It's incredibly useful, with the added bonus that you don't need to install tailscale client in any of your travel devices (phone, tablet, work computer, etc).
Can anybody explain what Tailscale is, does, or why everybody seems to have it?
Looking at their website, it’s just a huge wall of business jargon. Really! Read it. It’s nothing but a list of enterprise terminology. There’s a “how it works “ page full of more (different) jargon, acronyms and buzzwords, but no simple explanation of why everybody on this thread seems to be paying money for this thing?
Any help? Should I just pay them my $6/month and hope I figure it out at some point?
I am sorry, this confuses me. If I don't have a lclient, for example in my laptop, how does my laptop uses Tailscale then?
Also, TailScale Personal says 3 users. Is that a problem for as we are 4? (me, wife, son, doughter).
It's cool to have your own network in a hotel. But it'd be nice to be able to do that on the road, away from public wifi, internationally, whenever - which hotspots do. But at the same time, it'd be nice to be able to do the WiFi thing too to cut back on data usage. I frequently blow through my hotspot data.
I'd rather this be in one device instead of two. Beggars can't be choosers, though, I suppose?
This is great for keeping things in a LAN, but make sure you use your network rules correctly and don’t dump everything to your home network unless you need to.
(I too have a gli slate, but I use UI at home so will consider this when it comes out)
If you don't have a wired connection then this wouldn't be any better, except for any connectivity features it might offer (probably some vpn capability).
I have a gl-inet device and it does pretty much all I need whenever I travel.
My wife and I traveled a bit this year and it was great having all our gadgets connecting to a single AP under our control. It’s easily paid for itself by avoiding ludicrous per-device daily charges.
I own two of their products, one of them I bought in 2019 and can still run what I need to on it.
I’ve been getting SIM cards for over a decade, now even eSIMs are cheap enough for casual use.
I wired the desktop PCs in the house, so the only Wi-Fi users are mobiles, a smart TV, and a laptop. Everything else is already hanging off 2.5G wired switches. Pretty light duty, and I just wanted something that would provide robust routing and placeholder Wi-Fi. This does exactly that, and since it's OpenWRT based, it's probably marginally less terrible than whatever TP-Link was offering in the same price range.
It does run annoyingly hot, but I should just buy a little USB desk fan and point it at the router :P
That being said, for any new application, I suggest using at least an 802.11ax AP, because cheap 2.4GHz devices that support 802.11ax are becoming common and using an 802.11ac router means that your 2.4GHz devices will be stuck with 802.11n, which is quite a bit less efficient. Even if you don't need any appreciable speed, it's preferable to use a more efficient protocol that uses less airtime.
Some hotel rooms (particularly older business hotels) will have an ethernet port for the guest. These work maybe 50% of the time these days. Sometimes you can find a Ruckus AP in your room at outlet level, and these usually have several ethernet ports on the bottom. These also have a working port around 30% of the time.
So, TL;DR: various ethernet ports in hotel rooms work less than half the time these days.
Cynic in me thinks it's because they don't want you to buy one product and be set for a decade, like HN-er here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46373387. Older products might've been too good.
https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-usb150/
I bought it for my vacations, so I wouldn't have to configure my kid's gadgets, but it is really useful as a wifi adaptor too.
And you can run it from a powerbank.
It would also automatically log into the captive wifi which seemed to require a login every hour or so.
Another time we Ethernet into it using the cable in another hotel to bypass some ridiculous speed limitations on their access point.
I'm considering getting their model which can take SIM cards, so that we can also failover to mobile networks wherever we are.
TP-Link AC750
When you are some place with a captive network and want to use devices that don’t have a browser. You connect the router to the WiFi network that has internet access and you connect the other WiFi network to a device with a browser like your phone. Every device looks like one device to the captive network and you can use them all.
Second use case, I now live in a place with a shared internet access that is shared between all of the units. Anyone can broadcast to and control our Roku device and there is no way to block it from the Roku.
We create a private network with the router
- My wife and I travel with multiple devices (laptops, phones, Chromecast...) and when we get to a hotel/Airbnb, I simply connect my Beryl AX to their network (it deals with captive portals btw) and all of our devices automatically connect.
- I changed the `/etc/hosts` directly in the router, meaning I can test my local servers under custom domains easily on my other devices like phones/tablets without apps like SquidMan.
- I route specific domains through specific VPNs. Government websites, streaming websites, AWS services, etc.
- I can plug in a 4G USB modem into it and it can automatically fallback to it if the main connection drops.
- It has built-in Tailscale support.
Personally I just connect my phone to WiFi and then use Tailscale and call it a day.
