Cisco C22 M3 “Build” report: From Zero to vSphere in… two days?

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Hi folks. The pile of project boxes in my home lab has gotten taller than I am, so when a Twitter follower asked me about running VMware vSphere on one of the systems not too far down in the stack, I took the challenge and said I’d try to get it going to see what I could report back.

Disclosure: While my day job is with Cisco, this computer was purchased out of my own pocket and used no proprietary/employee-only access to software or information. I do not provide end-user support for Cisco gear, nor do I recommend using used/aftermarket gear for production environments.

That system is a now-discontinued Cisco UCS C22 M3S. Yes, C22, not C220. It was an economy variant of the C220, more or less, with a lower cost and lower supported memory capacity as I recall. The one I have features a pair of Intel Xeon E5-2407 v2 processors (quad core 2.4GHz) and 48GB of RAM. The RAID controller is LSI’s 9220-8i, and for now I have a single 73GB hard drive installed because that’s what I found on my bench.

This is a standalone system, even though it’s sitting underneath a UCS 6296 Fabric Interconnect that’s freshly updated as well. I have the two on-board Gigabit Ethernet ports as well as a 4-port Gigabit Ethernet add-on card. And by way of disclosure, while I do work for Cisco and probably could have gotten a better box through work, I bought this one in a local auction out of my own pocket.

Warming up the system

The first thing I needed to do was make sure firmware, management controller, and so forth were up to date and usable. Cisco has long followed the industry standard in servers by making firmware and drivers freely available. I wrote about this back in 2014, when HPE decided to buck the standard, even before I worked for Cisco. You do have to register with a valid email address, but no service contract or warranty is required.

Since I was going to run this machine in standalone mode, I went to the Cisco support site and downloaded the Host Update Utility (HUU) in ISO form.

Updating firmware with the Host Update Utility (HUU) ISO

I loaded up Balena Etcher, a program used to write ISO images and other disk formats to USB flash drives. USB ports are easy to come by on modern computers, but optical drives are not as common. I “burned” the ISO to a flash drive and went to boot it up on the C22.

No luck. I got an error message on screen as the Host Update Utility loaded, referring to Error 906, “firmware copy failed.”

Doing some searching, I found that there were quirks to the bootability of the image. A colleague at Cisco had posted a script to the public community site in 2014, and updated it in 2017, which would resolve this issue. So I brought up my home office Linux box (ironically a HPE Microserver Gen8 that I wrote about in January), copied the script and the iso over, and burned the USB drive again with his script. This time it worked.

Recovering a corrupted BIOS flash image with recovery.cap

Alas, while four of the five firmware components upgraded, the BIOS upgrade was corrupted somehow. Probably my fault, but either way I had to resolve it before I could move forward.

Corrupt bios recovery, before and after

Seemed pretty obvious, and I figured the recovery.cap file would have been copied to the flash drive upon boot, but I figured wrong. You have to extract it from a squashfs archive inside the HUU ISO file. There’s even a ‘getfw’ program in the ISO to do this. Easy, right?

Of course not.

Turns out newer versions of OpenSSL won’t decrypt the filesystem image and extract the needed file, and even my year-out-of-date CentOS 7 box was too new. So I spun up a VM with the original CentOS 7 image and extracted there.

  1. Get the HUU for your system and UCS version (don’t use a C22 BIOS on a C240 or vice versa, for example).
  2. Mount or extract the ISO file
  3. Copy the GETFW/getfw binary out
  4. Unmount the ISO file
  5. ./getfw -b -s <HUU ISO FILE> -d .

This will drop a “bios.cap” file in the current directory. Rename it to “recovery.cap” … put it on a flash drive (plain DOS formatted one is fine), put it into the system, and reset your machine. You’ll go from the first screen with “Could not find a recovery.cap file..” to the second screen transferring to controller. And in a few minutes, your system should be recovered.

Preparing to boot the system

This is the easiest part, in most cases,  but there are a couple of things you may have to modify in the Integrated Management Controller (IMC) and the LSI WebBIOS interface.

