Travel Access Point

When I travel, I almost always take my Vonage box with me. Since I almost always stay at properties that have broadband, this gives me US dialtone in my room, wherever I happen to be, and I can avoid paying egregious hotel long distance charges.

Most hotels only offer a single Ethernet jack, though. Since I’d like to be able to make phone calls and use the Internet from my laptop at the same time, this presents a bit of a problem. Until now, I’ve lugged around a Linksys or Netgear wireless router/access point, which I would plug into the hotel-provided Ethernet jack. This worked great, but meant that I was lugging around a fairly large piece of gear everywhere I went. I already carry enough crap around with me, thank you very much.

There have been a number of so-called “travel” access points (APs) introduced over the past few months. All of them only have a single wired Ethernet port, though, which means I could use the Internet wirelessly from my laptop, but couldn’t hook up my Vonage box

Enter the, ahem, WiFlyer. It has two Ethernet ports and a modem, should I ever be trapped in a hotel without broadband. The device is about the size of an old Palm Pilot, but slightly thicker.

I received the unit yesterday, and despite a few problems, am happy with it. It is the perfect size — it will fit easily in the little “random cables and crap” mesh bag that I carry in my backpack. It uses a wall wart for power, but the wart is tiny and only takes up a single jack in a powerstrip.

WiFi range seems good — easily covering my decent-sized hotel room. Vonage seems happy — I’ve been making and receiving phone calls without a problem.

Small complaints include the fact that to switch from using dialup to broadband for Internet access you have to swap the unit’s firmware. This is a fairly simple process, but since a power failure during a firmware swap could turn the AP into an expensive little brick, this does not seem like the best setup. The manufacturer promises a single firmware image for both dialup and broadband access by the end of the year.

I would also love it if the AP could be used to bridge a wireless Ethernet connection to a wired device. Sometimes, I’ll find myself without in-room Internet access, but with plenty of open WiFi networks around. If the device could bridge a wireless Ethernet connection to a wired device, as some travel APs can, it would let me connect my Vonage box to that network. The WiFlyer would be especially suited for this, since it supports an external antenna. With a a cantenna and a hotel room with a view, you’re almost always going to be able to find connectivity.

WiFlyer w/ wall wart and cell phone for scale

Posted by pmk at October 21, 2004 9:22 AM | TrackBack