Routers on the Road

By Jerry Pournelle

January 31, 2005

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Most of us Windows users now know to hide behind routers and use good firewalls, but when we travel all bets are off. John Dvorak was recently infected through a hotel hookup, and he's both aware and careful. It hasn't happened to me (except for the machine infected by downloading a program recommended by a rival magazine), but there's a first time for everything.

Meanwhile I routinely carry a D-Link DI-624 router that I put in between me and hotel high speed Internet access ports. The DI-624 is wireless plus 4 wired Ethernet ports. I generally use it wired and ignore wireless because while D-Link has made it easier to set up secure wireless networking, it's a lot easier still simply to plug in wires and be done with it.

The disadvantage of the DI-624 is its size; it's a bit large to carry in your briefcase and usually goes in checked luggage. For those comfortable with setting up 128-bit wireless security, D-Link makes the DWL-G730AP. This is a handsome little device easily carried in your laptop case; it comes in a small leather case that holds the router, power supply, and cables. The case is a bit small for the installation CD; I recommend you copy that onto your portable's hard drive so you'll always have it.

The D-Link DWL-G730AP pocket wireless router/AP and its carrying case.

The DWL-G730AP is wireless only but it can serve as an access point (plug it into a router), as a router (plug it directly into the Internet connection and communicate with it wirelessly) or in client mode (plug it into the Ethernet port of your portable and it will access any wireless networks it can find). Warning: The default mode is encryption disabled, meaning that your resulting wireless network will be wide open to anyone close enough.

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