Product Review: TP-Link AC750 Wireless Travel Router

I am a fairly connected individual, it is who I am. When some people go on vacation, they make it a habit of disconnecting from the electronic world and social media. Myself, I cannot do that. I love being able to upload photos and videos of the things we are doing, the places we are going and share them with friends, family and the world. With that in mind, I do like to make use of Wi-Fi as often as possible. The thing with travel though, is Wi-Fi can be hit or miss. You can have access to Wi-Fi or you not. Now there are ways to fix not having Wi-Fi, but it can be expensive, but what if you do have access to Wi-Fi? If you do have access to Wi-Fi it might not be of great quality. It may be slow, it may be intermittent. We cannot really fix a slow Wi-Fi connection, but we can improve upon a weak Wi-Fi signal and for that I always travel with a travel router, in particular the TP-Link AC750 Wireless Travel Router or TL-WR902AC.

One big reason why to have a travel router with you is that chances are you have multiple electronic devices that can make use of the Internet. When we travel, we typically have 2 smartphones and a laptop. With most Wi-Fi access on the road (such as at hotels) you need to associate each device to the Wi-Fi individually. Having a travel router allows you to easily get all devices connected seamlessly without much effort. I turn on the travel router, associate it to the Wi-Fi connection and then our electronic devices talk to the travel router instead of having to rely on having to manually set up each device to talk to the Wi-Fi. This is super handy if people in your family are not very tech savvy and you want to get them connected without any hassle.

What is a travel router? Chances are you have a Wi-Fi enabled router at home right? Well, take that and shrink it down into a portable size that could even fit in a pocket! This is where TP-Link comes in with their TL-WR902AC AC750 Wireless Travel Router. I have used other travel routers in the past, but so far the TP-Link AC750 Wireless Travel Router has been the best that I have used.

Features and Specifications

Even though it is small, the TP-Link TL-WR902AC is packed with features!

• Interface: 10/100Mbps WAN/LAN port
• Reset Button
• USB 2.0 Port
• Mode Switch
• WPS Button
• Wireless: 802.11acn 5GHz | 802.11bgn 2.4GHz with guest networks
• Speeds: 5GHz up to 433Mbps | 2.4GHz up to 300Mbps
• Encryption: WEP, WPA, WPA2 Personal
• Security: Dos, SPI Firewall, IP Filter, IP and MAC binding

What’s in the Box?

The contents are fairly minimal. You get the TP-Link TL-WR902AC unit, AC adapter, microUSB cable, Ethernet Cable, Quick Install Guide and Wi-Fi info card. I have found that once you have setup the router to your preferences, you usually just take the router, power adapter and microUSB cable. I do try and remember to bring an Ethernet cable but have not had to used one with this yet.

First Impressions

The top of the TP-Link TL-WR902AC has the status LEDs, which include power, internet connection, wireless activity, USB connection and security indication.

One one side, or edge, of the unit you have the WAN/LAN Ethernet port as well as the Mode Switch. Typically, I leave the switch in the Share Hotspot mode which allows you to take a Wi-Fi signal and create your own on top of it. This helps extend the range of Wi-Fi and allows you to keep your devices connected to it.

On another side, or edge, you have the microUSB power connection, the reset button and the USB2.0 that can be used to allow external storage to all devices connected or allow you to make use of a Cellular USB modem.