GL.iNet Unveils the Flint 2 (GL-MT6000) Router with dual 2.5 Gbps Ports and 900 Mbps WireGuard Speeds

[TheLostSwede]

GL.iNet unveiled its latest Wi-Fi 6 AX6000 home router, Flint 2 (GL-MT6000). Designed to fulfill scenarios such as heavy data transfers, hyper hundreds of device connections, and ultra-low latency gaming environments, this device is a modern home and office router capable of
high-performance demanding connectivity.

The Flint 2 is ideal for users with high speed, capacity, and stability requirements. With dual band AX6000, up to 160 MHz bandwidth, 4x4 MU-MIMO support, and eight high-power FEMs. Not only does the Flint 2 extend Wi-Fi coverage to meet the Wi-Fi 6 high-speed, along with the dual 2.5G ports, also allows this device to access 2.5G high-speed broadband with 2.5G intranet transmission capability easily.




Superior Network Performance
The Flint 2 is a Wi-Fi 6 home and office router that offers AX6000 speeds, delivering network speeds of up to 1,148 Mbps on the 2.4 GHz band and 4,804 Mbps on the 5 GHz band. It also supports advanced network redundancy features, including the multi-WAN features such as load balancing, and failover, in order to enhance network continuity, optimize detection accuracy, and failover switching efficiency.

VPN Client and Server
Being a high-performance VPN router, the Flint 2 can run VPN clients and host VPN servers. It supports both WireGuard and OpenVPN runs up to 900 Mbps and 190 Mbps, respectively. While automatically encrypting all network traffic within the network, this router allows users to realize services such as remote website access from any location free from geographical restrictions.

Device Customization
The Flint 2 comes with an operating system based on OpenWrt (v23.05 kernel version 5.15) proprietary firmware, providing users with more than 5,000 off-the-shelf customization plug-ins to simplify the process of setting up a personalized router. For DIY enthusiasts, its user-friendly interface facilitates non-technical users to customize easily their own devices by installing plug-ins and applications while allowing advanced users to install and manage the corresponding software packages.

Device Enhancement
To fulfill users' need to DIY more firmware and connect for a large scale of devices, the Flint 2 is built to have large storage - 1 GB of RAM, 8 GB eMMC storage as standard, and a powerful CPU. The Quad-Core 2 GHz Processor and eight high-power FEMs also equip this router with more powerful CPU processing power, which outperforms this router in reliability and overall efficiency.

Parental Control
Flint 2 integrates with Bark, the company with the largest coverage of any monitoring tool, to support parental control features on the device. Bark helps families manage and secure their children's online lives. Along with this function, Flint 2 could help parents achieve more effective and comprehensive protection of their children's online safety through services such as screen time management and filtering of specific categories of websites.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site | Source

 

[randomUser]

2,5gbps should be the default for each and every port in 2023
This is not acceptable to have only 1 or 2 ports when router is designed for 4 connections.

 

[forman313]

"hyper hundreds of device connections"

Really? ultra hundreds aren´t enough?

I have to agree with randomUser. 2x2.5GbE where you have to use one of them for WAN is bad.
How many have 2.5Gbit internet hookup...and how many have <=1Gbit WAN but two or more 2.5GbE computers on LAN. This makes the 2.5GbE speeds of this router useless.

 

[Ferrum Master]

"hyper hundreds of device connections"

Really? ultra hundreds aren´t enough?

I have to agree with randomUser. 2x2.5GbE where you have to use one of them for WAN is bad.
How many have 2.5Gbit internet hookup...and how many have <=1Gbit WAN but two or more 2.5GbE computers on LAN. This makes the 2.5GbE speeds of this router useless.

It has openwrt on top. You configure those ports as you wish, it can be wan or group it with you local.

They dropped the ball putting two additional NICs, as the CPU has spare two pcie2.0 lanes..

Glinet screwed and pulled their infrabuilder, basically you cannot compile your own OS anymore. That's a great no no.

 

[TheLostSwede]

2,5gbps should be the default for each and every port in 2023
This is not acceptable to have only 1 or 2 ports when router is designed for 4 connections.

Well, so far, most router SoCs hasn't had the internal "wiring" to allow for it.
On top of that, all 2.5 Gbps switch solutions have been two chip solutions that have ended up being hot and pricey.
However, this should be one solution that will help fix that problem, as long as the router SoC can connect to it.

MaxLinear's 8-port 2.5 Gbps Switch is Tiny Single-chip Solution

TPU managed to get an early sneak peek of MaxLinear's recently announced 8-port 2.5 Gbps switch IC, ahead of Computex official start tomorrow. The MXL86280 is going to bring some serious competition to the 2.5 Gbps switch market, as thanks to it being a single chip solution that integrates the...

www.techpowerup.com

 

[bug]

WireGuard support, that's a neat feature.
Is anyone familiar with GL.iNet? How does it look on the software and support side?

Edit: It's right in the official page, it runs OpenWRT.

 

[Ferrum Master]

WireGuard support, that's a neat feature.
Is anyone familiar with GL.iNet? How does it look on the software and support side?

Edit: It's right in the official page, it runs OpenWRT.

