Router cannot connect to internet, but wifi connected devices are fine

I have another single port device (HooToo TM-02) and from day one considered the single Ethernet port an issue. It defaults to LAN, which is appropriate, but if you reconfigure it to WAN and have an issue, then you may need to reset the device. The GL.inet and some others have both LAN and WAN Ethernet, and are much easier to use in the field.

The issue about loosing a STAtion killing access tot he AP is a MAJOR problem with travel routers and what ever device you use you should look at dirk's Travelmate as a possible solution. Having the dual radios probably will help you greatly. I owuld use the 5G for your AP and 2.4 to connect to STAtions (WISP).

While you can use the switch to load different configs, I have found that inevitably one (I) failed to keep the configs up to date.

Thanks so much guys!

I was able to install luci manually yesterday, and configure both Wifi and Ethernet bridge mode. I even got my VPN working and was streaming from my server at home to my chromecast in the hotel.

This setup wasn't a very good experience though, having a single Ethernet port only is definitely an issue. Is there another device you can recommend? Maybe I should get the GL-MT300N instead, although I kind of like having AC. Also I was not really happy with the vpn performance of the tplink, it seemed to max out fairly quickly.

Is there something considered the ultimate travel router you guys can recommend?

I see the MT300N-v2 claims faster openvpn encryption? Can you guys recommend that one?

And how does it compare to the GL-AR300M? Looks like that one also comes in a version with external antennas.

For hardware recommendations and comparisons please use the hardware category: https://forum.openwrt.org/c/hardware-questions-and-recommendations

Thanks, I think I will give the mt300n-v2 a shot. Sounds like people like the mt300n, and the v2 should be slightly faster for $5 more.

Having 2 ethernet ports -- dedicated LAN and WAN ports -- certainly makes many things easier, especially in the initial setup. But the radio issue (unable to connect as a client -- STAtion mode -- makes the radio hang) will almost certainly still be an issue when you are in a wireless-only context (i.e .traveling with phone/tablets and other systems that lack ethernet ports). As such, it is a good idea to have a method to gracefully reset the wireless (and general network) configuration to a known good state. This is why I use the slide switches on these routers to adjust the context (I use this as a travel router and a VPN endpoint to connect to my VPN at home):

Position 1: Reset wireless and network to a saved, known good configuration (my own baseline). WAN on eth0, normal firewall rules, disable auto-connect-on-boot for VPN.

Position 2: Connect to last known network (i.e. keep the most recent wireless and network settings).

Position 3: Connect to last known network, auto-connect VPN, adjust firewall to force all LAN traffic through the tunnel and disallow LAN > WAN traffic (prevents leaks if VPN is not connected).

I also use the WPS button to start/stop the VPN connection, and a long-press on the WPS button toggles the eth0 port between WAN and LAN.

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The GL.inet routers are probably about as robust as you will get in a travel router for LEDE\OpenWrt. I do not expect more than low teens on OpenVPN from almost any device, but the hotel wifi is usually slower anyhow unless you pay the up charges.

If there is an Ethernet port available, I all ways use it, on both sides, so two is better. Having the LAN port generally lets you recover with out resetting, but you do need and Ethernet device (laptop as opposed to a tablet), but I always have one.

At this point I just use my phones hotspot over 4G for anything other than a hotel.

FYI: https://www.hotelwifitest.com/

@RangerZ - I travel mostly with devices without ethernet (phone, MacBooks,Chromebooks, etc.) -- I could bring a USB-to-ethernet adapter with me when using a computer, but I typically don't worry about it since I have the boot mode switching.

I've been really happy with my MR3020 and WR902AC devices aside from the fact that they don't have 2 ethernet ports and are light on internal flash memory. I have heard great things about the GL.inet devices and they do make up for some of the TP-Link shortcomings.