I’m writing this comment from 38,000 ft over the Pacific Ocean. I spent $20 instead of $80 for in-flight WiFi for the entire family. The device is VPN’d home via WG to my UDM Pro. Kids are happy, wife is happy, I’m happy. WORTH IT!!
Good grief...I went through 5 videos until I got to yours.. the previous 5 did nothing but talk about the router's features.... yours were the only one that did a step by step walk through. Thank you so much for this.
Amen to that... I too been watching videos for over an hour now and finally found this one,,, onsite setup in hotel with screenshots is REAL WORLD content.... thanks so much for not being a YT influencer bot... *sub'd*
Thank you so much for this video! Purchased a Beryl AX, set it up with Nord, and brought it to Sint Maarten this week. Walked into our timeshare and low and behold there is a Ruckus H550 on the wall by the living room TV. Could not have gotten any luckier! Plugged in the AX and it connected immediately. We have over a dozen devices connected. Even brough a long enough Cat5 cable so the AX can be placed in from of the balcony door and we have access down on the beach. I can't believe how well this thing works! Keep the videos coming!
This is the exact video I was looking for! Every other video skips or is very brief on how this router connects to the internet. Thank you so much for giving us a demonstration!
Thanks a million! This saved me! I am currently traveling for work. I am currently using my GL-iNet AC 1300 in the hotel Wi-fi while I am using my work laptop, work mobile phone, personal mobile phone, and personal iPad. It works great. It also worked great when I was at work troubleshooting a new firewall installation. And lastly, I used it at the airport to safeguard my network traffic. Thanks again! Great video. Very well explained.
I’m a total non techy and most of this went way over my head! But with the step by step process I’m hoping that once I get the router I’ll be able to follow along. Thanks so much.
I did this for a road trip. Hooked up the travel router to a travel SIM card, connected the kids devices to the travel router. Kids and wife were happy and Plex, netflix etc all streamed without issue
Thanks for this video. I've been looking for a way to bring along the Chromecast while travelling without having to factory reset it each time for whatever wifi I was on. Bonus points for me because my non-technical wife can now bring this technical travel kit along even when I'm not there and still use the Chromecast. I just laminated some instructions and placed them into the travel case with the router, chromecast, cables etc. Perfect!
It's been on my list for awhile to get one of these. Just did it. Amazon has a $31 coupon right now for the Beryl AX bringing the price to $79 before tax.
I have a Slate AX (chosen over the Beryl AX because of the faster Wireguard throughput) - it's awesome. I absolutely love it. When I get to my hotel I get my stuff squared away, get the router out, and connect to the wifi on this, and bam - all my other stuff is already set up to use my router's Wifi so it's just online. I then leave the hotel, go do work at the office or wherever I am, and when I get back the router is still in my room, online, and wifi is waiting. I've never had any issues with cleaners turning it off or anything (though to be fair I do also reduce the number of times they visit during a stay). It's such a great little companion, all my family's gear is configured to connect to it as well. This now means when we go traveling somewhere on holiday I only need to worry about getting one device onto the destination network, be it a hotel or a family's house - I'm not having to then be IT support to absolutely every wifi enabled bit of tech that came with us.
I have a somewhat ironic update to this. I have found the power requirements of the Slate AX to be annoying. It requires 5v 4A. While it does come with a power adapter capable of this, there are limited alternate power delivery methods. I'm currently solving a problem involving internet access when off-grid, say on a remote road trip, or 4WDing somewhere to camp. I have chosen a Starlink dish, and I am in the process of converting it to run off 12V so it can use the same deep cycle battery system that powers the fridge, camp lights etc and is recharged by either the vehicle engine or solar. The Starlink uses 48V, though thankfully there are already ways to use adapters to take 12V up to 48V for this. I even found an awesome little thing called a Boondocker Dishy Dualie that converts the power AND handles PoE injection in the one small board - most other solutions separate these two tasks over different devices. It also has a method of powering your router as well, either via PoE or a 48V outlet on the side. Coming back to the Gl.inet router, its adapter won't run off 48V, and it is too power hungry to use PoE. And on top of all that, the circuit in the Dishy Dualie unit to power a router have a 3A fuse. In the end it turns out the Beryl AX uses 5V 3A, and it's possible to buy adapter cables to take PoE out of an ethernet connection and split it off to USB-C. So... guess I'm going to buy a Beryl after all. :)
I purchased a Beryl AX a couple months ago in preparation for a family vacation. While en route to the destination, it worked great as outlined in the video to provide connectivity to my family’s devices without reconfiguring the devices. Once at the destination, I enabled the Beryl’s VPN (wireguard client back to a UniFi UDM Pro) to provide connectivity to a UniFi G4 Instant. As I used the same SSID as my home network, no reconfiguration of the G4 Instant was needed. I was very surprised how well it worked. Beryl was over 500 miles away from UDMP. Both routers were behind typical home ISP connections (UDMP>DOCSIS & Beryl>GPON). No stuttering. Maybe a second of delay. Definitely plan to do it again when needed.
I have the slate and I've been using it for more than a year as my home router. It's perfect. I can't complain about it at all. I always have a VPN enabled with adguard home to protect my connection that much more. You can stop your tv from spying on you so that's a plus by adding a blocklist.
Good video! I used to do this years ago and still have the mini travel router that I used back then. But now I simply take my 5G T-Mobile trashcan with me for anything more than an overnight stay. Same outcome, and completely bypasses all hotel networking and security considerations.
@@ErwinChung I believe (newly) it may be geo-fenced to a degree, and also possibly more-so with the newer equipment, so YMMV. I have heard of the geo-fence literally from a T-Mobile rep, and yet the exact opposite from another T-Mobile rep in another store (who helped bypass their sign-up address check when I acquired a 2nd one for a family member). Mine works across the entire United States (literally) without being throttled. At least, so far. I toss it in my backpack and off I go. Soon though, it will be displaced for travel by the Starlink Mini that I just acquired.
May I suggest looking at getting a 4g Sim card router instead. Cheaper, full functionality of a router. More ports, and if you need it you can slap a Sim card in and have internet on the road in a camper/tent. (Power needed of course.)
@@plebius Mobile hotspots don't have the features of this router. GL.inet also sells mobile hotspots (routers) with their software on them though. But you can just tether your phone to the router he featured in this video. Same as a mobile hotspot, better actually.
