Swiss Army knife travel router?

[djs_tx]

OK, I need some advice from those more knowledgeable.

I occasionally do some business travel. I take a lot of gear with me, both wired and wireless. Now that I have the 770 my needs have changed a little bit because it is a wireless only device.

I want a travel size router that can do the following:

take a wired connection and make it available wirelessly
Take a wireless connection and make it available to a wired device
Let me set up an ad hoc connection between the N770 and a wired device.

Here are my candidates:

http://catalog.belkin.com/IWCatProductPage.process?Merchant_Id=&Product_Id=203404
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0002Z45DQ/sr=8-2/qid=1142282286/ref=pd_bbs_2/103-1886494-2338204?%5Fencoding=UTF8
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0007MGG2M/sr=8-4/qid=1142294323/ref=pd_bbs_4/103-1886494-2338204?%5Fencoding=UTF8

I think #1 is my best bet but I want to be sure I buy the right thing before my trip.

Networking gurus, care to offer an opinion.
David

[Clay]

I would consider this one:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000A1AQOO

[rr0123]

what do you mean by take a wireless connection and make it available wired? I don't think most routers do that.

I have the Netgear and D-Link you have linked above. They both work fine. The D-link is smaller but more expensive. The Netgear was $40 at Amazon for a long time, you should still be able to find it somewhere for that price.

If you get the netgear, don't use the automatic configuration utility, just do it manually.

[djs_tx]

what do you mean by take a wireless connection and make it available wired? I don't think most routers do that.

You are correct and that is the point of my question. I have some specialized equipment that is only a wired connection for security and performance reasons. I currently use my powerbook and a null modem cable to connect my powerbook directly to the equip.

I'd like a quick and dirty way to plug a small device into my the ethernet port of my test equip and be able to connect to it from the 770. This way I can ssh, vnc, telnet, etc into my equip with the 770 over wifi. I think the Dlink does what I want it to but I was hoping someone had tried it.

Basically a want a driverless wifi adapter that my equip sees as a wired connection to just another switch. Does that make sense?

If you look at the link to amazon for the d-link it says it has a "Wireless Client mode to connect an existing wireless network". So if it is connecting to an existing wifi network then it must be making that connection available wired (or else what would be the point?).
David

[rr0123]

Interesting. Well I am always up for trying something new. I'll give that wireless client mode a try over the weekend and report back. If you don't hear back from me, feel free to post or email a reminder!

[RogerS]

There is some discussion on the general topic (not your specialized need) in an earlier thread, Tiny, Portable Wireless Bridge:

http://www.internettablettalk.com/forums/showthread.php?t=1152&highlight=travel+router

[oafbot]

My immediate recommendation is the Airport Express by Apple.
It does all the things you ask for above, and in a compact package.
It also has "airtunes" a nice side feature if you have an itunes client.

But maybe you should look at the thread RogerS has kindly linked to, first.

[djs_tx]

Interesting. Well I am always up for trying something new. I'll give that wireless client mode a try over the weekend and report back. If you don't hear back from me, feel free to post or email a reminder!
Did you have a chance to try it over the weekend? Just curious.
David

[rr0123]

I did give it a quick try, but wasn't able to figure it out. The travel router needs to know to "log onto" my primary router at home, and I couldn't see any settings in the interface where I could enter that info.

The product manual does show what you described--a wireless attachment to an internet signal, and a hardwired ethernet attachment from the travel router to the computer.

[Carl]

The D-Link DWL-G730AP will work in three ways: As an access point (attach it to an ethernet port in your hotel room and you're setting up a Wi-Fi network that your 770 can use); As a (wired) router (attach it to an ethernet port and you get more ethernet ports); As an 802.11g "card"... attach it to your PC and it can access an existing wireless network. It can't do all three at once, you have to flip a switch. It got good reviews somewhere on the net.

[rr0123]

As an 802.11g "card"... attach it to your PC and it can access an existing wireless network.

This is the part I am having trouble with; this the "client" mode.

[djs_tx]

The D-Link DWL-G730AP will work in three ways: As an access point (attach it to an ethernet port in your hotel room and you're setting up a Wi-Fi network that your 770 can use); As a (wired) router (attach it to an ethernet port and you get more ethernet ports); As an 802.11g "card"... attach it to your PC and it can access an existing wireless network. It can't do all three at once, you have to flip a switch. It got good reviews somewhere on the net.

Cool. I think you might be mistaken about the second point, it only has one physical ethernet port so it cannot act as a switch. But I went and bought one last night for my upcoming trip. I hope I have time to figure it out before I go.

This should be a good complement for my 770 as a work tool. We have some embedded linux devices that normally run headless that we drag out a keyboard and monitor to debug. With this router and my 770 I should be able to shell in to a terminal. Once I get VNC configured on our boxes I'll have a full GUI for a debug environment.
David

[argh]

Personally, I think it is pretty hard to beat Apple's AirPort Express-- just the size of a power brick with no external components. Does everything you asked for.

If I could improve it in one way, it would be to make the usb port capable of hosting a pen-drive (or 770) as a micro web-server or network share.

Had mine for a few years, and still impressed with how easy it is to use.

I also find it more reliable than Linksys/Netgear/Belkin in maintaining a connection.

[rr0123]

djs--did you get it to work in client mode?