Road Warrior Required Equipment: The TP-LINK

I travel a lot.  Presentations, user groups, conferences.  Most hotels, I’m glad to say have wi-fi, but it often sucks is sub-optimal.  Further my UltraBook does not have an Ethernet cable port, so TP I’m dependent on Wi-Fi and some hotels simply don’t even have it in the room (especially in Europe), though often they do have an Ethernet cable. 

To the rescue comes the incredibly small, incredibly inexpensive ($27 on Amazon) TP-Link 150MBPS Wireless N Nano Router (Model TL-WR702n)  This gem acts to convert an Ethernet signal to a Wi-Fi signal.  You can also configure it to be a Router, a Repeater or a Bridge.  Making it a repeater is very convenient at home where it boosts the signal in my dining room.

It comes with its own power adapter (connected through USB) as well as the USB and Ethernet cables.  Also included is a resource CD, and a fast user guide. That is, everything you need. 

You plug it in and set up takes under a minute.  It works like a charm.

This thing is worth buying just because of how unbelievably cool it is to have a router/bridge/repeater in a box that small.  I’m writing about it because it just blew me away. 

Special thanks to Richard Campbell of DNR for turning me on to this gizmo.

About Jesse Liberty

Jesse Liberty has three decades of experience writing and delivering software projects and is the author of 2 dozen books and a couple dozen online courses. His latest book, Building APIs with .NET will be released early in 2025. Liberty is a Senior SW Engineer for CNH and he was a Senior Technical Evangelist for Microsoft, a Distinguished Software Engineer for AT&T, a VP for Information Services for Citibank and a Software Architect for PBS. He is a Microsoft MVP.
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