Set your boot order. I usually go USB first (so I don’t have to catch the F6 prompt) followed by the PCIe RAID card. The RAID card will only show up if supported and bootable drives are installed though. This can be changed on the fly if you like, but I prefer to do it up front.

Check your RAID controller settings. Follow the BIOS screen instruction for going into WebBIOS (the text interface to configuring the RAID card), and make sure that you have disks presented in virtual drives. I had plugged a UCS drive and a random SSD in and only the UCS drive (a 73GB SAS drive) showed up. It did not appear to the F6 Boot Order menu though, as it was not set bootable in WebBIOS. A few key taps fixed this, and the drive appeared. Again, you can change the boot order after installing, but why not do it first?

Moving forward with VMware installation

This is the easy part, more or less. I went to VMware’s site and grabbed the Cisco custom ISO (which should have current drivers and configurations for Cisco components, especially the RAID controller and network cards). You can also install with the standard vSphere installer if you like.

I burned the 344 MB ISO to a flash drive, finding again that Etcher didn’t like it (complaining not being a bootable ISO) but Rufus did. With a Rufus-burned 8GB drive (choose “yes” to replace menu.c32 by the way), I was able to install the vSphere system and bring it up.

On first install attempt, I did see this message for about a second, and had no drives show up.

Turns out this error warns you that log files are not stored permanently when booting from a USB installation drive, and it was unrelated to the missing drives (which didn’t show up because I originally had an unconfigured SSD and no configured drives installed–see previous section to resolve this).

But when I had the hard drive configured, the install went smoothly.

It is somewhat funny that I’m working with 48GB of RAM and only 60ish GB of storage at the moment, but from here I was able to copy over my OS installation ISOs (8GB over powerline networking made it an overnight job) and bring up my first VM on the new system.

So where do we go from here?

For now, the initial goal of confirming that vSphere will install neatly on a C22 M3 with the 9220-8i RAID controller has been accomplished.

Next up, adding some more storage (maybe SSD if I can find something that will work), maybe bumping the RAM up a bit, and doing something useful with the box. It only draws 80-100 watts under light use, so I’m okay with it being a 24/7 machine, and it’s quiet and in the garage so it shouldn’t scare the neighbors.

If you’re looking to turn up an older Cisco UCS server in your home lab, get familiar with the software center on Cisco.com, as well as the Cisco Community site. Lots of useful information out there as well as on the Reddit /r/homelab site.

Have you rescued old UCS servers for your homelab? Share your thoughts or questions below, or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

 

History of Silicon Valley Indeed: Is Fry’s Electronics Dying?

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Updated 12/23/2019 and 12/27/2019 – see end of article.

As most of my readers know, Fry’s Electronics has been a mainstay in Silicon Valley culture since the mid-1980s. It’s spread around the country, from southern California to Texas and Arizona and the Midwest and probably locations I don’t even know about. There’s even one in Las Vegas.

The stores have themes, running from the Wild West theme of the Palo Alto location (the oldest continuously operating Fry’s store), to Las Vegas’s obvious Las Vegas Strip theme. The current (and third) Sunnyvale location is themed History of Silicon Valley, with an oscillator on the front, huge sepia photos of the founding people and events of Silicon Valley, and more.

But perhaps, like Halted and Weird Stuff in the past two years, this piece of Silicon Valley history may be coming to an end.

The first store opened in Sunnyvale in 1985, near the current location of Faultline Brewing (just off 101 and Lawrence Expressway). When I came to California just over 10 years later, it had moved to the “chip” themed building on Kern and Lawrence (white walls with black marks like an integrated circuit; the building is now a Sports Basement). Sometime in the late 1990s or early 2000s they built a new, enormous store at Arques and Santa Trinita, just a block or so from the Kern location. It had parking for hundreds of cars, almost a hundred cash registers, a cafe in the middle of the store, auto electronics installation bays on the side, and all in all it was a formidable experience.

