I travel with a Netgear travel router and share my connection with my co-workers in the adjacent rooms. I wish these routers would have higher output power so that I give someone down the hall a connection.

best one
 

The best one by far, is from SMC, there is also a good one from APC, or 3com.

The SMC router is 802.11g compliant and does WDC, which is nice for when at home or other locations.

Which model? Does it have internal power supply? Why do you like it, compared to the Airport Express which many seem to favor? I am in the market, and am interested in comparison shopping. Thanks,

Fduvall

Laptop Magazine just did a god article comparsion on Travel Wi-Fi Routers:

http://laptopmag.com/Features/Travel-Wi-Fi-Routers.htm

How odd that they don't even mention the Airport Express.

QL

smc router
 

I like the fact that it is 802.11g based, it will run from a USB cable as well, and it has WDC bulit in, so for example, I can use it at home as a repeater in my living room, where the signal from the office is a little on the weak side. This device, switched to WDC mode and it simply grabs the signal from the office router and makes a 100% strong signal in the living room.

Since it is G based, I used it at a meeting a while ago, where there were five of us using it, and we had a local area network running at at least 2-3 times 802.11b speeds for swapping some large files.

I DO like the APE, but the SMC is a little lighter and smaller, not including the AC mini apadtor of course,

BTW, I have the APE as well, it just sits in the den, streaming itunes to the central stere system

double BTW:
looks like the SMC got five out of five in the laptop magazine review, NICE!
in the picture there, you can see the little USB power cable, which is all I somttimes carry and not the power adaptor, but indeed the power adaptor is no big thing either.

nmenaker - Thanks for the info. I will probably use it at home and on the road. My Linksys 802.11G box doesn't seem to be very strong downstairs, where I work. Very strange. So I need a booster and would love to have a small wireless router for when I travel. Something that I can put in my "MacGyver kit." Will check out the SMC and the APE.

FDuvall

I was really surprised when I came across this thread, as I assumed that travelling with a wireless router would be far less common than this discussion indicates. I personally travel with the 3-Com Travel Router, and I find the combination of small size and a large set of features suits my needs well.

The uses of a wireless router on the road obviously include the ones discussed here such as getting wireless access in a hotel room where you only have a fixed connection, and sharing of a connection between multiple adjecent hotel rooms. There is one other use available however that I have seen.

A large group of people from our company were travelling together, and we had a long wait at the airport. Obviously everyone wanted to access the Internet during the wait, but the wireless Internet access at the airport was quite expensive, so rather then paying for 15 separate accounts we only paid for one. Using that we connected one laptop the the Internet, and then connected the wireless router to the laptop and let everyone else share the connection that way. A good way to save something like 400USD. ^

this is a very good point indeed, I have done this as well when I travel to my folks home. they only have dial up, but on a dedicated line. So, I plug the router into their computer, dial up with their computer and turn on internet sharing, and VOILA, I now have wireless access with my computer in their home. Of course, the connection is only 56K, and when both are using it is is useless, but at least I can setup my computer and just leave it on, and mail comes in and a browser is always open and it is a mobile solution throughout the house, as oppossed to being tethered to a land line all the time.

very good point!

I carry a 20' ethernet cable to surf from my bed at hotels. Grabbed it from the server room at our office.

That cable most likely takes up more room in your bag than a small wireless router such as those mentioned here would. So I hope you aren't doing that to save space.

So what's the benefit of the SMC if the smaller/lighter part is ruined by the power adapter?

you don't need the power
 

one doesn't need the power adaptor at all, and the combined weight regardless, is less than the APE.

the usb cable included, will power the AP

Isn't the (typical) point of the travel size AP's breaking the physical connection to your laptop?

Given the ref'd review, where does the Airport Express get rated?

The Airport Express is great, its what I carry around... You can get it to work with the PC ... just required a little tickering with...

Grabed it out of the server room at the office eh? (20ft cable I mean) Hope you asked someone from IY if that was okay! (I keep my server rooms LOCKED!) :mad:

-Vincent