote work. I'd set up a VPN to my home network, and it would not only help privacy, but also with ad-filtering and convenience. If I were to win the duo, I'd add the Comet PoE. I'm just in the process of setting up everything in a mini rack, and have just received a PoE switch. This one would tie-in perfectly to remotely access my mini PC and have it powered by PoE. 3. Mostly reddit, youtube. Usually I check reviews or comments of owners, to see what are the features, then I go look at if there are any internal pictures of equipment, if it's meant to be opened and hardware added. Then it also depends on what I'm going to do with it, do I need anything printed for it to be mounted or additional requirements, are there any models for it already. I also check the manual or the datasheet just to see if it fits my idea. 4. While additional TinyMiniMicro PCs wouldn't hurt, I'd be more interested in some networking gear, routers or APs, from Mikrotik, Ubiquiti, Omada, or some mini rack stuff from GeeekPi, maybe even some storage devices.

Definitely GL-INET for travel. It just has a lot more versatility as it was designed specifically for that purpose.

1. I like having local control of my services and not depending on cloud services and monthly payments. I don't have much equipment; the most expensive thing is my Raspberry Pi 4. 2. Full-speed Wi-Fi 7 and the ability to access my local network from anywhere using WireGuard. Plus, the Slate 7 is a great device for travels. 3. I usually find things through YouTube channels and by talking to people on Discord and forums. What I buy is usually second-hand from Vinted xd. 4. I would love to see a low-power NAS/server. I would love to win Flint 3 and Slate 7

**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.

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.

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 - The images on this subreddit, plus the fact that I love thinkering with PCs 2 - The slate would allow me to replace my now-dying LTE puck, and the comets would allow me KVM access to my old PC that's now a media server. 3 - Learn here, from youtube (LTT and many others) or on forums such as servethehome, buy on ebay, bargainhardware or any other second-hand marketplace. 4 - Considering that y'all handle networking quite well, i'd say something not related to that. From mini PCs like the Minisforum MS-A2, that bundled with a comet would be a very good solution for a small form factor home server, to a NAS box, ideally a model with 2.5G so that if bundled with a router, it could make full use of the port speed.

1. What inspired me to start: I have plenty of equipment at home, 2.5gig fiber and asked myself why I'm paying for external services when I have everything I need to self host. 2. Next on my list is my home network, the Flint 3 would be a fantastic addition (and I already have a Slate 7 for travel). The KVM would free me up from having to run down to the basement for maintenance. 3. What channels: mainly Youtube and /r/homelab 4. A NAS of some sort.

But it will not have 2.5Gbps switchports and vlan tagging capability

Does your student dorm allow you to set up your own router using their network? That was not allowed when I was in college, and it's not worth having any issues with your university over WiFi speeds. If you place a router in your dorm room, you're going to have double NAT (bad for gaming) unless you disable DHCP and set it up as an access point. I'd recommend a GL.iNet Slate 7 - [GL-BE3600](https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-be3600/#features) - it supports OpenWRT and is easy to configure with VPNs (absolutely use a VPN for any "light torrenting"). I'd disable SSID broadcast and call it a day.

1. **What inspired you to start your homelab?**  I really just wanted to host some game servers with friends. From there it's turned into a full-blown learning system for myself - and a major hobby, which I love. 2. **How would winning gear from this giveaway help take your setup to the next level?** I've actually been shopping around for travel routers, so this giveaway is well timed! I want to win the **Slate 7**. I want to be able to move my 10" minilab around anywhere, and not have to set up or change much else, and a travel router seems to be the perfect way to do that.That being said, the **Flint 3** is also really appealing! 3. In terms of channels, it's mostly self-driven research and Reddit. 4. **If we did another giveaway, what product from another brand** (server, storage device, etc.) would you love to see as a prize? Storage, really. Disks are expensive! If they're coupled with a NAS, that'd be great ;)

In your price range? I think I'd go for the Opal over the Mango. It's only a few dollars more, but it's got more features and ports. I have one and it works well for the price point. Above that, I also have the Beryl AX and it's really nice, way more powerful than the Opal, but also over twice the price. After that there's the Slate 7, which is newer, much more powerful, and way more expensive. I know for a fact that the Opal and Beryl AX can run off a power bank for hours. If you plan to use the VPN options on any of these units, I'd really go for the Beryl AX at a minimum.