I've got the AX1800, which I've already used for connecting to networks when I'm away. I'm using it for iPhone, iPads (Multiple), Telescopes, and laptops. Got it working great with my UDM Pro using Wireguard. It's great as I can setup in the middle of a field, and have a nice stable connection for everything.
Another great use for travel router: cruise ships. It’s similar to the RV situation. But cruise ships cost even more, usually around 20 bucks a day. I used one for my last cruise as a repeater. I had to spoof my phone’s MAC address on the router for the ship to think it was my phone.
Perfect timing as the fam is set for our first euro trip soon enough and it has been oh over 15 years since I gave up on our one portable router, was an apple airport express I think. This Beryl AX seems solid. Bought one, SSIDs all set up, can't wait to give this a go. I went with our current SSIDs, hopefully will work. Thanks so much for the video 👍👍
Absolutely amazing video! I was just about ready to toss my unit out the window, but thanks to your incredible step by step, it’s still in one piece-and now I'll actually be able to use it! Your tips are a lifesaver. Huge thanks for sharing this amazing information!
These things work great. Thanks for sharing, Chris. Got a couple of them for a couple of unique use cases. The GL.iNet iPhone app is good for a quick config change too. I was thinking about a UniFi Express for this, but for about half the cost and the side switch for added convenience is really great.
Good video. Thanks! I own one of these and travel a lot. I mostly use it as a repeater with the bonus of having Adguard for blocking ads on all my devices.
I just purchased the GL.iNet Beryl AX to bypass device limits in campgrounds and Hotels, and for the added security. We have, and will be camping at a campground in the western Sierra's that has ZERO cell signal but does offer paid WiFi that allows 2 devices. Last year we used our Starlink with minor success due to the 100 foot trees. We ended up using the campsite's paid WiFi, but w/o a travel router could only use 2 devices. VoIP with Starlink was no-go due to the many drop outs but streaming was tolerable with some buffering. VoIP did work with the paid WiFi but everyone found that Facetime worked better, to our surprise, but it saved our lives since my wife owns her own business and NEEDs to stay in contact via text and voice. You mention the adverse effect that double NAT has on VoIP and since using the travel router in repeat mode with a captive portal will create a double NAT I have a question. My question is this: Is there any way to fix the double NAT problem so we can use a cell phone via WiFi calling? Mark
I have this exact model and use it on Holland America cruise ships, this has been amazing on my last cruises as they have upgraded to starlink for the onboard wifi!
Great video! If you need to connect more than a couple devices to the Internet every time you move around to a different hotel, a travel router is definitely needed. Just to remember the various situations I had to set up my family's devices to a particular network gives me the creep. Such a waste of time, and a travel router sounds like a very good solution for this!
How about connecting your phone to the hotel's WiFi and then starting a hotspot from it and connect everything to that? Seems like cheaper and one less thing to carry around ..
I have a travel Roku and travel IP Phone. What better was to connect it and other devices than with a travel router. Great video! Thanks for the affiliate link. It's been ordered.
Thanks for the video, comprehensive and straight to the point, no waffle, which seems so common on UA-cam these days. It made setup easy, which was all I wanted, great job.
Thanks for explaining the Wi-Fi repeater option and showing the steps to set it up. That's exactly what I needed that was missing from other videos I saw on this device.
I have a Slate and they are handy and it still works great. The Unifi Express excites me…but I think Ubiquiti missed the boat as it could have been a great travel router also.
@@derrysannot only that i think the price went up too... been needing a second one but it's only ever been in stock twice and once was at 4am pst for 15 min
@@AChilds52 I had a hard time getting my UDM Pro SE not long after they came out of EA. Best place I have found to get Ubiquiti gear is from the UI store. Stock can be an issue but the prices stay where they are supposed to. Probably get bought out and marked up higher on other platforms because of demand.
I've purchased that same model last september. I've already made two holiday travels with it and it is phenomenal. Best geek purchase I've made this year by far. I also recommend to purchase the travel pouch of the same brand.
Are you saying that you have not purchased anything better than a travel router?!?! in the 362 days prior to your comment??? You don't have very much of a geek life if that's the case...... Really weird thing to say. You sound like a shill
Thank you for this. Its a great video. One of the best I have seen on this product. I use my beryl AX pretty much everywhere i go now.. Even in the car tethering with the phone. so the kids can watch stuff
Just got off of a cruise and I saw this after my cruise but I knew about the router and took mines with me. With Carnival you have to pay for each service and I didn't want to pay for my daughter tablet. I configured my router and put it on a battery pack and kept it with me and worked flawlessly. Pared with Nord everything was protected for me, although it through the app off it was perfect. This is a great in-dept video I saw before use and I figured it out on my own.
The only reason I don't care for this setup in a hotel space is a possible shared throttle limit since the hotels network treats it as one device and the throttle limits are usually set per MAC, unless someone knows if any hotels would be dynamic enough to somehow make the limit be per room number, like a dedicated VLAN per room.
This is awesome video, back in the day I used to travel with a spare router, but as more and more hotels took away the ethernet cable. I pretty much stopped using it. I didn’t realize we could utilize routers like this to act as a repeater. Very very cool. I’m definitely going to check one of these out. Thanks for making a great video as usual.
Bought this one for myself for Christmas 🎄 Set it already up and testing works just perfect in my home environment (all Unifi gear). Looking now forward to my next travel abroad next year 😊 Love that gadget 😌🙏
Thanks for the guide, you've answered a few questions I had about how to setup the VPN using a third party service. I have GL-SFT1200 version / AC1200, I believe its the regular Beryl version. Its a very simple version of the Beryl AX . There almost no extra memory on board, so I tried and installed AdGuard, but it seem to bring the AC1200 to its knees. I ended up uninstalled AdGuard. I'll have to consider upgrading before my next trip.
Very thorough video. You did a great job using verbiage and analogies that a layman (me) can understand. I picked up the Slate AX last week and set it up last nite. Hope to use it this weekend at a hotel.
