Investing October 11, 2026 0 Comments

Why This Little-Known Router Turned My Entire Home Internet Setup Upside Down—And Why You Should Care Now

Ever wondered if you could ditch your traditional home broadband for a mobile data plan without breaking a sweat? A couple of years back, I was right there, questioning if those affordable mobile virtual operators like Eight, Zero1, Zym, and Gomo could actually deliver the goods. Fast forward two years, and I’m still riding that wave, soaking up a whopping 200GB for just over seven bucks a month—thanks to an upgrade from Zero1. But is 200GB truly the magic number for the average binge-watcher, or should you gamble on that 600GB plan? And what happens when your neat setup runs into unexpected hiccups—like a phone that’s trickle-charging and then suddenly bails on you? Enter the GL.iNet Spitz Plus GL-X2000 4G WIFI 6 Router, a gadget that promised to fix my woes and might just revamp your whole home Wi-Fi game too. Grab a seat, because here’s a deep dive into why this router is more than just another tech toy in my arsenal. LEARN MORE

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About two years ago, I wrote about wanting to see whether I could replace my home broadband with a mobile plan. The reason is that many mobile virtual operators, such as Eight, Zero1, Zym, Gomo, have made their plans pretty cheap.

The amount of data they give is plenty for my needs.

You can read more about this in this Investment Modes article over here.

I am currently still on this strategy after 2 years. Firstly, Zero1 upgraded my $7.05 monthly plan from 100GB to 200GB.

I think 200GB is actually the real “enough” point given the amount of video watching. But I think I might upgrade to Zero1’s $10 monthly plan which will give 600GB.

In my article 2 year ago, one of the variation to the current setup is to get a GL-iNet Spitz Dual-band 4G LTE Router.

I recently got a variation of the Spitz because I ran into a problem with the setup.

A Little Charging Problem

I got to explain what I was dealing with so that you can kind of understand why I have to spend the money.

A typical setup in my old article looks like this:

We connect an older Android phone to our GL.iNet mobile Wi-Fi router with a USB-C to USB-A cable. The phone’s 4G then passes its data connection to the router, and the router serves the whole house.

The problem with this setup is that the USB cable does charge the phone, but it charges very slowly.

I’m probably using a Redmi 8 at that time, which is quite an old phone. The charging is more like a trickle. It goes up only a little at a time, because most of the power from the USB goes into keeping the phone running, and only a small amount is left for the battery.

I swap in a different phone, because I wanted to give it a try. That’s when I noticed the phone would shut down after a while. It took me a long time to figure out why my home Wi-Fi kept dropping while I was away at work. I only noticed it when I couldn’t reach my home web servers from the office.

Eventually I realized the cause was the USB charging and the limit on how much voltage it can give.

I think this means my last article had a flaw in the setup itself, and I’m sorry about that.

If you have a GL.iNet Wi-Fi router, you might run into the same problem, especially if your phone is more powerful than the router. One idea I’ve had is a USB hub that can charge my phone and still pass the USB tethering connection through to the Wi-Fi router. I’ve realized, though, that while the phone can charge just fine, it’s not so easy to get the data over to the Wi-Fi router itself.

That’s why I started looking for other solutions.

In the end, I got this GL.iNet router, and that’s what I’m going to share with you today.

The GL.iNet Spitz Plus GL-X2000 4G WIFI 6 Router Review

I got this GL.iNet Spitz Plus, which is a kind of small upgrade over the Spitz I mentioned.

Here is the AliExpress link that I bought from. You can find more info on this router on GL.iNet’s site here.

There are two models:

EG120K-NA
EG120K-EA EU UK AU

This is more compatible for which region. For us we choose the EG120K-EA EU UK AU one.

I spent $198.42 including taxes based on my August 2026 spending report.

This is how the Spitz look like at home. Pretty not bad that it can get through that thick wall at the back and over to my second bedroom.

Here’s where you put your nano sim card.

2 x 1 GB Ethernet port at the back.

1 x USB 2.0 port.

The package comes with a wall mount so that might be something useful for some of you.

This is how the GL.iNet interface look like. Can see my usage up to then and how many device it is connected to.

If you happen to have a e-sim plan it seems to work as well!

My experience with the GL.iNet Spitz Plus

Here’s my connection speed on my Dell Latitude 5410:

The speed is noticeably faster than the whole GL.iNet Opal router setup I had before, so I’m not really a fussy user to begin with.

I find it pretty satisfying, whether I’m connecting one device or a few. In general, I don’t have a problem with it.

I feel like it’s a more stable setup than the previous one, which was kind of cobbled together. But I could be wrong about that. GL.iNet software turns on USB tethering by default, and a lot of routers don’t do that, so the difference may come from the software and not the setup itself.

This router lets us connect with WireGuard or OpenVPN. I tried WireGuard with my Proton VPN, but I found the speed got throttled quite a bit, so I decided to turn it off.