In your price range? I think I'd go for the Opal over the Mango. It's only a few dollars more, but it's got more features and ports. I have one and it works well for the price point. Above that, I also have the Beryl AX and it's really nice, way more powerful than the Opal, but also over twice the price. After that there's the Slate 7, which is newer, much more powerful, and way more expensive. I know for a fact that the Opal and Beryl AX can run off a power bank for hours. If you plan to use the VPN options on any of these units, I'd really go for the Beryl AX at a minimum.

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? Just my overall love for tinkering. I think the first time I came across anything related to selfhosting was PiHole on this very subreddit. The idea of a network wide adblock (even if that claim isn't quite correct) was very fun to do. It lead to me bricking my apartment's internet for a fair few times before I figured out what exactly PiHole was, what a DNS was. I remember mistakenly setting up DCHP through the PiHole and not being able to figure my way out of it and having to reset the whole setup including the router. It was fun after everything was done an dusted though. I did move on to Adguard-Home because PiHole was still for some reason not playing well with my setup. Ever since then I've been very proud every single time I was able to get a new service up and running, because I remember how much I struggled for that first one. The most expensive piece of equipment have to be the hard drives, I reused my old PC for a server, bought a second-hand Thinkcentre for redundancy, I basically have to buy second-hand HDD's from Ebay, ship them across the world in hopes that they work, because there is basically no market in my home country for stuff like that. 2. How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? I'm looking at the Comet or Slate 7, both of which would be 1. very fun to tinker with, of course and 2. would finally allow for a reliable connection to my server when I'm on work trips. I haate having to use the hotel or airport wi-fi, having to connect all my devices separately and then still having issues pop up, a travel router would be a very good quality of life addition. And again, it would be something new to learn about. As for the Comet (And the Fingerbot!), it would basically solve the biggest problem I have nowadays. Which is me not being at home when something problematic happens, and then my girlfriend losing access to her favourite films, tv shows, audiobooks. Power isn't exactly the most reliable thing over here, even though I have Bios settings configured, sometimes my PC still refuses to start after a brown-out or a full blown black out. Remoting into my PC when some error happens before the OS is initialized would be very very helpful in me keeping the uptime for as long as possible. 3. Which channels do you most frequently use to learn about or purchase IT equipment? Not many will like my answer, but most frequently I look at LTT, sure they're videos are more entertainment, but they also delve into very fun and interesting tech. Apart from LTT, it's mainly Jeff Geerling, Hardware Haven, /r/selfhosted and /r/homelab. Additionally I frequent some forums for selfhosted services where people also discuss hardware, so that's a nice place to learn about different setups and interesting hardware that people use to run their setups. 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? Honestly even now, my biggest worry is hard drives. If one of them craps out, it's going to be a few weeks at least before I can get one shipped in from the U.S., meaning that I'm always at the mercy of hard drive gods. That would be the most helpful prize for me personally. But that's no fun, so I'd say something like a Raspberry Pi would be pretty fun, or other mini-pc's. Even though it's not a necessary addition to anyone's setup here, it's just a fun thing to tinker with without ruining your main setup. Also a NAS case (just the case) would be awesome. My old case HAF 912 is good because it fit's a looot of hard drives - it's also quite old and very big, so not a lot of visual approval from my GF on that side. Either of these would be very very cool to get. Slate 7 (GL-BE3600): Award winning Dual-band Wi-Fi 7 travel router with touchscreen Comet (GL-RM1): Remote KVM over Internet giving you full control of your devices from any browser