Just got the Flint 2 and I love this thing so much that I purchased a Beryl AX too, to use it as my router/WireGuard client when I'm on the go. I will get it in a few days and I can't wait
I have a few GL.iNet routers, from 2 of the AR750S to the GL-AXT1800 that I carry every day in my bag. One of the most important features is ensuring your devices only ever connect to your travel router and no other SSIDs, repeating any upstream networks you may connect to. I also travel quite frequently in the air, and I will purchase the in-flight WiFi from the flight and then connect my travel router to the airplane network, and then rebroadcast that WiFi out to the rest of the passengers on the plane for free. I QoS that network of course so one passenger doesn't hog the whole connection by streaming their Netflix or Plex channels. I've been doing this for many years with my AR750S, and now my AXT1800. It works great and nobody on the plane is the wiser. One of the biggest downsides with repeating hotel WiFi is the captive portal will reset every 6-12 hours so you'll need to re-login into the captive portal landing page to continue to use the WiFi. There's no way to keep the connection active across multiple days, even with MAC cloning.
@@sigsauer9246 Just look at the router that gave your GL its IP, and visit that in a browser, it should bring up the captive portal page. Sometimes going to the hotel's main website from a connected device inside their LAN also helps. Lastly, connect directly with your laptop or tablet to their network, the use the GL.iNet to clone that device's MAC address, and you shouldn't get the captive portal prompt any longer, since your device should now be authenticated.
Been doing the Roku stick trick (I actually use a chromecast) for years now and it's been amazing. Never heard/thought of doing a travel router. Definitely getting on board with this!
I am using a similar setup to also control some of the devices with smart plugs. For house rentals is really nice because rarely they have switches near the bed
I connect an old smartphone without sim card to the hotel wifi and then I create a usb cable (the charging cable) connection to my pc and share the connection with the pc (inside the smartphone network settings) . Since the WiFi of my laptop is not in use now, I create a wifi Hotspot with it and now we have our own private network. I use the Gnome desktop on a Linux machine, it has the WiFi Hotspot option preinstalled in the networking settings. Years ago I did the same with a Windows machine, but I installed a program for that (no idea anymore what it was). A dedicated router is a far more elegant solution, but if your video streaming box is not accepted by the hotel login (happens nearly all the time to me), this is a pretty simple solution.
I watched your video and it convinced me to purchase one of these routers and I love it! In your video you configured everything using the browser from your laptop however i found it easier to configure it from the android app. When I used it at the hotel I was able to connect the router to the hotels wifi from the app without having the spoof the mac from my phone.
Would love a video of what you would pack when traveling after watching this I added the Beryl AX and a HD Chromecast with Google TV to my cables/adapters, usb power suppy, and backup battery.
In a scenario where I lose my luggage - what do you advise would be a good method to protect yourself? Let's say I have the Beryl AX configured, and it's set to VPN into my home network on boot - or with the toggle as you showed. What's to prevent someone from just plugging it in, and getting immediate access to VPN'd network? A few ideas come to mind, like revoking access to the VPN (changing the key, or password), as well as setting up a VLAN, and sufficient firewall rules to prevent access to certain things from the mobile connection. But, are you aware of any other kill switch? Or perhaps, a method that would require me to authenticate somehow on boot? As the cost of some convenience?
Chris, two questions as follow-up: 1) First, I'd love to get more details on finding and using Ethernet ports in hotel rooms. I used to see and use them regularly, but they seem to have disappeared from common availability. The last few hotels I've stayed at, including Hilton and Hyatt properties, have not had an obvious port. So, tips and tricks on where to _find_ them, and how to _test_ or verify that they work would be useful. (This might be a separate video; Maybe you could record port searches across a few of your upcoming trips, and then knit it all together?) 2) The number one problem I've had with all four of my various travel routers (DLink years ago, GL.iNet these days) has been getting the captive portal to appear, so I can get through it. It looked like you used a Windows-based feature to notice the Wi-Fi issue and then access the captive portal; is that correct? Is there a similar way to force a captive portal recognition on macOS? Or a general mechanism to force it to appear? It's absolutely _maddening_ to know exactly what needs to happen, but not be able to trigger it...
I don't think he really cares if you could find an ethernet port or not my friend, everything he said in this video is to help him make money off of purchases as an affiliate. He's not actually going to hotels and using these.... As you pointed out, It's not even possible in most hotels
1) Many hotels don't have LAN ports anymore. Use the repeater function of router. 2) Sign in to captcha portal with your phone. Then with your phone, log in to your GLINET app, and clone your phones MAC address. Now all decides connected to router no longer have to sign into portal.
Most Hotels have an ethernet port for the smart TV. If you're taking your own streaming device like suggested in the video, just unplug the TV, and use that ethernet as your WAN for the travel router.
I connected the beryl to a coffee shop wifi using the app and connected as a repeater. My phone connected no problem to the coffee shop wifi. It didn't even bring up the active portal. I then had a friend connect his phone to the beryl and when he connected to the beryl wifi the coffee shop active portal pop-up. He accepted the conditions and was able to connect to the internet. Should the active portal have pop-up on the phone connecting to the beryl?
Under client, does selecting "Block" disconnect the client from the network, or disconnect their internet access. I want to allow my kids to continue to stream from the NAS, but not have internet access. Do you know if this is feasible? Thanks.
Very good video. I purchased this router because we travel in our trailer to various campgrounds etc. I find it odd that you don't like Nord VPN, they don't keep logs nor are they part of the 5, 9 or 14 eyes countries.
The way I see it, most of the time when you travel you aren't getting high speed internet. So you won't often take advantage of higher speeds. So I imagine an ideal travel router as something cheap, small, and maybe power efficient. So I got the AR300M used for $10. It still supports Adblocking, OpenVPN, USB file sharing, etc. Plus its small and runs on USB. I do wish though it was USB C instead of microUSB.
a number of years ago i had a travel router. i couldn't use it at most hotels due to the captive portal. the travel routers at the time didn't really have a way to login through them.
So in theory, I can hook this up to the lan here in my barracks and only have to hit the walled garden once and not on every device? Because I can only have 2 devices online at once. Otherwise it kicks one off.
Just bought one. One feature I wish it had: Power over Ethernet. That way I can just leave a switch setup in my camper. No need to even think about power.
On my last business trip, I took a Unifi Express with me. I had to cut the zip tie holding the network cable in the room from being useful and did mostly the same thing as Chris. The problem I ran into was the useless low speed they give per login to the network. 5Mbps is unacceptable with the cost of a 1Gbps connection these days. I don't want to pay the $5+ a day for a few more Mbps. I also had problems getting PIA to work as a client with Unifi, and I do like the fact the one in this video did repeater WAN and had Ad Guard built-in. May just pick one of these up. I also have a mAP from Mikrotik, but it's only WiFi4 and is not very powerful.
