High-speed wireless internet directly from your hotel bed

If you spend a lot of time in hotels while travelling on business, you'll know a thing or two about the nightmares of setting up high-speed internet access.

It should be easy. You produce your credit card, pay for a temporary connection, plug the Ethernet cable into your laptop and you're away surfing.

Invariably, something goes wrong and you're left trying to download a day's worth of email over a dial-up internet connection.

But when broadband in the hotel room does work - and the services are getting better - it's a boon for the business traveller.

What's even better, however, is wireless broadband in the hotel room - there's nothing like kicking back on the bed while checking your email or surfing the web as you recover from the jetlag.

3Com - an eclectic company that makes all sorts of things, from expensive telecoms infrastructure through to simple consumer gadgets - now has a wireless travel router for just this purpose.

The 802.11g travel router is a simple but very useful device. It hasn't got the protruding antennae common on most wireless routers - there's no room for such things on this slim-line device, which is about the size of a pack of cigarettes. It's the type of thing you throw in your laptop bag at the last minute.

It accommodates connections from broadband routers that sit in the hotel room or straight Ethernet connections. Once plugged in it turns a hotel room or conference suite into a wireless hotspot, with a range up to 40 metres from the box.

Once you've paid the hotel for the flow of high-speed internet into your room, you can share files or internet access with other colleagues travelling with you. If by chance a friend or colleague is located in the hotel room next to you and is equipped with a laptop and wi-fi card, they too could be able to surf on your internet connection once they plug in the password.

The router has four basic modes. Router mode is probably the most useful as it simply gives secure internet access via a wireless network.

Rather than being used for internet access, the router also serves as an access point to create a local area network over which files can be accessed by multiple users.

In client mode it becomes a terminal enabling a computer with wireless access.

The router also allows for the set-up of WEP (wired equivalent privacy) or WPA (wi-fi protected access) so other hotel patrons can't surf on your connection or network. It's worth taking the couple of minutes necessary to set up such security.

The wireless connection also allows access to a virtual private network, which means you can get to everything back at the office from the comfort of your hotel room bed.

3Com's router also features a firewall, which can be configured to low, medium or high levels of security. Settings are all configured through an internet browser screen.

The router isn't powered via the Ethernet cable, so it needs the accompanying power pack. But it does come with a neat little carry pouch so you can pack everything up tidily.

If, and it's a big if, the set-up is as easy in a hotel room as it was with my home connection, the reasonably priced 3Com wireless router is worth taking on the road. It didn't give as good coverage as my D-Link wireless router, but that's a much bulkier device.

For hotel-room use the 3Com travel router is fine. A basic set-up putting you on the internet should take no more than five minutes. Just make sure you've got security clearance with your boss to use your laptop on a wireless network.

3Com wireless travel router

Price: $147
Pros: Easy set-up; light-weight; supports security and multiple users.
Cons: No powered Ethernet.
Herald Rating: 8/10