Is use a ZTE MU5001 in conjuction with a GL.iNet GL-BE3600, best ping I've seen has been 12 (but on average it's 20) The MU5001 sometimes drop-out due to heat I think, when managing both 5G and WiFi connectivity, therefor I only use the MU5001 as WAN line-in to the GL.iNET. MU5001 is btw slow over USB. Max speed I've experienced is around 900 (I lived with direct 100m view to a 5G antennae from 4. floor with an external atennae pointed at it) I don't have direct line of sight anymore, and reach a max speed of 600. You can feel in FPS games it's a drawback, in comparison to fiber and coax, due to the latency being worse. For games such as league of legends and WoW, it's hard to notice the difference. So IMO its sufficient for casual gamers but not for competitive play. I use 5G cause I have an unlimited plan for 5-eur, which is a dope price for basically 500/100mbit internet in my country, and it has less downtime than fiber and coax. Great for casual gaming and no issues 4K streaming with stremio on my TV. Sorry for grave-digging a bit, but since no posts here had much of a real-life experience, I thought it was worth sharing if someone stumble upon your post.

Sweet! I've got a travel router from you guys but would love to get a couple more pieces to replace my Ubiquiti access point for the home server and add a remote KVM. 1. Learning and costs; I started learning about networking after many years as a SWE, currently working on a blockchain system and I wanted a persistent dev environment with all the bells and whistles. Started with Proxmox and Coolify on Hetzner then realized that I've got the hardware to do this at home. I setup the home server, put it behind a DMZ (using Ubiquiti zones and rules - it would be an amazing feature to add to the GLiNet dashboard btw) and added Tailscale. This is frankly what I'm most proud of self-hosting because it taught be a ton about networking and it's not a very simple system to host. 2. The remote KVM would be an incredible addition. Especially with Tailscale support. It would mean I can travel for longer periods worry-free. The access point would be used as the DMZ router and I would possibly use dynamic DNS feature to make what I'm hosting publicly accessible for dev testing without needing to share my Tailscale network. 3. HackTheBox to learn about networking in general then using basic search to check with devices support the necessary features. 4. Ubiquiti has a great set of devices. Their dashboard UI is also handy for setting rules. Would be interesting to get my hands on their Cloud Gateway Max. Some small recommendations for the GLiNet dashboard: * Adding an easy to use zones editor with VLAN configurations would be soooo useful * Adding throttling for guest networks would also be handy * Adding a simple rules engine is a nice to have

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.

The router is working quite flawless. I am using the device now for eight weeks and I am happy with it.

Love a giveaway! Good Luck all! 1.      As a network engineer primarily, my role started adapting to incorporate Hypervisors and help provision them. I wanted the homelab initially to start learning about these, and making sure I was confident in my ability to deploy. I've setup a remote proxy and wildcard SSL domains at home so I don't get certificate errors when accessing my homelab, and learnt to use docker whilst doing so. The most expensive part of my setup is my 4 bay NAS with the large capacity drives! 2.      I work mostly with hotels so the travel router would be perfect. I have previously owned a beryl and it’s not always easy to log into the router to make changes. The touchscreen on the new travel router would be a gamechanger as it would allow easy access to the settings. 3.      Reddit / Reviews 4.      I’m always after new USB chargers that can charge all my gadgets Best pick item for me would be the Slate 7. This would be so useful when I’m on site. Second would be the Comet PoE. Would love to be able to access my home server through OOBM when working away!

