Whenever I travel, I always bring a travel router with me. The reason is I really don’t trust the hotel or someone else’s network. There many reasons why you shouldn’t use public or public networks. To name a few, man-in-the-middle attacks, malware, identity theft, etc. To avoid all these issues, I use OpenVPN or Wireguard on my devices, but it is easier if I centralize the connection by using a mini travel router. A single VPN for all my devices and it is secure.
These are the hardware I usually bring with me:
- GL.iNet GL-AR750S-Ext (Slate) – travel router
- Anker USB C Charger, 543 (65W II), PIQ 3.0 & GaN 4-Port Slim Fast Wall Charger
- Amazon Firestick 4K
- Portable 3TB HDD
I use the travel router to connect to the hotel’s free network then the travel router will establish a site-to-site full-tunnel Wireguard VPN back to my home Firewall. This means when I browse the Internet, the Internet thinks I am still at home because of the full-tunnel. Then all my mobile devices will connect to the SSID of my travel router.
The portable hard drive, I have this connected to the travel router USB port. I use this if I need to free-up some space on my camera.
The Anker is just my travel multi-usb-port charger that I use. It is slim profile and it is easy to put away. The Amazon Firestick if I want to watch on Netflix, Emby, etc. You can login to the major streaming accounts via the hotel’s setup box, but do you really trust their boxes? I don’t think so, that is why I use my own streaming device and it connects to my travel router.
Speaking of streaming devices, my recent stay at Marriott hotel, the TV is hooked up to a some sort of setup box and the remote is basically controlled by the setup box. If you brought your own Roku or Firestick and connected it to any open HDMI port, it is not going to work. The input button on the remote cannot be changed and if the setup box’ HDMI get disconnected, the TV volume will be set to 100% and cannot be lower down.
The solution to this is disconnect the remote from the setup box by powering down the setup box. Unplug the setup box from the power that way the LG TV can take over the remote control.
That is it. There is nothing special about this post. I just want to mention my travel setup.
Cheers!