I got a bunch of Gale (Google Wifi devices) on an auction site as broken. The owner of the devices was basically saying that all the devices were working but randomly shutting down. To make them work again, they had to be unplugged and replugged. So he/she auctioned them off as replacement devices at an ultra low price (3 AC-1204 and 2 GJ2CQ models) of 30$ for all 5. I of course had to get it. Power doesn’t seem to be an issue. Mostly a SW conflict due to the configuration being used by the previous owner.

Gale-Gatekeeper is a security tool that allows you to control devices on your Wifi. Gale-Gatekeeper is a Telegram-based network access control system for OpenWrt routers. When a new device connects to the network via DHCP, the system sends a Telegram notification with interactive Approve/Deny buttons. Devices with static DHCP leases are automatically allowed. Temporary devices require manual approval and have timeout-based access (30 minutes default).

I was so tired of the impossibility to control the wifi devices on my network. My kids used to jump devices from one to another. I also got a host of devices from school which I had no control over. So my kids basically got access to the internet almost 24x7 jumping devices. I have been trying very hard to implement a effort-reward mechanism but it was not working as I had no/almost 0 control over the screen time for my kids.

Netgear R6220 router an AC1200 dual-band router with very impressive specs. It was awarded the best router in 2016 and now in 2019, I still think it is a very good router. It has a 2 core Mediatek MT7621 (MIPS) processor with 128 MB RAM & 128 MB ROM i.e. ample space with some good processing power. Below you can see the impressive specs. BTW: I got this for almost 15 USD which was a steal!