Openwrt with custom GUI. You can have Luci in parallel.

But it is rather full of crap. I preferred to compile my own plain openwrt with no unneeded crap.

 

[trsttte]

You configure those ports as you wish, it can be wan or group it with you local

You can, but it might not be ideal. What often happens is you get 1 or 2 dedicated ports and a switch chip for the other ports, putting your wan on a switch port could be iffy.

 

[bug]

Openwrt with custom GUI. You can have Luci in parallel.

But it is rather full of crap. I preferred to compile my own plain openwrt with no unneeded crap.

Well, on one hand, they need to make some $$$, so that explains including stuff you might not need. On the other hand, if it already runs OpenWRT, it is expected it will run any OpenWRT flavor you throw at it.

 

[bonehead123]

"hyper hundreds of device connections"

Really? ultra hundreds aren´t enough?

I have to agree with randomUser. 2x2.5GbE where you have to use one of them for WAN is bad.
How many have 2.5Gbit internet hookup...and how many have <=1Gbit WAN but two or more 2.5GbE computers on LAN. This makes the 2.5GbE speeds of this router useless.

But, but, but....

Hyper and Ultra are soooo 2021-ish......

nowadayz, if you aint got at least a Super-Duper-Mega-Quad-PlatinumOC model, you will be the laughing stock of da interweebs...hehehe..

 

[Ferrum Master]

Well, on one hand, they need to make some $$$, so that explains including stuff you might not need. On the other hand, if it already runs OpenWRT, it is expected it will run any OpenWRT flavor you throw at it.

No, the board config file ain't public anymore, you are limited. It ain't in the common OpenWRT device list. While it is OpenWRT, it is older and you have no chance to review the code. Also it uses their own app list. I have Brume2 as dual LTE/5G modem and old MT300N for connecting swarm of IoTs... my main horse router is BPI-R3 now.

You can, but it might not be ideal. What often happens is you get 1 or 2 dedicated ports and a switch chip for the other ports, putting your wan on a switch port could be iffy.

I use the same MTK platform... there are no issues. Even Packet acceleration work fine.

 

[bug]

No, the board config file ain't public anymore, you are limited. It ain't in the common OpenWRT device list. While it is OpenWRT, it is older and you have no chance to review the code. Also it uses their own app list. I have Brume2 as dual LTE/5G modem and old MT300N for connecting swarm of IoTs... my main horse router is BPI-R3 now.

That's a bummer

 

[mechtech]

Never heard of them? Anyone use them?

 

[close]

The Quad-Core 2 GHz Processor and eight high-power FEMs also equip this router with more powerful CPU processing power, which outperforms this router in reliability and overall efficiency.

I mean... I wouldn't mind if someone proofread some of these texts .

I'm happy with my bag of MT300Ns (Mango). They're great to set up pairs as WG server and client to connect 2 locations via VPN. If you don't need super-speed (I think I managed 20-25Mbps) they're a very convenient way set this up with easy config, low power, and low maintenance in tiny packages. I never looked at the bigger routers though.

 

[bug]

I mean... I wouldn't mind if someone proofread some of these texts .

If you would go faster than the speed of light, you could meet your own self. I don't see why this router couldn't outperform itself in both reliability and overall efficiency.

 

[Ferrum Master]

I mean... I wouldn't mind if someone proofread some of these texts .

I'm happy with my bag of MT300Ns (Mango). They're great to set up pairs as WG server and client to connect 2 locations via VPN. If you don't need super-speed (I think I managed 20-25Mbps) they're a very convenient way set this up with easy config, low power, and low maintenance in tiny packages. I never looked at the bigger routers though.

PR releases should not be proofread, otherwise the person would be more suspectable to cancer.

I use the MT300 even the more older V1 version, it is really great for dumb AP/subnet of additional devices... I control those pesky 2.4GHz bulbs and switches, I don't allow them in my main network. It is great for that. But using MT300 in 2023 ain't great. I got the Brume2 for 50$, it is meant exactly used as VPN gateway. It is stable. I even was fast enough and compiled my own OS while they didn't take down their infrabuilder at github.

 

[Wye]

This press release sounds like someone who doesn't have a clue about tech trying to sound like someone who has a clue.
It reminds me of Bluffball from IT Crowd.
VPN without hardware acceleration for 190 Mbps in 2023. No thanks.

 

[trsttte]

VPN without hardware acceleration for 190 Mbps in 2023. No thanks.

I'm pretty sure that's with hardware acceleration, openvpn is just stupid demanding and very poorly optimized (it runs single threaded and requires a very high ipc to compensate that). Wireguard is a much more modern and a much better alternative, most services already support it and, as can be seen here, even a mid range router soc can do close to gigabit.

 

[bug]

I'm pretty sure that's with hardware acceleration, openvpn is just stupid demanding and very poorly optimized (it runs single threaded and requires a very high ipc to compensate that). Wireguard is a much more modern and a much better alternative, most services already support it and, as can be seen here, even a mid range router soc can do close to gigabit.

I'm not sure this is about CPU. It's about protocol overhead. Every single time a I connect over OpenVPN, my transfer rates get halved. And yes, that is one area specifically targeted for improvement by WireGuard.