I’ve never seen more than half of the registers in operation, but it’s often been crowded, and I’ve occasionally run into old friends and former colleagues… even those who had long since moved out of the area would come back like pilgrims.

Lately the parking lot has seemed impressively sparse, and fewer shoppers on most visits (except around the holidays and major TV-inducing sporting events). The shelves were usually well stocked, and things were often where you expected them.

But things keep changing.

2019-12-22 13.59.06

A Sad Sunnyvale Visit

I went to Fry’s in Sunnyvale last Friday to look for a water filter cartridge. Didn’t think to check stock online first, but once I walked in, I knew I wasn’t going to find it.

The parking lot was the typical empty for a Friday afternoon, maybe a bit more. There were more old guys in the cafe than shoppers in the rest of the store. Lots and lots of empty shelves, far fewer staff than usual, felt like the last days of Orchard Supply Hardware but with fewer people and 10 times the space.

As I walked around, seeing what was left, I got the feeling that they could probably carve the store up… block off half of it and build a new entrance, for an entire second store… and still have plenty of room.

I ended up not finding my water filter cartridge. I did pick up a USB hub and a model train magazine though.

And maybe the strangest thing… As far as I can remember, for the first time in my 22+ years of going to Fry’s (since my friend Ray took me there in 1996 or maybe early 1997), there was nobody at the exit to check my receipt.

What happened to Fry’s?

There’s been a lot of media coverage of this, mostly columnists not entirely unlike me, looking at how the world has changed in the last ten years or so. You usually didn’t go to Fry’s for knowledgeable sales staff (although they’d be happy to read the box to you). Warm inviting environments were not their forte, and the “Fry’s Lending Library” (where you’d buy something to use for a day, or test out something else, before returning it) was definitely not part of their marketing, but a lot of people used that function of their stores, despite the long and drawn-out return process.

You went to Fry’s because if you needed almost anything, from a cable to a capacitor to a chair to a computer to a Coke to a charcoal grill, you could find a variety to choose from. You could pick up a magazine and a candy bar and a soda and a pack of batteries in the long check-out line. And it was almost always good for those things.

The biggest thing that happened to Fry’s was Amazon. And I’d say they started adjusting to Amazon about five years too late.

They acquired Cyberian Outpost in 2002 to build out their e-commerce business, and that went sluggishly. They started doing price-matching to local stores and online stores, but either trained their staff wrong or didn’t train them at all, which meant that even if a 4-port KVM switch was available and in stock 10 miles away, they’d try to match it to an 8-port switch and deny the match (happened to me, and I ended up taking the 10 mile trek).

As time went by, they merged outpost.com into frys.com and made it a better experience, including in-store inventory checking and in-store pickup. They’ve started doing price-matching smoothly and accurately, even to Amazon and Best Buy and Newegg. They even introduced same-day home/office delivery recently.

But the parking lots are more empty than not, the stores are hollow echoes of their past glory, and experts as well as fellow customers are having trouble seeing hope for Fry’s Electronics’s future.

Where do they go from here?

We know the Palo Alto store is closing (due to a lease not being renewed), and there are reports of low stock and low staff around the country leaving many fans and shoppers dubious.

Aside from that, spokesmen for Fry’s say they are rebalancing, restocking for the holidays, adjusting inventory, and otherwise laying in for the long haul. It is true that, from Thanksgiving night through Epiphany, Fry’s does tend to pick up in pace, so it’s entirely possible that the next month will see a restructuring and new life.

At this point, we’ll have to wait and see if Santa brings a new life to Fry’s Electronics this Christmas season.

Where can we go from here?

On the upside, two other mainstays are holding up fairly well.

After an early morning fire in April 2019 destroyed their Sunnyvale location on El Camino, Central Computer (another 1985 Silicon Valley classic) is opening a new Sunnyvale store over near where HRO (and Disk Drive Depot and Action Surplus and the original Fry’s store) used to be. Signage and social media say it should be open by the end of the year. In the meantime, they have locations in Santa Clara, San Mateo, Fremont, and San Francisco.

