GL.iNet MT2500 (Brume 2) Mini VPN Security Gateway for Home Office and Remote Work-VPN Server and Client for Home and Office, VPN Cascading, Internet Security, 2.5G WAN, *NO Wi-Fi* (ABS Plastic Case)

I bought one of these to use as a VPN gateway. It's a neat way to divert traffic from multiple devices over a VPN simply by changing the default gateway to this device.I configured it as a drop in gateway with Wireguard and it is quick. Near wire speeds.Unfortunately after almost 18 months, it died. Various recovery methods on their support site/forums failed to bring it back to like, so I reached out to their support.And they blew me away. With no issues they offered a replacement (to the -A which is all the now do) and to pay for return postage of the original.It's so nice to see a quality company who stand by their products. I cannot recommend enough.

I now have a completely secure home network and I have literally no annoying adverts on my home network. This is a mandatory piece of kit for any home.

I’ve been gradually building up my home software defined network but got stuck with trying to get a gateway that could handle the rigors of vpn encryption without the drop in speed. It was either build a customized gateway or get this, but I was blown away by how tiny it actually is, in addition to all the inbuilt features. I updated the firmware today and I see they’ve added Tailscale support WOW.

Set up a VPN so we can access home services when away. Much cleaner and easier than using the router, with better performance.

I bought this router directly from gl.inet before it became available on Amazon. I have several other routers from this company including the predecessor of this model which is no longer available and was known as BRUME 1 (without Wi-Fi)This model is also without Wi-Fi. But in my opinion that is not a bad thing or a limitation especially when you consider the use cases for this router.It is very small and lightweight (plastic model)The main difference from other gl.inet routers is that on this machine you can configure and run vpn server and vpn client at the same time, which is also known as vpn cascading.My setup was already complex but this little router has given my setup a new dimension which I am finding very usefulI have a Virgin one gigabit fibre broadband. I am using virgin router as a modem which connects to Asus router as my main router and the main router is then hardwired to another Asus router providing a mesh network (Asus aimesh) And main Asus router also serves as an always on vpn server which is openvpn. Asus routers do not support the faster WireGuard vpn. And I connnect to this vpn server when I am away from home as needed. It gives me decent enough speeds to do most tasks.Now I have connected this MT2500 Bume2 to my main Asus router. Registered it with gl.inet and their good cloud dns service. Then I set up port forwarding from my Asus router to this brume2 to expose it to the net. There are good guides available on gl.inet website about this. And I started the WireGuard server on this brume2.The end result is that I have now two vpn servers on the same virgin fibre broadband connection. Openvpn server running on Asus router and WireGuard server running on this tiny router. And I am amazed at the speed. I am getting about 300 to 400 mb speed if I am connecting to my WireGuard server using another fast connection (someone else’s home and virgin fibre connection)And on a mobile network using my iPhone I get speeds of upwards of 100mb on 5g network.I have the other new gl.inet Wi-Fi 6 router (AXT1800) which I use as a travel router with WireGuard client. This when connected to this brume2 server from my holiday location gives me speeds as fast as the internet connection at the holiday location. Which is amazing. In practice this means bypassing geolocation restrictions or connecting to home servers from around the globe is not an issue and most importantly with fast speeds.This is a far better and secure way of using vpn than to go with a vpn provider. This involves a little bit of technical knowledge to set up something like this but the result is well worth it and if you are in need of vpn or remote working then this is possibly the best and cheapest solution.Now when I go on holiday in Spain (and my rental property has fibre broadband) I will just take my Wi-Fi 6 travel router and connect back to my home network as vpn server and watch anything just like home and work as if sitting at home.Brilliant piece of kit. Tiny and doesn’t seem to get hot either. It’s predecessor the Brume1 (I have 2) tend to get hot under heavy loads. This tiny machine doesn’t.If you are considering buying it but not sure because it lacks Wi-Fi then you are thinking wrong about the use of this router. At home I am now not only using this as WireGuard server but I have a vpn account with a reputable company and using their vpn service to run vpn client on this router. Meaning, I am using vpn cascading, which is, running vpn server and client at the same time. And I have connected this router to my Tp link Omada mesh wifi. Which now gives me outgoing vpn connection as well, from home. And I can use this outgoing connection when away from home. This in simple words means something which is unique with this setup and works really well. For example when away from home I connect to home server and then I have outgoing internet connection using the vpn service provider (that I have account with) and I can choose any location I wanted. Because this is not a shared vpn connection which mostly gets blocked by companies like Netflix or others so it’s totally safe and most importantly, very fast.If you are even remotely interested in this type of setup and don’t want to complicate it too much like me! And just want a fast and secure vpn router then there is nothing else on the market like this tiny router and at this price point it is a no brainier.Cannot recommend it enough. It’s a brilliant piece of kit.