GL.iNet GL-SFT1200 (Opal) Portable Wifi Router for Travel, Wireless Access Point, Pocket Wifi 5 Abroad, Secure Vpn Router, Mobile Wireless Routers for Modem, Mini Routers for Hotel, Plane, Openwrt

If you’re looking for a portable router that packs a serious punch, the GL-iNet travel router is hard to beat. I personally use it to provide router-level VPN across all devices in my home, including smart TVs and other networked devices, and it works flawlessly. Setup is quick and straightforward. Power it on, connect via Wi-Fi or Ethernet, and enter the router’s IP in your browser. The admin panel is extremely intuitive, making it easy to configure VPN settings, connect to networks, manage devices, or adjust firewall and port options. Even complex routing setups are simple to manage thanks to the clear interface and helpful documentation. The router supports both OpenVPN and WireGuard, but from my experience its real strength is getting full network-level VPN without having to configure individual devices. The physical VPN switch on the side is a clever feature, letting you toggle the VPN on or off instantly. And if I need to travel, it’s incredibly convenient—compact and foldable enough to carry in a bag. I can take it abroad and set it up in hotels or other networks to create my own secure Wi-Fi, piggybacking off the existing router or Ethernet connections. This makes accessing a safe VPN on all my devices easy, even when away from home. Overall, this is a small, portable router that delivers full-featured, router-level VPN at home, with an incredibly user-friendly admin panel, strong Wi-Fi, and excellent support. For the price, it’s hard to find a better option. Highly recommended.

This won’t be everyone’s use case, but someone out there will be in the same boat. I picked up the Opal not for travelling, but to spin up a NAT’d guest network at home. My main network is basically a home-lab ecosystem, and the last thing I want is visitors connecting their random devices directly to it. The Opal gives them a normal, no-nonsense Wi-Fi experience without me having to collect MAC addresses or fight with whitelists. Setup was straightforward. I put it on its own subnet, plugged the WAN port into my main network, and it was up. At first it treated my LAN like the public internet, but the router is way more configurable than its price suggests. You can SSH into it, tweak IPTables, block inter-subnet access, and even enable an advanced control panel module straight from the web interface. It’s essentially a cut-down Linux box with a friendly skin on top. A genuinely nice touch is the hardware switch for its VPN client. The router can connect to a VPN server and push all guest traffic through it, and you can toggle this on and off on the side of the unit. Useful in the UK, where half the internet wants you to upload your passport for reasons unknown. The one real snag was OpenVPN performance. Without tunnelling, I was getting around 250 Mbps on 5 GHz. The moment OpenVPN client was enabled, speeds dropped to single digits, around 5–7 Mbps. It’s not the router’s fault; OpenVPN is single-threaded and the Opal’s CPU just doesn’t have the grunt for heavy crypto. It routes traffic fine, but encrypting it is another matter. WireGuard was the fix. After spinning up a WireGuard server remotely, the Opal managed around 50–60 Mbps through the tunnel, which is more than enough for guests to browse and stream. I suspect the higher-end GL.iNet models would perform better here simply because of the upgraded CPUs. Overall, I’m happy with it. It’s a small, cheap, surprisingly capable router that’s perfect for experiments, side networks, labs, and guest isolation. If that’s your type of setup, it’ll probably slot in nicely.

Use case: Router to allow smart devices to connect to my VPN For the price I paid I had low expectations, however it's a surprisingly versatile device in a small form factor that has a low power draw (powered off the usb port of my main router at present) and has a large number of functions. Works with my VPN provider and the switch on the side allows me to turn it off and on without having to go into the settings, which has enabled me to run streaming devices through my vpn Good signal strength and no issues with stability in the last few months when it's being running continuously for a couple of months.

The Opal is a neat, well-built device that works perfectly fine for its intended use. Setup is straightforward, it can be powered via USB-C, and it offers multiple ways to get online. The concept and design are excellent, making it ideal for general travel and networking. I really liked its features, but my main goal was to run Tailscale, and that didn’t work reliably. Since the device runs on MIPS, Tailscale isn’t natively supported and had to be installed via CLI. This caused repeated crashes, login issues, and problems reaching my exit node - ultimately leaving me without internet. For my use case, this was a dealbreaker, so I returned it and swapped to the Beryl AX, which natively supports Tailscale. Overall, the Opal is a solid choice as a general-purpose router. If you plan to use WireGuard or OpenVPN, it works great. But if native Tailscale support is essential for your workflow, it’s not ideal. That said, if I needed a compact, versatile travel router again, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy the Opal.

Excelente! Muy bueno y práctico

When you travel and want a safe connection, or when the wifi you live is shared and want to protect yourself.. It sets up really simple and is stable and fast and offers so many add ons..

Świetny router, jak za tą cenę dobra wydajność i możliwość instalacji MQTT i innych pluginów

L’article est de très bonne qualité, facile d’installation et très efficace. De plus il est de petite taille et facile à transporter avec vous dans une valise ou sacoche. Je recommande fortement ce produit.

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