GL-iNET Brume-W Travel Router

I’m currently playing with the Brume-W (GL-MV1000W) “Edge Computing Gateway”. To test, I turned on the virgin Brume – and connected the WAN to my network via a handy network lead. That’s it – nothing else – not a single extra step. I then pointed my phone to a new router that appeared – GL-MV1000-xxx

I noted in my PC web browser an online guide but resisted the temptation to open it. I also noted that my phone now was asking for a WiFi password. A card that comes with the Brume package said it would be “goodlife” – it was.

Immediately my phone started picking up the BBC News website. I checked the details on my phone’s WiFi which said that the “gateway” was 192.168.8.1 – the default for the Brume.

I’d taken the step – just out of interest, of previously installing the GL-iNET App (Android) and registering with them, so now the App was looking for a new device. Why not, I thought. No mention of the Brume (well, it IS NEW)… but my previously installed GL-iNET Spitz and my currently switched-off MANGO routers were in the list along with lots of other GL-iNET routers.

The App did however DETECT the Brume and showed a picture (GL-MV1000W) so I hit the SETUP button. It asked me to enter and confirm a new admin password. I did that and the page then asked me to log in with that password. I did. The App has an issue in that once you have registered a device and closed the App, it complains that you should register a new device but then it accepts your stored password for the device you stored previously. That needs addressing as it is not clear, but it is also not a real issue.

It doesn’t get any easier than this. I’d previously set up the GL-iNET Spitz without the App as I was not aware of the App – and THAT was easy – but this was even more fun.

While waiting for the video above to upload, I changed the name and password of the 2.4Ghz WiFi on the Brume-W, plugged in the 5G WiFi adaptor that GL-iNET recommended (which just worked like magic) – changed it’s name and password and ran some simple speed tests on both – absolutely no problems.

Soon I’ll look at some of the many other aspects of this router like setting up it’s VPN abilities (OpenVPN and Wireguard available), checking out the guest network, AdGuard and advanced settings. I thoroughly expect the above will be simple to do.

Thinking about it – as the first thing I did when setting up the Brume was to install the latest firmware upgrade – that means I have the latest AdGuard. One menu option later, AdGuard is running on the router and hence on my PC which is currently talking to the Internet via the Brume – which, strangely is already protected by PIHOLE on my Raspberry Pi – and yet, the Brume has, in the space of a few minutes, blocked even more ads! Here we go (no setup, simply enabled). Could it get any easier?

And let’s not forget this is no toy – it has Wireguard, OpenVPN (servers and clients) and TOR.