It’s a very different experience from the last setup. With Opal or Beryl, I think the speed drops when you use a VPN, but it isn’t that bad. I’ll probably test it more and update you next time. Sorry if I’m still getting it wrong.

I initially have reservations purchasing a 4G all-in-one router due to some of the research I came across.

Here is what I am talking about:

Every cellular device sends its IMEI to the network when it connects. The first 8 digits (the TAC) identify the make and model, and operators can look these up in the GSMA database. A Spanish telecom site explains that operators restrict which device types their SIMs can be used in, and use the IMEI to tell what you’ve put the SIM into. Breaking those contract limits can mean your speed is suddenly cut when the SIM goes into a router, or your service is cut off entirely. So a GL-iNet or TP-Link router announces itself as a router the moment it registers. No traffic analysis is needed.

Evidence that it actually happens

Most of it is anecdotal, but it’s consistent:

- Malaysia (Yes): One user said Yes throttles by tracking the device’s IMEI. His 4G router got blacklisted, so the same SIM got 20–30 Mbps in a phone but only 1–2 Mbps in the router.

- US (T-Mobile/AT&T): One forum user said a friend bought phone-plan SIMs, put them in a router, and had the plans quickly shut down.

- Device makers: Raymarine’s own router documentation says to activate the SIM against the router’s IMEI and keep it in that one device. It warns that some providers throttle SIMs detected in multiple devices, for example activated in a phone and then moved to the router.

I don’t face this problem yet, so that’s good news for now.

I think it’s something we should keep an eye on. I’ve been using the old setup for a while, and I haven’t run into any problems with it. This one might be a bit different, though. I’ve only been using it for about two months, so we should keep that in mind.

Spitz has Tailscale!

I got a pleasant surprise when I found Tailscale in the user menu. As you can see from the screenshot, it says Tailscale makes your own devices reachable from anywhere in the world, securely and easily. It uses an encrypted point-to-point connection, which means only devices on your private network can talk to each other. I might be wrong about some of the details, but that’s how I understand it.

I’m planning to write a separate article on Tailscale later.

The basic idea is simple, though. Tailscale is a service that connects devices through a VPN. That lets you build a secure network out of your devices, even when they aren’t in the same place or on the same local network. I think it’s a really neat idea, and it has a lot of use cases.

If I turn this on, I could probably reach my home network devices through my router. I haven’t enabled it yet, and I haven’t tested it. I have used Tailscale for some networking before, which lets me access some of my home devices from my phone. I’ll talk more about that later. I was honestly quite surprised to see this feature here.

For anyone who doesn’t like configuring a lot of things, this might be an easier way to try Tailscale than the setup I’m about to write about in my other article.

Epilogue

I hope this article gives you a peek at my experience with this 4G Wi-Fi router in Singapore. If you live alone and don’t have kids who watch a lot of Netflix, which needs a ton of broadband, and you’re pretty careful with your data, you may find this a good setup.

To be fair, like I said in my spending report article, this cost about $200. Compared with a $10 per month plan, that’s about 20 months of plan fees, so I know it’s not exactly cheap.

This router isn’t cheap either. You can find routers for around $60 to $70, so GL.iNet’s gear tends to sit at the pricier end. Still, you can see real quality in their products, even though I bought it from AliExpress.

I know some of you will have reservations, especially about Chinese products and whether they snoop on you. If that worries you, I completely understand, and you might be better off with a Western provider. That said, I’m not sure a Western provider would stop people from snooping either.

Overall, I think the idea is this. If your needs are frugal, you can cut your broadband down to the $10 plan. If that plan gives you 600 gigabytes, I think that’s plenty for a lot of people. I tend to think 200 gigabytes is almost my limit, and I watch quite a bit of anime and YouTube at home.

That’s my usage pattern. If yours looks similar, this one might fit your needs.

This article you have just read is part of my personal notes to live a value-drive lifestyle.

In my Living a Value-Driven Lifestyle Notes, you can find other life hacks, reflections and experiments on living a frugal lifestyle that I have experienced.

I break down what I did, sometimes step-by-step, with the financial numbers so that you can see if this will work for your family or yourself.

You come to find Kyith not to learn about the latest, most expensive, prestigious things out there but the cheapest way to live a life of sufficiency.

Kyith is the Owner and Sole Writer behind Investment Moats. Readers tune in to Investment Moats to learn and build stronger, firmer wealth foundations, how to have a Passive investment strategy, know more about investing in REITs and the nuts and bolts of Active Investing.

Readers also follow Kyith to learn how to plan well for Financial Security and Financial Independence.

Kyith worked as an IT operations engineer from 2004 to 2019. Currently, he works as a Senior Solutions Specialist in Fee-only Wealth Advisory Firm Providend. All opinions on Investment Moats are his own and does not represent the views of Providend.

You can view Kyith’s current portfolio here, which uses his Free Google Stock Portfolio Tracker.

His investment broker of choice is Interactive Brokers, which allows him to invest in securities from different exchanges all over the world, at very low commission rates, without custodian fees, near spot currency rates.

You can read more about Kyith here.