Author: Michael Brown

Working at home has lots of upsides, but one major ergonomic downside: Home furniture is designed for leisure, not work. Dining tables are too high, coffee tables are too low, and lap desks are too small and too unstable. If you spend a lot of time working on a laptop, poor working conditions such as these are an open invitation to repetitive motion strain and other maladies.

Set up Coalesse’s Free Stand in front of just about any chair, and you’ll have a work-friendly environment that will keep you productive and healthy. And when the factory whistle blows at the end of the day, you can fold the Free Stand flat and slide it under your sofa or easy chair to rid yourself of the irksome visual reminder that you still have to work for a living.

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Most travel routers trail the market, supporting older standards and offering limited features. Few would say that about D-Link’s DIR-510L (or the Wi-Fi AC750, depending on which name you find easier to remember). This is the first travel router to support the 802.11ac standard, and it’s loaded with features.

In case you’re wondering what AC750 means, it’s the industry’s fuzzy-math marketing speak for informing buyers that a router supports two 150Mbps spatial streams using the 802.11n standard, and one 433Mbps spatial stream using the 802.11ac standard (never mind that 150 + 150 + 433 add up to only 733).

The DIR-510L is a marvelous device that’s capable of running on AC power using the provided adapter, or it can run on its own internal 4000mAh battery. And it has three USB ports, so it can share files stored on a USB hard drive and run on AC power at the same time. The router must be put into charging mode to charge anything (the USB port delivers up to one amp of power to an attached device).

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Netgear’s PR2000 Trek travel router finished first in both range and throughput. It doesn’t have as many features as some of its competitors, but it is well designed and is largely self-contained. You’ll never need to worry about packing an AC adapter, because it’s built in—just swing its blades down and plug it into a nearby socket.

If you want better range than what you’ll get from operating the router near the floor, you can plug a USB AC adapter into its micro USB port (but you’ll need to provide your own, since Netgear doesn’t put one in the box). You could also connect an external battery to the Trek’s micro USB port (here again, you’ll need to provide your own).

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If you need Internet access while you’re away from your home or the office, you should carry a travel router in your bag. Free Wi-Fi hotspots are nearly always insecure, leaving your PC vulnerable to attack. Fee-based broadband services at hotels often are limited to supporting wired devices, so you won’t be able to connect your smartphone or tablet. If the service is wireless, the provider will charge a fee for each device you connect to the network.

Use a travel router to connect to a Wi-Fi hotspot or a facility’s broadband connection, and it will create a private, secure, wireless network with a robust firewall. You’ll be able to use that service with your laptop, smartphone, or tablet, and you’ll be able to share that connection with friends, family, and colleagues traveling with you—paying just one fee for everyone. Many travel routers are outfitted with USB ports that support portable hard drives, so you can share files or stream media over your network, too.

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TP-Link’s TL-WR710N travel router is very similar to Netgear’s PR2000 Trek, but in a slightly smaller form factor. Like the Trek, it can plug straight into an electrical socket, it has a USB 2.0 Type A port for sharing storage, and it has two ethernet ports. Unlike the Trek, it supports only one 150Mbps spatial stream in 802.11n mode (on the 2.4GHz frequency band); and since it doesn’t have a micro USB port, it must be plugged into a wall socket (unless you travel with an extension cord, I suppose).

The TL-WR710N can operate in one of five modes. In wireless router mode, you connect the Pocket Router to a DSL or cable modem and clients connect to the router wirelessly or via an ethernet cable plugged into its LAN port. In wireless access-point mode, the router connects to a hardwired network that has Internet access and creates a wireless network that clients can join to reach the Internet. In this case, the second LAN port can support one hardwired client (or more if you connect an ethernet switch).

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If you need to travel light, TP-Link’s TL-MR3040 is one of the smallest, lightest travel routers I’ve tested. It’s about one-third shorter than the D-Link DIR-510L and will fit easily in a shirt pocket. It can operate either on its included AC power adapter or its internal rechargeable battery. But much of the reason for this router’s diminutive dimensions is the size of its removable battery: It’s a 2000 mAh model, compared to the 4000 mAh battery in the D-Link.

TP-Link’s router is compatible only with the 2.4GHz 802.11b/g/n standards, and it supports only one 150Mbps spatial stream when operating in 802.11n mode. On those two counts, it falls behind both D-Link’s router (an 802.11ac travel router) and Netgear’s Trek (an 802.11n travel router that supports two 150Mbps spatial streams).

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You have to wonder why there are so many types of electrical plugs in the world. It’s a pain in the neck that Trendnet remedies by providing three swappable plugs: One for use in the UK, one for use in the rest of Europe, and one for North America. Since most other countries use one of those three types of adapters, Trendnet figures its router can plug into 90 percent of the world’s electrical outlets.

The router itself is relatively small; think of a slightly oversized wall wart. It plugs directly into an electrical outlet, much like the Netgear Trek and the TP-Link TL-WR710N. It can operate in one of three modes: As a wireless router connected to a DSL or cable modem or a hardwired network; in WISP mode, connected to a Wi-Fi hotspot; or as a repeater to extend the range of an existing wireless network. You slide a button on the side of the device to choose which mode you’d like it to operate in.

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The Asus WL-330NUL is even tinier than TP-Link’s diminutive TL-MR3040. In fact, it’s smaller than some USB thumb drives I’ve used. Its size and weight will tempt anyone who insists on traveling light. My advice: Resist that temptation.

The WL-330NUL is a very simple device. There’s a USB 2.0 connector on a stubby cable at one end, and an RJ-45 ethernet port on the other. Inside is an 802.11b/g/n chipset that supports one 150Mbps spatial stream on the 2.4GHz frequency band. It has no other USB port, so it can’t share files on an attached USB storage device, nor can it support a cellular USB modem.

You can operate the WL-330NUL in one of four modes: If you provide a USB power adapter, it can perform as a wireless router when connected to a DSL or cable modem or another hardwired Internet connection (such as you might use in a hotel or convention center), or as a wireless router when connected to a WISP (Wireless Internet Service Provider). While drawing power from a laptop, it can perform as a wired or wireless USB ethernet adapter for an MacBook Air or any other model that doesn’t have an ethernet adapter of its own.

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