Cradlepoint Travel Routers

Last fall, some co-workers and I headed up to ReMix in Boston.  We checked into the oh-so-affordable hotel and attempted to strategize on how we were going to get online to check on the servers back home.  I was running Vista on my laptop, and my co-workers were running XP and OS-X respectively.  We started to brainstorm as to how we could plug in our Sprint Mogul phone and share out the wi-fi goodness for all of us to share.  If only we’d had one of the Cradlepoint travel routers, it would have made things soooo easy.

I first heard about one of these on the Daily Gizwiz podcast (#542).   A handy solution to either sharing out your phone or cellular USB modem’s high-speed internet connection to yourself and your peeps (companions).  If you happen to be one of those hotels that provides internet, but it’s only a hardline connection, the CTR-350 Cellular Travel Router can also accept an ethernet connection and share that out.

The "gadget" covered in the podcast was the Personal Hotspot (PHS300) – which:

• Runs on a built-in Li-Ion battery (which also charges your phone and/or powers the USB cellular modem)
• Serves out 802.11 B & G wi-fi w/ WEP/WPA options
• Acts as a firewall
• You can also get a spare battery to keep the wi-fi goodness flowing

Cradlepoint also has the CTR-350 Cellular Travel Router which:

• Does all of the above (except it requires AC power, not battery powered)
• Accepts a 10/100 ethernet cable as well

And then, for the truly hard-core traveller who wants to cover a much wider area, Cradlepoint makes the MBR1000 802.11 N Mobile Broadband Router.

Sweet concepts all.  So many gadgets, so little paycheck…

Doug White