And after formally going out of business in January 2019 after 54 years, Halted/HSC was bought by Excess Solutions, and they’re settling in nicely at the 7th St and Alma location in San Jose. You’ll find classic Halted stock and some of the classic Halted staff alongside the surplus gear, furniture, office supplies, and components that Excess Solutions has been known for.

If you’re looking for a smaller component source, Anchor Electronics is still around  in an industrial part of Santa Clara.

And assuming Fry’s doesn’t close down their Sunnyvale store before then, you can look forward to the return of the Electronics Flea Market on March 14, 2020, in the side parking lot at Fry’s Sunnyvale.

All may not be lost, but it seems like it sometimes.

What do you think about the state of electronics retail in Silicon Valley and beyond? Share your thoughts in the comments below, or join the conversation on Facebook and Twitter.

December update 1 (Sunnyvale)

With the predictions of increasing stock and even a Black Friday extravaganza, I went back to Fry’s on Black Friday (November 29, pictured above) in the hopes of more signs of life. There were over 20 customers in the store, which is more than my previous visit showed, and I believe they had about 5 registers open (out of 64?).
The fryshelp Twitter account continued to respond promising conversion to the consignment model, and more stock “soon,” but it wasn’t looking promising. And the one item I needed that day, canned compressed air, was nowhere to be found.
I returned the weekend before Christmas, which in years long past would’ve been a crowded experience. I found fewer than 20 patrons, probably half walking out empty-handed.

2019-11-29 10.39.31

They had consistent stock on shopping baskets with trash bags, used to capture rainwater from roof leaks, and a few things were abundant (gaming chairs, signs for their “no credit required” leasing partner), but otherwise it didn’t seem much different. The computer/monitor/printer section was decimated, networking aisle was barren, and there was no sign of change otherwise.
And the Fry’s twitter accounts were slightly more pragmatic but still not really giving hope.
20191222 fryshelp
I’ve heard from friends that this is still happening in other locations around the country, so we’ll have to see if anything changes in 2020.

December Update 2 (San Jose)

After Christmas I went out to check on the Brokaw (San Jose) store, having seen a photo on Instagram that looked less despondent. Initially it didn’t feel as empty, but once I got walking around, it was.

The Apple section had one machine. The computers/monitors/printers section was mostly barren. And lots of shelves were empty. The cafe had an empty (and apparently unplugged) cooler case and one worker. Two registers were open, and they were moving fairly quickly although there was a short line waiting for them.

 

Summer Conference Gadget Guide: 2019 Edition ft. Aer SF, Vapur, RAVpower, Anker, ZMI, Native Union, and more

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For the last couple of years I’ve brought you recommendations for preparing for your summer conference season. For the first time since 2013 I will not be at Cisco Live, but I will be back at Interop in Las Vegas in May, and will probably have a late August visit for the Cisco sales kickoff.

Items that I discuss here may have referral or affiliate links. These usually provide a modest monetary benefit to me, which (perhaps obviously) goes back into items to review for the blogs here and at rsts11travel.com. You can also check out the “support” page to see other ways to support rsts11.

Personal comforts

A couple of perennial tips that have saved me a lot of inconvenience outside of the technical side of things may help you too.

First, break in your shoes in advance. I often think about new shoes before an event that will involve a lot of walking. Having learned the hard way, I now start buying, and breaking in, new shoes at least a couple of weeks ahead of an event. Your feet will be much more comfortable with a few 5000-10000 step days rather than days at a trade show where you might break 5000 steps in an hour. While you’re at it, make sure you have a spare charger for your fitness tracker, and put it in your laptop bag now.