Hi, Chris. I am a cargo pilot who spends, literally, half the year in a hotel while at work. Based on your recommendation I purchased the AX-3000 through your affiliate link. I'm LOVING it! I was successful in setting it up with Wireguard connected to my home's OPNsense Wireguard server. Prior to getting Wireguard setup I attempted to get Adguard Home setup on the Beryl but I failed. I wasn't getting The Internet - no doubt a DNS issue - you would think I could set it up correctly since I have Adguard Home running within OPNsense on my home network, but alas, no. That's when I gave up and setup the Wireguard connection. Request: Would you put together a tutorial for setting up Adguard Home on the Beryl, please? This would then allow me to not have to pass through my traffic back home - the advantage is that some hotels actually have fast Internet (8Mbps at the one I'm currently at) which is faster than my home's 2Mbps UP (and I save data usage on my home's 1TB/mo. subscription.). Thanks!
Should I turn the IPV6 on when using the PIA VPN or should I left off? The other thing that I've seeing is how slow it's even when I have a ethernet connection... it's less then half of the speed usually. Any configuration that I should change to have a better speed over wifi?
Glad that I found this. Now I'm leaving to go live aboard and canceling my current us internet service. How would the travel router work for me? Is it the same steps? Do i set it up before i leave the US?
Thanks, this is helpful. I'm finding the bigger problem is hotels/casinos locking down their televisions. You can't change the input at times. I bought a universal remote which helps sometimes. Looks like they are using the phone jack in the TV to lock down certain features. Removing that connection can cause problems. I haven't gotten around this yet.
Thanks for this overview. Is it possible to have this configuration: > on the wan side, use the hotel’s wifi, AND > on the LAN side, have BOTH wifi AND and one of the ethernet ports on the same LAN network? Thanks.
How well would this work on a cruise ship ? Is it possible to setup only using an iPad as I don’t bring a laptop when traveling? I was recently on an NCL cruise and they blocked all VPN usage. In this instance would this travel router be rendered useless because of the VPN blocking.?
Not necessarily, with having your own device, you could setup your own IP scope, with a seperate subnet, which would isolate you from the rest of the public cruise ship.
It's very, very hard for e.g. a cruise ship to block using a travel router itself. It's just another wireless client. At the worst, connect and sign up with your device (phone, tablet, laptop), do the various auth/payment dances needed, and then disconnect that device. Then clone that device's MAC address to the Beryl (or whichever router you have), something shown briefly towards the end of this video. Then connect the Beryl as shown. As far as the cruise ship is concerned, your Beryl *is* your device, and your actual devices are invisible to the cruise ship Wi-Fi, because they are only on the private, local Wi-Fi (again, as illustrated in the video). Blocking VPN access is another matter entirely. I'm sure there are ways around it (especially with Tailscale, etc.), but that's probably an entirely new video.
I have a MUDI that I have traveled with for several years now. I love the versatility of it, but do I occasionally get frustrated as well. I like the MUDI because of its integrated battery and cellular radio. This was amazing when I had Google Fi, where a data only sim was super cheap. My biggest frustration is that it seems like the wireless radios become unstable after several hours of use.
I have a ONT/router/AP combo thing that my ISP provides which I use to cover one corner of my home and another quite good TP-link router that I use in AP mode that I use to cover the majority of my home. Never ran into problems with wifi on the tp-link one but that ISP-provided once needs to be restarted daily for optimal performance. I guess it's just with cheap routers their firmware and memory isn't that stable.
When you first reviewed the GL-AR750S you recommended using like the 2.4Ghz for the WAN side and the 5Ghz for the LAN side due to (?performance?) issues. Was at the 7:23 marker of that video. Is this still an issue with this Beryl AX?
10:10..When i click on open browser and connect, the webpage doesnt load for me to enter my last name/hotel #. Says the server IP could not be found..I see a message that says " ERR_NAME_NOT_Resolved" Any ideas?
Thanks for the detailed video Chris. I just purchased one via your link. I honestly hadn't thought about using these travel routers like the way you mentioned. We recently had a baby and travel with baby cameras/monitors + IoT 'sound machines' and it's a pain to have to reconfigure them each time.
How can I use my home IP address? I was told that you buy 2 of these and leave one home and use the other for travel. Can you do a video with this demonstrating?
I’m writing this comment from 38,000 ft over the Pacific Ocean. I spent $20 instead of $80 for in-flight WiFi for the entire family. The device is VPN’d home via WG to my UDM Pro. Kids are happy, wife is happy, I’m happy. WORTH IT!!
Could have just used your phone and saved more money.
@@AlgoSurfer yea, but he might have wanted the VPN because a phone can't transfer VPN using hotspot
@Its_Popcat You can get Android (not sure about IOS) application that will share the VPN connection as a hotspot. Without root also.
@@AlgoSurfer Is it fast?
@@ItsPopcat I've never had an issue, I'm career IT also, download heavy data. Never had a problem.
Good grief...I went through 5 videos until I got to yours.. the previous 5 did nothing but talk about the router's features.... yours were the only one that did a step by step walk through. Thank you so much for this.
Amen to that... I too been watching videos for over an hour now and finally found this one,,, onsite setup in hotel with screenshots is REAL WORLD content.... thanks so much for not being a YT influencer bot... *sub'd*
Yes
I like that you have a travel family for maximum privacy and security.
Thank you so much for this video! Purchased a Beryl AX, set it up with Nord, and brought it to Sint Maarten this week. Walked into our timeshare and low and behold there is a Ruckus H550 on the wall by the living room TV. Could not have gotten any luckier! Plugged in the AX and it connected immediately. We have over a dozen devices connected. Even brough a long enough Cat5 cable so the AX can be placed in from of the balcony door and we have access down on the beach. I can't believe how well this thing works!
Keep the videos coming!
This is the exact video I was looking for! Every other video skips or is very brief on how this router connects to the internet. Thank you so much for giving us a demonstration!
Thanks a million! This saved me! I am currently traveling for work. I am currently using my GL-iNet AC 1300 in the hotel Wi-fi while I am using my work laptop, work mobile phone, personal mobile phone, and personal iPad. It works great. It also worked great when I was at work troubleshooting a new firewall installation. And lastly, I used it at the airport to safeguard my network traffic. Thanks again! Great video. Very well explained.
I’m a total non techy and most of this went way over my head! But with the step by step process I’m hoping that once I get the router I’ll be able to follow along. Thanks so much.
