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controls. Because it’s not being used as the main router it doesn’t have access to control or limit these features. Upon first use you have to set up an administrator password; as far as I can tell there is no default password, so nobody will know the default password and possibly be able to gain access to your router. There is a default WiFi password (which is printed on the bottom of the router and in a QR code as well), which in my opinion should be changed, so someone can’t look at the bottom of the router or scan the QR code and gain access if you don’t want them to. You’ll probably want to rename the SSID, so this might not be a problem anyway. The default IP address is 192.168.8.1 and the DHCP range is 192.168.8.100 through 192.168.8.249, which can also be changed of course. The guest network defaults to 192.168.9.1 and is isolated from the rest of your network for security reasons. The firmware that came with the router is version 4.5.8. There is a built-in upgrade mechanism but when I checked there were no updates available. This version is from April 2024. There is a beta version, 4.6.2, which was last updated June 28, so updates are being actively developed, which is a good sign. I don’t know how long GL.iNet plans to support this router but with an open firmware built in I feel like this router will be usable for a long time to come. While I had it set up as an access point, I still had my old WiFi routers active, which I think skewed the test results as well as the real-world results I was getting during my review time. There are quite a few other WiFi routers in the houses around me and I think especially the 2.4 GHz spectrum is pretty congested. Once I set this up as the main router, even after moving it to the basement from the top of a bookshelf in the main floor of the house, WiFi speeds improved noticeably, especially in the part of the house that’s the furthest from the router, which is up two floors and on the other side of the house. On the 5 GHz side speeds improved up to 40 Mbps, and at 2.4 GHz speeds increased by about the same. When I switched the router to the default router mode and plugged it directly into my modem, it found the internet connection quickly, even before I was able to get to a computer and log in to the administration panel. This is the mode I’ve decided to leave it in. In fact, I’ve decided to replace my existing mesh router setup (the TaoTronics 2 device mesh setup I reviewed a couple years ago). Unfortunately, for the last several months, I’ve been unable to log in to the mesh system with my iPhone, and there is no admin panel to log in to from a computer like most of the others I’ve worked with. Thankfully I had also logged in to it with my Android phone so I can still control and configure it, but from what I’ve heard they might not be supporting these routers anymore (I haven’t seen a firmware update for quite a while) so I don’t feel good using them going forward. Considering the WiFi coverage I’ve seen during my testing I think this move is going to be a good one. I’ll keep the other hardware in place for a while to be sure, but I think it’s going to work out well for me. Although I don’t use a VPN for anything at this point, I wanted to try one to see how the setup process works. My daughter has a NordVPN account since she works outside of the US most of the year, so I tried to set that up. As far as I can tell I followed the directions correctly, but I only managed to get the router to a point where I had no internet access. The router kept trying to connect to Nord but wouldn’t after several minutes. This is something I’ll try again but I don’t know for sure I’ll use it regularly for anything I do. Another thing I want to try is Tailscale integration. I’ve been hearing a lot about this on podcasts and it seems like something I would want to use. There was something quirky about setting up the mobile app. I had it set up on my iPhone, which was