I really suck at concision and am currently highly hyperfixated on homelabbing and selfhosting so TL;DR: * I am just a huge geek who likes to tinker. * The Comet would give me desktop horsepower in classes and on the go from my thin and light, and the Slate 7 would mean I could connect securely, safely, and quickly wherever I find myself. * Any and all I can find that have a good head on their shoulders (tho my goto is Jeff Geerling or LTT). * A NPU or Transcoding powered Mini-Computer. For those with too much time: 1. I've always been a huge fan of tinkering and loved keeping my home assistant Tamagotchi fed and happy, so I found selfhosting to be a great budget hobby that was fun not just for the tinkering but for the solutions. 1. My favorite moments, which made me persevere, are when I spin up a new service that actually solves a problem or replaces a product I use. And as someone with many privacy-blind friends, whenever I get them to try something I upped it made all the sweat and tears worth it. 2. My proud project so far is a system of Nginx Proxy Manager containers (soon to be traefik) that allow reverse proxying into my system via subdomains of a public custom domain with different containers accessible either publicly, from tailscale connected devices, or locally and done so in what is a deeply, deeply over engineered way that meant it took weeks to work out but even my deepest security anxieties are quelled. 3. The most expensive piece I've acquired is an old Syno ds1019+ I got very second hand. While I am not the biggest fan of their walled garden it has undeniably given me the tools I needed to get my system where it is today. When I was first failing to get ansible running a docker stack on a linux box, the synology nas held my hand every step of the way. (Even if now I want SSD based storage and it refuses to see an SSD as anything but cache and I am looking to move away from it :) 2. I am really excited by the idea of incorporating the Comet KVM and Slate 7 into my daily use. Part of me also wants the impressive Flint 3 but already have a Flint 2 that has solved so many problems like ad blocking, vpn routing, port forwarding, and tailscale management over the provided MikroTik which was... *fine.* I am too in love with my Flint 2 to not give it a while more before it is relegated as an over-powered wifi extender. 1. The Comet would be an amazing upgrade to help my managing being a student and intern. My linux thin and light laptop is wonderful but lacks a lot of the oomph that some python ML projects (or just badly written Java) can want and my current solution of using TailScale & RDP to access my apartment desktop in class or on the go is... less than ideal. I am excited by the option to host a docker container to connect it which was a genuinely great surprise as one of my two reservations was relinquishing privacy in that way. My other reservation being the lack of a screen as I just ***adore*** adding things to screens 😁. (Might have to peek at the Comet Pro if I end up with the Comet and like using it) 2. The Slate 7 wouldn't benefit my homelab directly but it would really ease a lot of my issues with traveling and working from different places be it around campus, hotels, or restaurants. I do a lot of traveling to see family as well as just find myself working/studying wherever I land and being able to quickly connect my devices without worrying about the awful security hygiene of wherever I am is a dream. I have tried to retrofit a raspberry pi hotspot or work on other solutions in the past to get around dorm internet instability, newer wifi security types keeping old devices inaccessible, etc. and it was never any where remotely as elegant as a solution as a portable router. 3. I generally poke my head wherever google searches take me. This means a lot of r/homelab r/selfhosted and channels like Jeff Geerling, Techno Tim, and LTT. While LTT has been and continues to be my most consistent watch, it is definitely smaller channels like Jeff Geerling and the various channels that pop up during research that I take the most weight from. Seeing a small channel that is able to really dive into the niche of a product and address so much of its features and details without the pressure of a mass-marketable video is the gold mine imo. 4. I really love to tinker with whatever I can get my hands on so I don't know if any one item would be the end all be all. A very high capacity HDD or SSD has always been something I think would be so fun to own but more practically something like a NAS or Mini-Computer from Syno, qnap, minisforum, etc. would be more generally interesting and I know I could find a million uses for one (especially with proper hardware transcoding and/or llm capabilities 👁️👁️)

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. ⁠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 wanted to make all my files accessible to all my computers so I started with a simple NAS. Learning is what I’m most proud of so far. The most I’ve paid for any single item was a Mac Pro for Mac and iOS development. 2. ⁠How would winning the unit(s) from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? - I’d use the Comet PoE to remotely manage my main server, which is basically a desktop PC, but I’d like to remove the monitor. I’d use the Slate 7 as a travel wireguard VPN router to stay connected to my home services while away. 3. ⁠Which channels do you most frequently use to learn about or purchase IT equipment? - I use a wide variety of resources to learn, though with some tricky things Youtube is very helpful for demonstrations. 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? - A very large drive would be much appreciated!