I did this for a road trip. Hooked up the travel router to a travel SIM card, connected the kids devices to the travel router. Kids and wife were happy and Plex, netflix etc all streamed without issue
Same but tethering to my phone for their internet.
Which travel SIM would you recommend?
Thanks for this video. I've been looking for a way to bring along the Chromecast while travelling without having to factory reset it each time for whatever wifi I was on. Bonus points for me because my non-technical wife can now bring this technical travel kit along even when I'm not there and still use the Chromecast. I just laminated some instructions and placed them into the travel case with the router, chromecast, cables etc. Perfect!
It's been on my list for awhile to get one of these. Just did it. Amazon has a $31 coupon right now for the Beryl AX bringing the price to $79 before tax.
I have a Slate AX (chosen over the Beryl AX because of the faster Wireguard throughput) - it's awesome. I absolutely love it. When I get to my hotel I get my stuff squared away, get the router out, and connect to the wifi on this, and bam - all my other stuff is already set up to use my router's Wifi so it's just online. I then leave the hotel, go do work at the office or wherever I am, and when I get back the router is still in my room, online, and wifi is waiting. I've never had any issues with cleaners turning it off or anything (though to be fair I do also reduce the number of times they visit during a stay).
It's such a great little companion, all my family's gear is configured to connect to it as well. This now means when we go traveling somewhere on holiday I only need to worry about getting one device onto the destination network, be it a hotel or a family's house - I'm not having to then be IT support to absolutely every wifi enabled bit of tech that came with us.
I have a somewhat ironic update to this. I have found the power requirements of the Slate AX to be annoying. It requires 5v 4A. While it does come with a power adapter capable of this, there are limited alternate power delivery methods.
I'm currently solving a problem involving internet access when off-grid, say on a remote road trip, or 4WDing somewhere to camp. I have chosen a Starlink dish, and I am in the process of converting it to run off 12V so it can use the same deep cycle battery system that powers the fridge, camp lights etc and is recharged by either the vehicle engine or solar.
The Starlink uses 48V, though thankfully there are already ways to use adapters to take 12V up to 48V for this. I even found an awesome little thing called a Boondocker Dishy Dualie that converts the power AND handles PoE injection in the one small board - most other solutions separate these two tasks over different devices. It also has a method of powering your router as well, either via PoE or a 48V outlet on the side.
Coming back to the Gl.inet router, its adapter won't run off 48V, and it is too power hungry to use PoE. And on top of all that, the circuit in the Dishy Dualie unit to power a router have a 3A fuse.
In the end it turns out the Beryl AX uses 5V 3A, and it's possible to buy adapter cables to take PoE out of an ethernet connection and split it off to USB-C. So... guess I'm going to buy a Beryl after all. :)
@@indyspudYou helped me decide between Slate vs Beryl. Beryl it is! Thanks😁
I purchased a Beryl AX a couple months ago in preparation for a family vacation.
While en route to the destination, it worked great as outlined in the video to provide connectivity to my family’s devices without reconfiguring the devices.
Once at the destination, I enabled the Beryl’s VPN (wireguard client back to a UniFi UDM Pro) to provide connectivity to a UniFi G4 Instant. As I used the same SSID as my home network, no reconfiguration of the G4 Instant was needed. I was very surprised how well it worked. Beryl was over 500 miles away from UDMP. Both routers were behind typical home ISP connections (UDMP>DOCSIS & Beryl>GPON). No stuttering. Maybe a second of delay. Definitely plan to do it again when needed.
This is a great idea. I have the same gear, and those instant cams are fantastic! Thanks for sharing, I need to look into this!
How do you set up wire guard on the udm pro side?
Many thanks for this and so many other videos in 2023 and all the best to you and yours for 2024!
I have the slate and I've been using it for more than a year as my home router. It's perfect. I can't complain about it at all. I always have a VPN enabled with adguard home to protect my connection that much more. You can stop your tv from spying on you so that's a plus by adding a blocklist.
Good video! I used to do this years ago and still have the mini travel router that I used back then. But now I simply take my 5G T-Mobile trashcan with me for anything more than an overnight stay. Same outcome, and completely bypasses all hotel networking and security considerations.
I thought the 5G Tmo home internet is ‘locked’ to the address it was setup for only? Interested in your setup idea
@@ErwinChung I believe (newly) it may be geo-fenced to a degree, and also possibly more-so with the newer equipment, so YMMV. I have heard of the geo-fence literally from a T-Mobile rep, and yet the exact opposite from another T-Mobile rep in another store (who helped bypass their sign-up address check when I acquired a 2nd one for a family member). Mine works across the entire United States (literally) without being throttled. At least, so far. I toss it in my backpack and off I go. Soon though, it will be displaced for travel by the Starlink Mini that I just acquired.
I've been thinking about getting a travel router for years...you convinced me to pull the trigger. Thanks for the great video.
May I suggest looking at getting a 4g Sim card router instead. Cheaper, full functionality of a router. More ports, and if you need it you can slap a Sim card in and have internet on the road in a camper/tent. (Power needed of course.)
@@plebius Mobile hotspots don't have the features of this router. GL.inet also sells mobile hotspots (routers) with their software on them though. But you can just tether your phone to the router he featured in this video. Same as a mobile hotspot, better actually.
Watching this in a hotel using my GL.iNet travel router right now, it’s awesome! Couldn’t live without it.
Why don't you enjoy the place you have traveled to instead of burying your head in a computer?
I've got the AX1800, which I've already used for connecting to networks when I'm away. I'm using it for iPhone, iPads (Multiple), Telescopes, and laptops. Got it working great with my UDM Pro using Wireguard. It's great as I can setup in the middle of a field, and have a nice stable connection for everything.
Wow, this IS the best instructional video that I have ever seen in UA-cam. TYVM.
Easily the best video on this topic, out of the 15 or so I’ve watched.
So glad i found this video. Not only do I need this device, I also us PIA VPN.
When on vacation time is of the essence, so the convenience of this router simplifies things...
Another great use for travel router: cruise ships. It’s similar to the RV situation. But cruise ships cost even more, usually around 20 bucks a day. I used one for my last cruise as a repeater. I had to spoof my phone’s MAC address on the router for the ship to think it was my phone.