Some of those trips I'll have extended time of 18+ hours of not really doing anything outside of the hotel other than grabbing dinner. For those types of trips I'm definitely more apt to bring additional devices like my GLinet travel router and MAYBE a streaming stick. I've also brought RPis or MCUs for tinkering during my downtime.
However, other trips I'm with you. I bring my phone, laptop, iPad (required for job), and chargers and that's about it for devices. I really try to limit my packing to things I know I will use and honestly for probably 50% of my travel that's clean clothes, toothbrush, phone, and wallet.
My travel I describe above is solo, work related. When the family comes we tend to tow a 9,000 lbs condo on wheels, so literally the "kitchen sink".
I do load my phone up with eBooks for unexpected downtime, and I do have an emulator on it. I would not chose to use my phone for reading or gaming normally, but on the road it's "good enough" - jack of all trades, master of none.
Of course if I'm traveling for work my work laptop comes, but I never put personal accounts on it.
The only trips I've been on with 18+ hours of down time were due to weather events (getting snowed in on a ski trip). That was with a big group. We just played card games, cooked, talked, and consumed copious amounts of alcohol to pass the time ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.
I also think the variable state of hotel TVs is a factor even when travelling alone. Being able to plug your own device into the HDMI is valuable.
For me, I can't remember the last time I used a hotel TV. When I travel, I want to do stuff at the place I'm visiting, the hotel room is just a place to sleep and shower.
If I do want to watch something, I much prefer the experience of my much nicer TV and surround sound system at home. That said, I don't watch much TV, so maybe this is easier for me.
If I have downtime when I travel, I tend to just read, or do the same thing I do at home - doomscrolling news, reddit, HN :)
But yeah I also have P family so O(M * P * N) would be a headache.
The multi-uplink is intriguing. While on the surface it seems that an ostensibly 'plug and play' carrier aggregation dongle (no idea if this is actually a feature) would be a easy solution to smooth out poor connections, many networking hiccups encountered during travel just boil down to impossibly terrible RF environments, regardless of the spectrum or protocol.
However I don't think Unifi's default protocols are useful for that. To get reliable performance over China's firewall, you need plausibly-deniable obfuscated protocols, e.g. encoding all your packets inside a stream of requests of JPEGs of cat pictures over HTTP port 80 or some such.
I’m looking forward to the GL.Inet MUDI 7, their first 5G hotspot, which should be running an open-source and hackable OS unlike most hotspots:
Pretty sure that's what OP is referring to.
I upgraded to homogenous ubiquiti/unifi when I set up a point to multi-point on my farm because I thought it would make that part easier. Surprisingly, those links aren't really baked in to the rest of it, but the router and wifi antennas that I've installed around those links "just work" with a private, protected, and guest network.
I used to have to update two different routers with the same SSID, username and password to make "hopping" from one to the next "seamless" and, now that I've got 8 wifi antennas in a mesh with a single UI to configure them all, I can't even imagine how I'd do it with the hodge-podge of gear I used to work with.
And I'm probably going to buy a travel router, but I'm wondering, if I use it connect to the hotel wifi, will I be able to use the thing as a wifi hotspot as well or do I have to use an ethernet point because the wifi is "taken"?
(And yes I know there are other bypasses you can do like spoofing MAC addresses to get around some device count restrictions)
You'll make tens of ... dollars every flight.
https://www.techradar.com/pro/security/man-arrested-for-sett...
Delta has had free WiFi for awhile now as does JetBlue and I believe Southwest. It’s coming soon to AA and United.
I fly Delta 99% of the time.
I use OPNSense and OpenWRT myself and there's no way you can make travel routers this convenient with them.
How is this different compared to running a tailscale exit node in your home network?
Is the benefit of this that you have a hardware device that you can connect to instead of needing software like tailscale?
I did save money, a really significant amount of money.
Obviously, yes, I am capable of going through the work that eliminates my need for this product. I have no trouble configuring Wireguard and setting it up on my client devices and running through all that.
But it was a lot of work to get to this point and I had to spend a lot of time learning how to do that, even as a person who is already technical. Wireguard in particular took me a solid half a day to build understanding and get it configured.
If I was a little bit richer and I went back in time I'd probably just buy all Unifi. Actually if I went back in time I think with my same levels of wealth I'd probably just buy Unifi and save some precious time.
This specific device does seem like a really nice extension of their product line.
You can also do this with a travel router like one of GL.iNet's and Tailscale subnet routers.
I don't mind a unifi premium for the integration but they should at least have a $50 wifi 5 version and a $100 wifi 6 "pro" version
Now what I'd be really more interested in a Pro version, more so than wifi 6, would be a built-in modem with SIM/eSIM.
