wiredboy10003

Me too.

boxedlunch

This is one reason why I like the Airport Express. It's power supply is built-in, but I can swap the fold-out adapter for a longer cable if necessary for tight spaces.

yosithezet

Yeah, this is definitely the way to go. The only problem I have with the Airport over the D-Link is the cost. I'm a huge Apple fan otherwise.

bdjohns1

I got one of the older ones (b/g only, not n), for $50 at a Circuit City liquidation, but that was more to get the iTunes streaming capability to my family room.

Platcomike

I also have one of the Linksys ones and love the built-in power supply. I can easily attach a plug adapter, if necessary and it auto-switches the voltages.

An additional benefit of MAC spoofing is the ability to use your PC to logon to whatever network you are using and then reconnect using the router. I have found that sometimes the router will not be detected (or perhaps rejected?) by the server, and hence you do not get the login screen on the PC when connected (either hard wire, or wireless) through the router.

Since I have spoofed the MAC, I have not had any problems using it all over the world, except for the need to occasionally do as I recommended above.

9Benua

Hi guys, I got some question here. How do you use those portable routers with hotel who provide internet access through wifi which we connect into the network using our internet browser? I prefer not to pay for 2 charges just because I'm using my work laptop and my macbook at the same day or having to work exclusively on one laptop.

jcherney

Assuming you clone the MAC address to the router, once you log in using, say your work laptop, that is the only connection that the hotel will see. The router will then provide an internal IP address for your laptop, Macbook, PDA, or whatever for you to use, and pump out the data thru the single IP that is registered with the hotel.

edit: It will work without cloning, but the cloning will save you problems later on in some situations.

richard

how do you clone the MAC addy?

jcherney

It's usually in (one of ) the setup page of the router. You plug the router into your computer and access it thru a local ip address- it should be in the instructions.

SoManyMiles-SoLittleTime

I think he was asking a different question than the previous answer indicated. I think he wants to use a hotel's WIFI access, not wired access, and then route that.

jcherney

You're correct. But he can do the same thing as I said but just change the settings on his router to act as a bridge.

Platcomike

Yes, saying it a little differently, the Linksys has a setting for whether you want to connect to a wired outlet (plug in the wall), or a wireless network. In both cases it works the same and the hotel/provider will only "see" the router.

The purpose of the MAC address change (clone) is to avoid problems on certain networks that block routers like these (to maintain revenue - what we gain, they lose) based on the use of certain MAC addresses by the manufacturers. If you leave the MAC address as default, they might not let you connect. Changing it to another value will avoid this potential problem.

Usually the routers are accessed via a browser, connected to its address. Some might require special software to accomplish this, but Linksys is easy. If you don't have your original documentation (instructions), just go to the website of the manufacturer.

You might want to do all this at "home", while you have a connection, rather than wait until you are stuck someplace.

richard

what kind of linksys one do you have, platcomike?

troyb

I know this unit gets great reviews and is absolutely tiny, but I was never able to get it up and running - and I'm relatively tech savvy. At least enough to get a router going, that's for sure. I ended up getting one of the Linksys travel routers with the pop out plug and it works fine.

jcherney

There is a switch on the bottom that changes the type of connection you're trying to achieve. Did you have the switch in the correct setting?