Perfect timing as the fam is set for our first euro trip soon enough and it has been oh over 15 years since I gave up on our one portable router, was an apple airport express I think. This Beryl AX seems solid. Bought one, SSIDs all set up, can't wait to give this a go. I went with our current SSIDs, hopefully will work. Thanks so much for the video 👍👍
How did the ssids work? You used the same as well as password as your home network and everything automatically connected on the road?
Absolutely amazing video! I was just about ready to toss my unit out the window, but thanks to your incredible step by step, it’s still in one piece-and now I'll actually be able to use it! Your tips are a lifesaver. Huge thanks for sharing this amazing information!
These things work great. Thanks for sharing, Chris. Got a couple of them for a couple of unique use cases. The GL.iNet iPhone app is good for a quick config change too. I was thinking about a UniFi Express for this, but for about half the cost and the side switch for added convenience is really great.
Good video. Thanks! I own one of these and travel a lot. I mostly use it as a repeater with the bonus of having Adguard for blocking ads on all my devices.
I just purchased the GL.iNet Beryl AX to bypass device limits in campgrounds and Hotels, and for the added security. We have, and will be camping at a campground in the western Sierra's that has ZERO cell signal but does offer paid WiFi that allows 2 devices. Last year we used our Starlink with minor success due to the 100 foot trees. We ended up using the campsite's paid WiFi, but w/o a travel router could only use 2 devices. VoIP with Starlink was no-go due to the many drop outs but streaming was tolerable with some buffering. VoIP did work with the paid WiFi but everyone found that Facetime worked better, to our surprise, but it saved our lives since my wife owns her own business and NEEDs to stay in contact via text and voice. You mention the adverse effect that double NAT has on VoIP and since using the travel router in repeat mode with a captive portal will create a double NAT I have a question.
My question is this: Is there any way to fix the double NAT problem so we can use a cell phone via WiFi calling?
Mark
I have this exact model and use it on Holland America cruise ships, this has been amazing on my last cruises as they have upgraded to starlink for the onboard wifi!
Great video! If you need to connect more than a couple devices to the Internet every time you move around to a different hotel, a travel router is definitely needed. Just to remember the various situations I had to set up my family's devices to a particular network gives me the creep. Such a waste of time, and a travel router sounds like a very good solution for this!
How about connecting your phone to the hotel's WiFi and then starting a hotspot from it and connect everything to that? Seems like cheaper and one less thing to carry around ..
I have a travel Roku and travel IP Phone. What better was to connect it and other devices than with a travel router.
Great video! Thanks for the affiliate link. It's been ordered.
Thanks for the video, comprehensive and straight to the point, no waffle, which seems so common on UA-cam these days. It made setup easy, which was all I wanted, great job.
Great video. Just set mine up. Used the GL.inet app which made configuring PIA simple. Using wireguard for faster speeds.
Thanks for explaining the Wi-Fi repeater option and showing the steps to set it up.
That's exactly what I needed that was missing from other videos I saw on this device.
I have a Slate and they are handy and it still works great. The Unifi Express excites me…but I think Ubiquiti missed the boat as it could have been a great travel router also.
Totally missed the boat. Anyway, where can I get unifi express? nowhere, all are of out stock now.
@@derrysannot only that i think the price went up too... been needing a second one but it's only ever been in stock twice and once was at 4am pst for 15 min
@@AChilds52 I had a hard time getting my UDM Pro SE not long after they came out of EA. Best place I have found to get Ubiquiti gear is from the UI store. Stock can be an issue but the prices stay where they are supposed to. Probably get bought out and marked up higher on other platforms because of demand.
I've purchased that same model last september. I've already made two holiday travels with it and it is phenomenal. Best geek purchase I've made this year by far. I also recommend to purchase the travel pouch of the same brand.
Are you saying that you have not purchased anything better than a travel router?!?! in the 362 days prior to your comment??? You don't have very much of a geek life if that's the case...... Really weird thing to say. You sound like a shill
@@gutralithese are the best travel routers. Nothing even comes close
Thank you for this. Its a great video. One of the best I have seen on this product. I use my beryl AX pretty much everywhere i go now.. Even in the car tethering with the phone. so the kids can watch stuff
I've been trying to figure out how to set this up when connecting with a captive portal. Thank you!
Thanks!
Just got off of a cruise and I saw this after my cruise but I knew about the router and took mines with me. With Carnival you have to pay for each service and I didn't want to pay for my daughter tablet. I configured my router and put it on a battery pack and kept it with me and worked flawlessly. Pared with Nord everything was protected for me, although it through the app off it was perfect. This is a great in-dept video I saw before use and I figured it out on my own.
They check your luggage for a router ?
Thanks for this, was wanting to make sure it worked with hotel captive portals before pulling the trigger.
The only reason I don't care for this setup in a hotel space is a possible shared throttle limit since the hotels network treats it as one device and the throttle limits are usually set per MAC, unless someone knows if any hotels would be dynamic enough to somehow make the limit be per room number, like a dedicated VLAN per room.
This is called a Personal Area Network (PAN).
This is awesome video, back in the day I used to travel with a spare router, but as more and more hotels took away the ethernet cable. I pretty much stopped using it. I didn’t realize we could utilize routers like this to act as a repeater. Very very cool. I’m definitely going to check one of these out. Thanks for making a great video as usual.
Bought this one for myself for Christmas 🎄 Set it already up and testing works just perfect in my home environment (all Unifi gear). Looking now forward to my next travel abroad next year 😊
Love that gadget 😌🙏
Thanks for the guide, you've answered a few questions I had about how to setup the VPN using a third party service. I have GL-SFT1200 version / AC1200, I believe its the regular Beryl version. Its a very simple version of the Beryl AX . There almost no extra memory on board, so I tried and installed AdGuard, but it seem to bring the AC1200 to its knees. I ended up uninstalled AdGuard. I'll have to consider upgrading before my next trip.
Very thorough video. You did a great job using verbiage and analogies that a layman (me) can understand. I picked up the Slate AX last week and set it up last nite. Hope to use it this weekend at a hotel.
"We've got a lot to cover, so lets get to it!" Nice....
