This year Gear Diary’s CES base will be a suite at the MGM Grand. All of us will be bunking together which means we will be able to get even more writing done early in the morning or late at night. Of course that presumes we have the wireless connectivity to go online and post. 🙂 The suite comes with free internet connectivity. That SHOULD mean both wired and wireless connections will work, but we won’t really know until we get there. Add in the fact that during CES there is such a huge demand on wireless systems and… we need a Plan B.
Meet CES Connectivity Plan B, the Belkin Wireless Dual-Band Travel Router. The $79.99 router will let us take the suite’s wired connection and create a personal hotel Wi-Fi hotspot. Thanks to its flexibility, we will be able to get multiple devices online simultaneously. The device is small in size, and the travel case it perfect for tossing the Travel Router, wall adapter and Ethernet cable in a bag.
We’re hoping there is truth in advertising and the “Dual-Band performance is perfect for streaming video and surfing the web.”
From Belkin:
NOW YOU CAN TAKE YOUR WIRELESS NETWORK WITH YOU WHEN YOU TRAVEL.
The Belkin Wireless Dual-Band Travel Router gives you a high-speed WiFi connection that is perfect for hotel rooms and airports. So you don’t have to rely on wired Ethernet connections or slow bandwidth.
GET MULTIPLE MOBILE DEVICES ONLINE SIMULTANEOUSLY: Pay for one hotel Internet connection and get all your devices online at the same time.
DUAL BAND SPEED FOR VIDEO ON THE GO: Advanced Dual-band performance is perfect for watching movies, TV shows and surfing the Web.
COMPACT: The Travel Router’s small size makes it easy to pack, and it comes with a handy, handsome travel case that neatly holds its Ethernet cable and power supply.
The Belkin Travel Router comes with a nice, clean travel pouch. That’s perfect, since this is intended to be used on the road.
Inside is a pocket for the router itself, a second pocket for the 110v adapter and a space for a power cable that connects to the router and the wall adapter and the included ethernet cable.
In other words, the device includes everything you need to convert a hotel’s wired internet service in a WiFi hotspot.
The router itself could not be simpler. On the back there are jacks for power and the ethernet cable and there is a configuration button on the top. The included instruction booklet contains the pre-configured networks. Both the 2.4GHz network and the 5GHz network have their own name and password. That means you MUST make sure you take the information with you on the road. If you don’t you’ll have a lovely pouch and a small hunk of plastic to show for your troubles.
Here are the specifications on the router:
Wireless Standards with Link Rate:
• IEEE 802.11n (up to 150Mbps for 2.4GHz and 5GHz*)
• IEEE 802.11g (up to 54Mbps*)
• IEEE 802.11a (up to 54Mbps*)
• IEEE 802.11b (up to 11Mbps*)
Wireless Operating Spectrum: Simultaneous Dual-Band 2.4GHz and 5GHz
Wireless Security:
Pre-configured security
256-bit WPA2® encryption
64/128-bit WEP encryption
The Belkin Travel Router is available now for $79.99 on the Belkin website. We’ll let you know how well it works during CES!