Equivalent of GL-USB150

Hardware Questions and Recommendations
1

Hello,

I saw this model: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-usb150/
and fell in love with that :slight_smile: But it's discontinued.

Can you advice of something similar? OpenWRT + USB?

Thanks!

2

What specific features are attractive/useful for you in that device? There are plenty of USB powered wifi router devices, but it's hard to recommend something without understanding your personal use-case and feature requirements.

3

Somehow I cannot find an equivalent... I just want a router, OpenWRT and USB powered... Can you just point me to some? It should be a small one, USB stick.

4

Look at most travel routers. I don't know of any in 'stick' form like that, nor do I know of any that present a USB-ethernet interface (without any physical ethernet ports) the way that one does, but aside from that...

The MT3000 is USB-C powered travel router and there are several others in the linup that are very similar. All of them of course come with the GL-Inet customized fork of OpenWrt... some of them are supported by the official project (such as the MT3000), so you can install the real OpenWrt; do research or ask here if a model is compatible.

TP-Link's TL-WR902AC is also a USB powered travel router, (USB micro B, at least for version 1, not sure about the v3 devices). But this one is a bit old and probably will fall out of OpenWrt supportability soon due to the limited resources.

5

Thanks! I'll look for travel routers. I need something small, a stick like gl-usb150, no cases, no wires, just a stick I can put in my small pocket.

6

Many of them will have at least a power connection required, and as I mentioned before, probably nothing in the stick format to plug directly into your computer. There may be some devices with built-in batteries such that it would able to run entirely wirelessly (obviously with the limitation of the battery size and thus runtime between charges).

7

So, you're saying probably there is no equivalent to gl-usb150?

8

Not that I have seen in terms of form factor, no. Maybe others will know of something similar.

I would guess (speculation only) that the USB150 was not a very popular device due to the form factor and limitations on I/O and performance. No physical ethernet ports means wifi only for the upstream, USB A dongle format may not have been physically attractive to many users, probably very limited wifi performance due to a severely constrained antenna system, and CPU and radios would need to run very low power due to the likely limits on both thermal dissipation and power input. Given that they don't make anything like it physically in the current set of devices, they may have felt that it wasn't worth developing a new version. But I honestly don't know how well or poorly that device did in the market, and it may be just my own bias/opinion.

1 Like
9

Got it.
Thanks alot.

10

there's the Asus WL-330N, long time EOL:ed by OpenWRT.
got one in a drawer somewhere :slight_smile:

11

Strange, today the sticks are not in fashion but once they were....

12

I'm also looking for a stick version.

13

I would posit that part of the apparent popularity decrease is related to:

  • the fact that many laptops have fewer (or even no) USB-A ports
  • Some machines have just one USB-C port, which may be needed for power/charging of the laptop itself.
  • USB-C ports are smaller and often spaced closely together, making it hard to make a device that doesn't overlap neighboring ports.
  • Many people don't like dongles, especially relatively large ones, sticking out of their USB ports, especially because it's easy for them to be knocked and damage either or both the dongle and the USB port.
14

OpenWrt support for Luckfox-Pico-Max, For only $14.99, very cheap openwrt router currently not supported, I think.

15

I'm also searching for a GL-USB150 replacement!

My ideal device has:

  • USB-A male port built in, either directly like a USB flash drive, or on a permanently attached cable like the Asus WL330-NUL (so no need for additional cable to be carried).
  • Supported by mainline OpenWrt builds (no manufacturer specific builds that will likely never be updated)
  • Comes in a USB stick style plastic case already (so this excludes the VoCore2 family of devices)
  • USB to Ethernet is nice to have, but not essential.

I've seen options like this (UF896 - Qualcomm MSM8916 LTE router ~384MiB RAM/2.4GiB flash, Android: OpenWrt?) but it doesn't have mainline OpenWrt support, otherwise the form factor is perfect.

I've also looked at the "360 Wifi3" mini router from https://wifi.360.cn/ but I can't seem to find any FCC pictures or reviews that show the chipset.

16

Also discontinued, and information is scarce on it, but if it had appropriate hardware this unit would have been perfect: https://www.tp-link.com/cac/home-networking/range-extender/tl-wa820re/