A wireless travel router is a mini wireless router that helps connect mobile devices. They’re easy to carry around and are a fantastic way to set up a wireless network when you’re travelling. Also known as portable routers and mobile routers, there are several uses for these mobile devices. In this blog post, we’ll discuss their uses and why you should buy them.
The Various Uses of Travel Routers
- Bridge a Wi-Fi Connection
When you’re staying in a hotel that offers Wi-Fi connection, it can be difficult to connect all your devices to that network without a fresh configuration. This holds true especially when you’re on a tour and move to a new hotel in a new city every other day. A travel router helps you to bridge the wireless connection. You just need to connect the travel router with the hotel network without changing the existing network settings of your devices. This means you won’t need to configure the network settings of your devices every time you connect with a new wireless connection via a travel router.
- Sharing Files on a USB
When you’re travelling with your family, especially with kids, it’s a great idea to keep them occupied with a movie sometimes. For example, if you’re on a long car journey, you can connect a USB loaded with movie files and let them stream them to their devices via the router. This way the kids will stay quiet throughout the journey without throwing tantrums.
Wireless travel routers are also very helpful for business travellers to make file sharing with each other easier.
- Sharing an Ethernet Connection
are many hotels that offer an Ethernet connection if you want to connect to the internet. These portable routers enable you to connect with the Ethernet access point and share it across all your Wi-Fi enabled devices.
- Act as a Wireless Repeater
If you’re staying in a hotel or a home stay in a remote area, you could experience a weak signal in your room. These mini wireless routers can function as a wireless repeater and provide you with a better signal. You just need to plug it in an area of your room with the best signal so that it repeats the wireless network signal throughout a larger area.
Why Should You Buy Wireless Travel Routers?
There’s a common question from several prospects when it comes to buying a Wi-Fi travel router. The question is, since most smartphones can tether and can be used as a Wi-Fi hotspot, what’s the need of purchasing a travel router.
There are several disadvantages when some users use the 3G/4G connection of their smartphones to create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot.
- Some carriers charge extra fees for tethering or don’t offer to tether at all.
- The 3G/4G connections, although secure, don’t come with the additional feature of firewall security like that of a router. This additional security is essential when you connect to a public wireless network.
- The battery life of your phone may be badly affected if you regularly use tethering unless you turn it on/off. This could be an issue if you use tethering often and forget to turn it off.
- Tethering can also consume all your mobile data quickly, irrespective of your data plan if you can’t manage it properly.
Using a wireless travel router, on the other hand, has a lot of benefits. You can use a free wireless hotspot and create a personal Wi-Fi hotspot without using your phone’s 3G/4G data. Some travel routers also come with USB ports that enable you to stream media files to your mobile devices from a USB flash drive. Some of them also have a battery to charge mobile devices.
These portable wireless routers are, therefore, ideal for travellers, be it vacationers or business travellers. You can enjoy multiple device connectivity, file sharing, and an optional mobile power station.