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.

They are both pretty good. Purple has remote access out of the box with alerts and what not. GL.inet requires you to set up a vpn to do that. Some of the top end GL.inets have a bigger WiFi bubble that they create. I would love to find a small travel centric add on for the purple, that had a bigger coverage bubble. Or even a higher tier Firewalla box that could do that. Most hotel stays the purple is perfectly fine for coverage, but every so often we do a rental at the beach or something like that and it’s a bit of a crapshoot for coverage in the areas that you want.

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

1. What inspired you to start your self-hosting journey? I started self-hosting because I wanted to really understand the things I use every day instead of relying on third-party services. One project I’m most proud of is building my own small ALPR + automation setup using a Raspberry Pi and ESP modules—it pushed me to learn networking, scripting, and hardware integration. The most expensive piece of equipment I’ve bought so far was a decent NAS drive for backups. 2. How would winning the units from this giveaway help you take your setup to the next level? Winning a Slate 7 and a Comet PoE would be huge for me. The Slate 7 would give me a reliable, portable router I can use for remote access, secure travel, and testing isolated lab environments. The Comet PoE would let me finally expand into PoE-powered devices without needing an extra injector mess, and it would help me add more cameras and sensors into my little homelab. 3. Which channels do you most frequently use to learn about or purchase IT equipment? Mostly YouTube reviews, r/homelab, and local online stores like Lazada/Shopee. Sometimes Amazon or AliExpress when I can’t find something locally. 4. What is one product from another brand you’d love to see as a prize in a future giveaway? I’d love to see something like a small Synology NAS or a Ubiquiti Unifi Access Point—both would be super useful for anyone starting or expanding a homelab. Products I’d like to win: Slate 7 and Comet PoE.

I say anything but I don't actually like the models that have the two USB ports next to each other. Makes it hard to plug in a cellular USB modem.  Other than that the GL-AXT1800 has been great and the slate 7 had been even better.  The Beryl AX would be a solid choice. 

I have an older Slate and use it as my travel router. It can connect to my FWG with no issues over wireguard. The FWG applies all of the normal security rules to the traffic, just like being at home.  I personally prefer the Slate for travel and would highly recommend it.  On a side note, I have had issues with some places not allowing VPN traffic, including OpenVPN on port 443. So, in a situation like that, the Purple would be better as it can apply all of the proper network security measures on its own.

I use my GL routers while traveling and then use them to combine multiple devices to phone home via wireguard, no issues in any aspect. I view them as different use cases for me personally. I wouldnt mind the loss of a Slate/Beryl/Mango as a Firewalla given the different functions. Also I generally like having the extra lan ports on the GL Routers at some locations... Added, this is for trading situations where I hard wire 2 laptops I use in trading for and use a 3 port router.

I have found zero drawbacks to using my Slate as a travel router. I bought it for exactly that purpose. I almost bought another one to replace the Flint I had to repurpose elsewhere. The Slate is awesome for connecting to hotel captive portals, or using my phone connection (tethered with USB, it charges the phone too!). What I've most recently is use it to provide connectivity to my spouse's festival booth. Open wifi signal showing 1 bar that would never actually give me an IP on my phone, and the Slate grabbed it, and gave me a steady/fast signal that covered me all the way across the festival grounds to the food trucks. I've got a 5K battery that will keep it powered for an hour or so, but that was just to see 'how long'. For a real job like that, I'd bring my EcoFlow (because the register and everything else would need power too).

Yes to both. [One of these](https://www.amazon.com/dp/B09NR1SPBV). Slate's power port is USB-C. My only disappointment with this is that the battery doesn't work like a UPS. If using it connected to the mains, and the power drops, the battery is not engaged quickly enough to keep anything connected to it from losing power. The Slate is rated to draw 5V at 4A. At "full bore", this would take around 75min in ideal conditions to use up 5000 mAh. Consider that 5000 milliamps is 5 amps.