Just got the Flint 2 and I love this thing so much that I purchased a Beryl AX too, to use it as my router/WireGuard client when I'm on the go. I will get it in a few days and I can't wait
I have a few GL.iNet routers, from 2 of the AR750S to the GL-AXT1800 that I carry every day in my bag. One of the most important features is ensuring your devices only ever connect to your travel router and no other SSIDs, repeating any upstream networks you may connect to. I also travel quite frequently in the air, and I will purchase the in-flight WiFi from the flight and then connect my travel router to the airplane network, and then rebroadcast that WiFi out to the rest of the passengers on the plane for free. I QoS that network of course so one passenger doesn't hog the whole connection by streaming their Netflix or Plex channels. I've been doing this for many years with my AR750S, and now my AXT1800. It works great and nobody on the plane is the wiser. One of the biggest downsides with repeating hotel WiFi is the captive portal will reset every 6-12 hours so you'll need to re-login into the captive portal landing page to continue to use the WiFi. There's no way to keep the connection active across multiple days, even with MAC cloning.
Im having trouble bringing up the captive portal in order to connect the travel router on my ios devices. Do you have any suggestions? Thanks!
@@sigsauer9246 Just look at the router that gave your GL its IP, and visit that in a browser, it should bring up the captive portal page. Sometimes going to the hotel's main website from a connected device inside their LAN also helps. Lastly, connect directly with your laptop or tablet to their network, the use the GL.iNet to clone that device's MAC address, and you shouldn't get the captive portal prompt any longer, since your device should now be authenticated.
I just bought one of these and was recommended this video out of the blue. Gd google knows too gd much
Unifi missed the boat with the teleport app. Some device not supported. But this is a good option
Would love to hear more about what's wrong with NordVPN?
Would love to know the downsides of NordVPN as you have expressed in your video 18:32
Great review. I just set mine up with your fantastic video help! Ready to rumble!
Thanks for this! This was the video I was looking for! Just bought my Beryl AX and am getting configured! Also, just subbed.
Been doing the Roku stick trick (I actually use a chromecast) for years now and it's been amazing. Never heard/thought of doing a travel router. Definitely getting on board with this!
6:09 Also doesn’t having a dedicated vpn router device saves on battery during travel?
I am using a similar setup to also control some of the devices with smart plugs. For house rentals is really nice because rarely they have switches near the bed
do you need a laptop to set it up in a hotel or plane? could you use your phone with an app?
I connect an old smartphone without sim card to the hotel wifi and then I create a usb cable (the charging cable) connection to my pc and share the connection with the pc (inside the smartphone network settings) .
Since the WiFi of my laptop is not in use now, I create a wifi Hotspot with it and now we have our own private network.
I use the Gnome desktop on a Linux machine, it has the WiFi Hotspot option preinstalled in the networking settings.
Years ago I did the same with a Windows machine, but I installed a program for that (no idea anymore what it was).
A dedicated router is a far more elegant solution, but if your video streaming box is not accepted by the hotel login (happens nearly all the time to me), this is a pretty simple solution.
I watched your video and it convinced me to purchase one of these routers and I love it! In your video you configured everything using the browser from your laptop however i found it easier to configure it from the android app. When I used it at the hotel I was able to connect the router to the hotels wifi from the app without having the spoof the mac from my phone.
I also have similar travel router from GLinet, and I LOVE it. Using it for Wifi5/6 especially with adguardhome and USB tethering with my iphone.
Would love a video of what you would pack when traveling after watching this I added the Beryl AX and a HD Chromecast with Google TV to my cables/adapters, usb power suppy, and backup battery.
In a scenario where I lose my luggage - what do you advise would be a good method to protect yourself? Let's say I have the Beryl AX configured, and it's set to VPN into my home network on boot - or with the toggle as you showed. What's to prevent someone from just plugging it in, and getting immediate access to VPN'd network? A few ideas come to mind, like revoking access to the VPN (changing the key, or password), as well as setting up a VLAN, and sufficient firewall rules to prevent access to certain things from the mobile connection.
But, are you aware of any other kill switch? Or perhaps, a method that would require me to authenticate somehow on boot? As the cost of some convenience?
Chris, two questions as follow-up:
1) First, I'd love to get more details on finding and using Ethernet ports in hotel rooms. I used to see and use them regularly, but they seem to have disappeared from common availability. The last few hotels I've stayed at, including Hilton and Hyatt properties, have not had an obvious port. So, tips and tricks on where to _find_ them, and how to _test_ or verify that they work would be useful. (This might be a separate video; Maybe you could record port searches across a few of your upcoming trips, and then knit it all together?)
2) The number one problem I've had with all four of my various travel routers (DLink years ago, GL.iNet these days) has been getting the captive portal to appear, so I can get through it. It looked like you used a Windows-based feature to notice the Wi-Fi issue and then access the captive portal; is that correct? Is there a similar way to force a captive portal recognition on macOS? Or a general mechanism to force it to appear? It's absolutely _maddening_ to know exactly what needs to happen, but not be able to trigger it...
I don't think he really cares if you could find an ethernet port or not my friend, everything he said in this video is to help him make money off of purchases as an affiliate. He's not actually going to hotels and using these.... As you pointed out, It's not even possible in most hotels
He shows how to use the repeater to connect to a wireless network if you don't have Ethernet access.
1) Many hotels don't have LAN ports anymore. Use the repeater function of router.
2) Sign in to captcha portal with your phone. Then with your phone, log in to your GLINET app, and clone your phones MAC address. Now all decides connected to router no longer have to sign into portal.
Most Hotels have an ethernet port for the smart TV.
If you're taking your own streaming device like suggested in the video, just unplug the TV, and use that ethernet as your WAN for the travel router.
You can always ask at the lobby, 😂
Thank you , You helped me out a lot. I m all good now ready to travel
Can you demonstrate how to connect 2 of them as a server and client?
I connected the beryl to a coffee shop wifi using the app and connected as a repeater. My phone connected no problem to the coffee shop wifi. It didn't even bring up the active portal. I then had a friend connect his phone to the beryl and when he connected to the beryl wifi the coffee shop active portal pop-up. He accepted the conditions and was able to connect to the internet. Should the active portal have pop-up on the phone connecting to the beryl?
Under client, does selecting "Block" disconnect the client from the network, or disconnect their internet access. I want to allow my kids to continue to stream from the NAS, but not have internet access. Do you know if this is feasible? Thanks.
This is a great device for sure! The fact that it's OpenWRT is fantastic!
I have that same travel router and it's great.
Can the Unifi Express or the Gateway Lite do the same thing as this?
Very good video. I purchased this router because we travel in our trailer to various campgrounds etc. I find it odd that you don't like Nord VPN, they don't keep logs nor are they part of the 5, 9 or 14 eyes countries.
