3Com Travel Router

Product Name: 3Com Travel Router
Score out of 10: 7.3

Good Points:
The main benefit of the 3Com Travel Router is that, it functions very well. It even has a Wi-Fi adapter which others in its range do not contain. It is also endowed with the support of both WEP and WPA. It is even supported by VPN. It is light in weight and easily manageable.

Bad Points:
The installation guide provided within, is curtailed and partial. There is an AC adapter which looks bulky and ugly. There is penny pinching offering of phone support.

What we thought:
The 3Com Travel Router is priced at reasonable rate of $ 67. This mini router is portable and you can use it even at outdoors in places like hotels to convert the available broadband into a Wi-Fi signal. It would enable you to work anywhere you like. Due to its compact size it would not bother you, because of the space in your baggage.

A snap is the typical setup for 3Com's Office Connect router. The router is to be connected to the Broadband or Ethernet cable and it is to been plugged into a normal electrical outlet. The Configuration mode allows us to fiddle with the network settings and organize security for the 3Com Travel Router with the help of a configuration tool. The Access Point mode turns off the Dynamic Host configuration Protocol and firewall server. The DHCP and firewall server is turned on by the Router mode. The Client Mode is helpful for using the travel router like a wire free adapter in order to connect the PC to a Wi-Fi network.

The mode selector makes the setup just a piece of cake, but the foremost condition is that you must know the basic principles of Networking. But if you are unaware of networking principles, you will get very confused as the guide does not mention the process properly in depth.

3Com Travel Router is very much familiar with another such product i.e. Netgear's travel router. It has most of the features similar to it. Even the mode selector switch is a common feature. The Apple's AirPort Express is much more compact than 3Com Travel Router because it has an internal power adapter.
USB print server is also not included in 3Com Travel Router, which would disgust most of its subscribers as it would not be a good idea while traveling. But these extra features are not demanded by many of the users, they are happy with the available features that are very useful for those who travel for business reasons.

The Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) and the Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) security, has an incorporated firewall specially designed for protection from hackers, a support for VPN pass-through are some of the other features that helps you to connect with a corporate VPN while you are on a business trip.

Even at the height of 200 feet the 3Com Travel Router transfers the data at a killing speed of 12.10 megabytes per hour, which separates it from its prototypes. But it’s slow and a long range throughput is less significant for the users on travel.