I don't even know what is my Wifi "version" at none of the places I have my routers, things just work for all purposes (work, gaming, streaming).
Is there a better way to get these connected to a WiFi for relaying where the Ethernet isn't an option?
What if you want to use the hotel's internet connection instead of your roaming data?
What if you want to use wireguard or tailscale to funnel all traffic through your home network?
What if you want to enable your family's devices to connect to your self-hosted services?
Mudi V2: https://www.gl-inet.com/products/gl-e750/
They have an upcoming 5G NR WiFi 7 version:
> Usage Data. We may collect certain information about your devices, your network, your system and third party devices connected to your network or system when you use the Services ("Usage Data"), including but not limited to device data, performance data, sensor data, motion data, temperature data, power usage data, device signals, device parameters, device identifiers that may uniquely identify the devices, including mobile devices, web request, Internet Protocol address, location information (including latitude and longitude), browser type, browser language, referring/exit pages and URLs, platform type, the date and time of your request, and one or more cookies, web beacons and JavaScript that may uniquely identify your devices or browser.
It’s also nice to control VPN and DNS from one place , in case the hotel is doing DNS or IP filtering.
And quite a few hotels still offer wired Ethernet , which helps performance.
Makes video conferencing and large downloads usable.
Anyone know how it automagically sorts out connecting to the hotel WiFi?
Hotels often want some combination of my room number and surname I've found, or some combination of hotel name and floor password.
from the FAQ https://store.ui.com/us/en/products/utr
Thought about it for a few minutes and realized that the portal was likely just doing mac filtering. So I adjusted my MacBook Pro's MAC address to be the same as the PS5, went through the portal login and then powered down the MBP. Booted up the PS5 and I was online.
Damn it feels good to be a gangster.
Very curious about how they're pulling this off
I’ve always had a Pocket Travel Router (along with a thin but long enough RJ45 cable) with me while traveling, starting with the D-Link AC750 Travel Router. It does away with Wi-Fi Change, and all of your devices just continue to work, no worry about syncing, file-transfers, etc. A travel router becomes even more convenient when traveling with the family.
Unifi shipping without eSIM support is a big mistake imo. I don’t want to have a 5g router(which are insanely expensive) or a second smartphone with 5G.
WAN connectivity via USB tethering and ethernet, not just wifi?
The blog has almost no details, but the product page is also pretty light on technical details.
The competition (I use GL-MT3000) is pretty strong.
I guess it's nice if you are in Ubiquiti ecosystem already and want as little friction as possible. Otherwise it's probably similar to any travel router.
But a travel router can be nice to have.
I bring some tech with me when I travel.
Obviously a phone, but also a decent-sounding smart speaker with long battery life so I can hear some music of my choosing in decent fidelity without using Bluetooth [bonus: battery-backed alarm clock!], a laptop for computing, a streaming box for plugging into the TV, maybe some manner of SBC to futz with if I'm bored and can't sleep during downtime.
All of this stuff really wants to have a [wifi] connection to a local area network, like it has when I'm at home.
A travel router (this one, or something from any other vendor mentioned in these threads, or just about anything that can run openwrt well) solves that problem.
All I have to do is get the router connected to the Internet however I do that (maybe there's ethernet, decent wifi, or maybe my phone hotspot or USB tethering is the order of the day), and then everything else Just Works as soon as it is unpacked and switched on.
And it all works togetherly, on my own wireless LAN -- just as those things also work at home.
Bonus nachos: With some manner of VPN like Tailscale configured in the router, or the automagic stuff this UBNT device is claimed to be able to do, a person can bring their home LAN with them, too -- without individual devices being configured to do that.
I think travel routers are pretty great, myself.
(But using Ubiquiti gear makes me feel filthy for reasons that I can't properly articulate, so I stick with things like Latvian-built Mikrotik hardware or something running OpenWRT for my own travel router uses.)
It has limits, like the amazon hardware keypress thingy with north korea showed recently, but unless your working at superbigtech or defense contractor it would probably work.
Im their target audience for sure but I’m not sure I need all of the same features my home network has. Really my travel router is just used to share a paid connection and run AdGuard network wide.
I have wireguard running on my home router. Why do I need a piece of hardware when my laptop already can connect to it from anywhere?
With Teltonica/GL.Inet you also can use small external antennas. Getting behind windows is often enough.
Otherwise I don't really see the point to carry a specific hotspot device when my phone has one built in.
[1]: https://store.gl-inet.com/products/puli-ax-xe3000-wi-fi-6-5g...
Ideally mainline Linux support.
Or just go Tailscale
If this device had a 5g sim slot, then I could see the point but it’s not that.