The way I see it, most of the time when you travel you aren't getting high speed internet. So you won't often take advantage of higher speeds. So I imagine an ideal travel router as something cheap, small, and maybe power efficient. So I got the AR300M used for $10. It still supports Adblocking, OpenVPN, USB file sharing, etc. Plus its small and runs on USB. I do wish though it was USB C instead of microUSB.
Excellent video. Very good explanation and professional content. Congratulation
a number of years ago i had a travel router. i couldn't use it at most hotels due to the captive portal. the travel routers at the time didn't really have a way to login through them.
So in theory, I can hook this up to the lan here in my barracks and only have to hit the walled garden once and not on every device? Because I can only have 2 devices online at once. Otherwise it kicks one off.
Just bought one. One feature I wish it had: Power over Ethernet.
That way I can just leave a switch setup in my camper. No need to even think about power.
On my last business trip, I took a Unifi Express with me. I had to cut the zip tie holding the network cable in the room from being useful and did mostly the same thing as Chris. The problem I ran into was the useless low speed they give per login to the network. 5Mbps is unacceptable with the cost of a 1Gbps connection these days. I don't want to pay the $5+ a day for a few more Mbps. I also had problems getting PIA to work as a client with Unifi, and I do like the fact the one in this video did repeater WAN and had Ad Guard built-in. May just pick one of these up. I also have a mAP from Mikrotik, but it's only WiFi4 and is not very powerful.
Hi, Chris. I am a cargo pilot who spends, literally, half the year in a hotel while at work. Based on your recommendation I purchased the AX-3000 through your affiliate link. I'm LOVING it! I was successful in setting it up with Wireguard connected to my home's OPNsense Wireguard server. Prior to getting Wireguard setup I attempted to get Adguard Home setup on the Beryl but I failed. I wasn't getting The Internet - no doubt a DNS issue - you would think I could set it up correctly since I have Adguard Home running within OPNsense on my home network, but alas, no. That's when I gave up and setup the Wireguard connection. Request: Would you put together a tutorial for setting up Adguard Home on the Beryl, please? This would then allow me to not have to pass through my traffic back home - the advantage is that some hotels actually have fast Internet (8Mbps at the one I'm currently at) which is faster than my home's 2Mbps UP (and I save data usage on my home's 1TB/mo. subscription.). Thanks!
Will the Two-Routers Setup Function with a Company Laptop Running Cloudflare Warp Zero Trust?
Should I turn the IPV6 on when using the PIA VPN or should I left off?
The other thing that I've seeing is how slow it's even when I have a ethernet connection... it's less then half of the speed usually. Any configuration that I should change to have a better speed over wifi?
This also works for cruise ship wifi which limits 1 device per purchase
Is there a video on blocking my location when I work remotely internationally? Is that what the cloning option does?
Excellent tutorial, thanks so much!
*if I wanted to power this through a power bank what would be a good (mah) voltage: 20,00mah; 18,000mah?*
Glad that I found this. Now I'm leaving to go live aboard and canceling my current us internet service. How would the travel router work for me? Is it the same steps? Do i set it up before i leave the US?
How different would this be if you don’t have a laptop, just a iPhone or iPad?
Do you think this would work on a cruise ship? Just while in the room, obviously… would be handy to be able to share the WiFi package with family.
Thanks, this is helpful. I'm finding the bigger problem is hotels/casinos locking down their televisions. You can't change the input at times. I bought a universal remote which helps sometimes. Looks like they are using the phone jack in the TV to lock down certain features. Removing that connection can cause problems. I haven't gotten around this yet.
Thanks for this overview.
Is it possible to have this configuration:
> on the wan side, use the hotel’s wifi, AND
> on the LAN side, have BOTH wifi AND and one of the ethernet ports on the same LAN network?
Thanks.
How well would this work on a cruise ship ? Is it possible to setup only using an iPad as I don’t bring a laptop when traveling? I was recently on an NCL cruise and they blocked all VPN usage. In this instance would this travel router be rendered useless because of the VPN blocking.?
Not necessarily, with having your own device, you could setup your own IP scope, with a seperate subnet, which would isolate you from the rest of the public cruise ship.
It's very, very hard for e.g. a cruise ship to block using a travel router itself. It's just another wireless client. At the worst, connect and sign up with your device (phone, tablet, laptop), do the various auth/payment dances needed, and then disconnect that device. Then clone that device's MAC address to the Beryl (or whichever router you have), something shown briefly towards the end of this video. Then connect the Beryl as shown. As far as the cruise ship is concerned, your Beryl *is* your device, and your actual devices are invisible to the cruise ship Wi-Fi, because they are only on the private, local Wi-Fi (again, as illustrated in the video).
Blocking VPN access is another matter entirely. I'm sure there are ways around it (especially with Tailscale, etc.), but that's probably an entirely new video.
Can I use this with a RedCap Dongle which has the USB-C
I have a MUDI that I have traveled with for several years now. I love the versatility of it, but do I occasionally get frustrated as well. I like the MUDI because of its integrated battery and cellular radio. This was amazing when I had Google Fi, where a data only sim was super cheap. My biggest frustration is that it seems like the wireless radios become unstable after several hours of use.
I have a ONT/router/AP combo thing that my ISP provides which I use to cover one corner of my home and another quite good TP-link router that I use in AP mode that I use to cover the majority of my home. Never ran into problems with wifi on the tp-link one but that ISP-provided once needs to be restarted daily for optimal performance. I guess it's just with cheap routers their firmware and memory isn't that stable.
Excellent video, thank you!
When you first reviewed the GL-AR750S you recommended using like the 2.4Ghz for the WAN side and the 5Ghz for the LAN side due to (?performance?) issues. Was at the 7:23 marker of that video. Is this still an issue with this Beryl AX?
10:10..When i click on open browser and connect, the webpage doesnt load for me to enter my last name/hotel #. Says the server IP could not be found..I see a message that says " ERR_NAME_NOT_Resolved" Any ideas?
Thanks for the detailed video Chris. I just purchased one via your link. I honestly hadn't thought about using these travel routers like the way you mentioned. We recently had a baby and travel with baby cameras/monitors + IoT 'sound machines' and it's a pain to have to reconfigure them each time.
Why is that your router's affiliate link sends to the Italian section of Amazon instead of an English one?!
How can I use my home IP address? I was told that you buy 2 of these and leave one home and use the other for travel. Can you do a video with this demonstrating?
Need this info too, can someone explain?