Travel Router - Suggestions / Recommendations / Gotchas

Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 09:38
Last edited 15/11/2022 - 09:39

Hi All,

I am looking to purchase a travel router (figured I would see if I could get something during Black Friday).

I am looking for suggestions, recommendations, and any gotchas that I might not have thought about.

Ideally, I would like to get something that had:

  • LAN-side WiFi - I can connect my phone or laptop to the router's LAN and get a private IP address. Bonus would be if this is configurable to be anything in (10.0.0.0/8, 172.16.0.0/12, or 192.168.0.0/16). 802.11n or better. WPA2-PSK or better. Would also be good if it could connect via 2.4GHz and also 5GHz bands, but this would be very much a bonus.

  • LAN-side ethernet - I can connect my laptop to the router's LAN via ethernet cable. Preferably gigagbit, but 100Mbit would be okay.

  • WAN-side WiFi - Able to connect to a public WiFi (Airport, Cafe, Hotel etc). I am guessing this would be managed via a web interface through an already connected device (phone / laptop) in the case that you have to 'login' with a code or similar. 802.11n or better. WPA2-PSK or better. Would also be good if it could connect via 2.4GHz and also 5GHz bands.

  • WAN-side Ethernet - Able to connect to a network via ethernet (for example, in a hotel). Preferably gigagbit, but 100Mbit would be okay.

  • Power - Built-in battery that can be recharged via USB.

  • 4G Connectivity - Definitely a bonus rather than absolutely required, but the ability to add a SIM and connect via 4G to a network would be a bonus too.

  • Ethernet Ports - Ideally two or more (so that I could conect WAN-side and LAN-side both via ethernet simultaneously).

Since the router would naturally being performing NAT, it would act as a basic firewall, but a bonus would be something more configurable too, with the ability to set incoming port forwarding, but I could live without that if too hard / expensive to get. I am guessing that most, if not all options, would have a built-in DHCP Server, but I could live with having to configure LAN-side IPs manually.

What else should I be looking at / for? Also, am I listing a requirement that I don't really need / can get around?

Some options (only looked at PB Tech so far):

TP-Link-TL-MR3020 - $48.99 - Only one ethernet port

TP-Link TL-WR902AC - $69.00 - Only one ethernet port

Alcatel LINK Zone - $98.88 - No ethernet ports - Locked to Vodafone NZ

TP-Link M7350 - $193.75 - No ethernet ports - 4G SIM Slot

Thanks,

Alan.

General Discussion

Comments

  • 0mfgroflmao on 15/11/2022 - 10:06
    +1

    These GL.iNet routers are supposed to be good, there's a few different models depending on budget.
    www.amazon.com.au/GL-iNet-GL-MT1300-Wireless-Pocket-Sized-Re…
    www.amazon.com.au/GL-iNet-GL-AXT1800-Portable-Extender-Repea…

    • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 11:37

      They look good - multiple ethernet ports too!

      The second one (GL-AXT1800 - $209.00 which I think is NZD) definitely seems to support either WiFi or ethernet on both sides (WAN and LAN), but unless I missed it, the first one (GL-MT1300 - $119) doesn't mention that, so I am guessing not?

    • gooblue on 15/11/2022 - 15:12

      +1 for GL.iNet. I use this one (or one very similar). Bought a few years ago so there might be newer models, but it was around $40 at the time.
      https://www.amazon.com.au/GL-iNet-GL-AR300M16-Pre-Installed-…

      I went with this to create LAN network at hotels by connecting to hotel wifi, and having all devices then connect to this routers wifi. Worked great for Chromecast too.

      Other useful features:

      • Route all traffic via VPN

      • Spoof MAC address. This became necessary since I needed to login via a captive portal which wasn't possible on the router.
        So first using a laptop to connect to the hotel wifi and login via captive portal popup, then switch to the router network, and configure the router to use the laptops MAC before connecting the router to hotel wifi.

      • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 15:18

        Good point about spoofing the MAC address - hadn't considered that, but makes sense.

  • taeken on 15/11/2022 - 12:55

    I used an MR3020 running OpenWRT for a while when I was travelling almost full time, it can be powered from a USB powerbank and highly configurable with OpenWRT, could usb tether to a phone as well. Great for using hotel wifi for internet but being able to keep control of a network.

    • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 13:48

      Looks like it only has one ethernet port? If so, did you just always connect your laptop to it via WiFi, and was the connection stable?

      • taeken on 15/11/2022 - 14:20

        I used a small switch similar to this https://www.amazon.com.au/DLINK-5-Port-Gigabit-Desktop-Switc… which I made a USB cable for (has to be a 5v switch), it meant I could run everything off my laptop it I needed to.

        • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 14:29

          So I guess the WAN-side connection was to the hotel WiFi?

          Was that one generally stable? I appreciate there are to parties to every WiFi connection, but was it generally stable around different hotels?

          • taeken on 15/11/2022 - 14:45

            @Alan6984: I never had any issues, just setup and go. I do agree that the GL.iNet products look pretty good, I would probably buy one if I was still travelling all the time.

  • Toddy47 on 15/11/2022 - 15:26

    Mikrotik - multiple options, most have POE in so if you wanted something running on battery there are many options there. One of the high-powered units can connect to a Guest Wifi that has trash signal and still get decent datarates from it.

    • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 15:40

      Hi Toddy46,

      Have you used any particular model that you would recommend?

      Thanks,

      Alan.

      • Toddy47 on 15/11/2022 - 17:05

        Best model for this nowadays would be the AX2, but it is new and stock is very hard to get at the moment it also lacks 4G. In theory RB952 does the job, but lacks higher gain antennas like the AX2 (which only matters if your hotel has shit wifi, so AC3 then becomes the next best option, and if you are after 4G as well, then the hAP ac³ LTE6 ticks all the boxes, but is a little on the large size.

        There are quite a lot of people who uses the Mikrotik's at hotels, etc so quite a lot of info out there: https://www.reddit.com/r/mikrotik/comments/b8wloq/how_do_i_c…

        • Alan6984 on 15/11/2022 - 17:32

          Brilliant - thank you!

  • Alan6984 on 29/11/2022 - 09:59

    Thanks everyone for your suggestions.

    I went with this one in the end:

    https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0B2J7WSDK

    GL.iNet GL-AXT1800 (Slate AX) Pocket-Sized Wi-Fi 6 Gigabit Travel Router, Extender/Repeater for Hotel&Public Network, VPN Client&Server, OpenWrt, Adguard Home, USB 3.0, Network Storage

    • quasar on 29/11/2022 - 19:50

      Good choice. I travel for work a bit and have a gl.inet, another advantage of these is they run a customised version of dd-wrt out of the box so it's easy to tweak and get additional plugins.

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