I would say unless you have a need to do site-to-site VPN that two-way communication between your home and away devices, the purple is an overkill as a travel router. If you just need one-way, like VPN to home to watch streaming media or send a print job to home printer, a Slate can fully do the job, and is much cheaper. And I do not think the wifi capability of the purple is as good as Slate.

How small you wanna go? Look at Gli-net's travel routers. I carry one in my luggage and they're great.

How small you wanna go? Look at Gli-net's travel routers. I carry one in my luggage and they're great.

1. I got into self hosting because I was tired of paying for services that never quite delivered how I wanted and stopped working if my internet did. 2. I travel enough that I frequently use an older Gl.Net router to provide some protection and get more of my devices connected if I have to pay for a connection. I have also been wanting a KVM for my home server so I can better administer it from afar. In particular one that might let me restart or power it up with button presses or a jumper interface. 3.I learn a lot from Reddit, but probably most from encountering a problem and researching it until I find a solution that suits my needs and capabilities. That research takes me everywhere… but mostly Reddit these days. 4. I’d love a lower-power feature rich NAS. I consult for a lot of friends and families, and these have become a popular request. Ugreen might have the best offering for now, but I do feel like there’s still room for improvement. Edit: Products I’d choose if I won would be the POE KVM and travel router.

Most “normal” routers cannot use an existing wifi network as their WAN. GL.iNet is really best in class when it comes to this.

Agreed, I have their $37 travel router and it would work great for 700 square feet, hell, it stays connected a long way away. I had it set up in my 4th floor hotel room in Jamaica and was still connected at the pool outside.

I think this is a great use case for a Gl.inet travel router. It doesn't sound like your mother in law is really in need of super download speeds, so the 36MB free wifi should be more than enough. So connect the travel router to the free wifi and then everything in her trailer to that travel router. The travel router will hide all her internal devices like the printer and chromecast. Really, if you think about it, the trailer park is not all that differant than say a hotel, but instead of hotel rooms all connecting to one public wifi you have trailers connecting to one public wifi. no differant. so perfect for a travel router. I think this would be easier to maintain and configure over a normal router. Sure a normal router can be configured to act as a bridge, but why bother with having to figure out how to do that on the normal router when the travel routers already have all that functionality build right into it and are designed for that right out of the box. Plus a Gl.inet router is < 100 bucks, no. If you were to go with the 20 buck a month solution from the service provider after 5 months you would be spending more than just buying a travel router.

I love their products, I have one of their travel routers and it’s extremely handy.

GL.inet for sure. Easy.

I think any of their currently listed travel routers will run tailscale.

The last time I had gone on a cruise they didn't say anything about the gl inet travel router I had with me. Anyone with a small one been caught with one yet? Just curious about how often those small ones have been noticed

If you have a small enough apartment, travel routers (like the GL.iNet ones) are designed for this use case - connecting to a WiFi network like a hotel network and then rebroadcasting your own.

Correct. You don't want any routing. You want the clients to pick the closest network. Even something as small as a Gl.Inet Travel Router will do the job, because you turn it to "AP" mode so it doesn't really do much.

Correct. You don't want any routing. You want the clients to pick the closest network. Even something as small as a Gl.Inet Travel Router will do the job, because you turn it to "AP" mode so it doesn't really do much.

As someone who just got done traveling to multiple places and staying for a week at those places, trying out a couple different travel routers at each place (GL iNet & Asus Go), I like the Asus the best. I love the form factor of the GL iNet, but after 6 hours or so it disconnected. I had to unplug it and plug it back in. Google mentioned something about the WAN settings (I’d have to find it). Whereas the Asus just worked. It never disconnected, worked fine in WISP mode and just regular eithernet. So now my go to is the Asus Go for my travel router.

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.