Second, bring a sturdy but convenient-to-carry water bottle (or buy one once you get there). There will be water everywhere you go, but those little 8 ounce plastic cups only go so far, especially if you stroll down the Las Vegas strip. Whether you choose something like the metal H2GO FORCE 17oz ($20ish at Amazon, a personal favorite since it fits in my Saturn Sky’s DDMWorks cupholders), the Vapur Element roll-up water bottles (from $12 at Amazon), or Nomader’s collapsible reinforced water bottle ($25 at Amazon), you’ll be prepared to refill and stay hydrated indoors or out. Many of the Strip hotels sell the H2GO Force or one like it in their gift shops for around $25 (I have one from Delano, and one from a Ritz-Carlton outside Vegas).

You can also choose to reuse a substantial bottle. On my last three-day trip I bought a $5 bottle of Evian in an airport shop and just refilled it along my journey. It fit nicely in my backpack bottle sleeve, and I recycled it when I got home.

Third, if you’re planning to get a lot of swag at the trade show or conference, consider printing a prepaid label and bringing a USPS flat rate box. You can get the boxes free at most US Postal Service post offices, or from their website. You can even get postage for the flat rate box at the post office if you prefer not to print at home. Maybe do two, and if you don’t need both, you can cancel for a (delayed) refund when you get home.

And fourth, consider bringing (or buying on site) some portable relatively-weatherpoof snacks and beverage additives if you’re into those things. Some granola or cereal bars, instant beverages, or even an electrolyte like Drinkwel’s LyteShow (which I use along with LyteCaps when traveling as well as at home).

Power to the People

The most important thing for me during a conference is power. I usually have a laptop, a phone, and a tablet, and sometimes more than one of each, but I’m rarely seated near a wall outlet. I generally carry an enhanced extension cord and a battery pack to support my device needs.

Last year I recommended the Anker 26800 USB-C Power Delivery Battery Pack ($120 at Amazon with USB-PD wall charger and cables plus travel pouch included) and the ZMI 20000 USB-C Power Delivery Battery Pack ($70 at Amazon with cables and storage pouch included, rapid charger currently $20 at Amazon). I also suggested the Native Union SMART HUB BRIDGE extension cord which gives two AC outlets and 5.4V of USB charging across four ports, up to 3A per port, including 15W USB-C ($55 at Amazon).

Any of those would still be a good choice this year, and the prices have remained consistent. But this year I have two devices to suggest in addition.

If you have a Macbook, a USB-C Chromebook, or another small Ultrabook other than Dell, the two packs and the charger above will charge your device nicely. Unfortunately, Dell has quirky power delivery support, so the Anker will not charge at all, and the ZMI will give a slow charge warning. Better than nothing, but I’ve found some new options.

The RAVpower PD Pioneer 20100mAh battery pack, currently $56 at Amazon before a $4 instant coupon, provides 45W of power over USB-C Power Delivery, as well as supporting 18W quick charge on the USB-A port. I’ve tested it with my XPS 13 9370, and it charges nicely. It also rapid-charges my iPad Pro 12.9 (2015) at ~28W, which is excellent as well. If you’re charging a laptop with USB-C, you won’t have use of the USB-A charging port, but for smaller devices you can double-up. Charging input on USB-C is 30W, which means you can recharge in 3.5 hours. [Disclosure: RAVpower provided me with a free unit of this pack to test, and I reviewed it on their Facebook group May 8.]

I’ve also added the Anker PowerStrip Pad and PowerPort Cube to my travel complement. Neither of these will charge the XPS laptops, but they have AC outlets for the Dell charger.

The PowerStrip Pad ($36 at Amazon) has a 5 foot attached cord, two AC outlets, 2 switchable USB-A “IQ” 12W (5V 2.4A) smart charging ports, and a USB-C Power Delivery port that offers 30W (20V 1.5A or 15V 2A). The USB-C port will rapid charge iPhone 8 and later.

The PowerPort Cube ($26 at Amazon) offers a 5 foot attached cord, three AC outlets, and three 18W (5V 3.6A) max USB-A ports. For the newer Apple devices or your computers, you’d want to use an AC charger with this one, but you’ll have room away from the wall to plug in with either of these extension options.

 

By the way, If you’re traveling with an IOS device like the iPhone 8 or anything newer,  by the way, I highly recommend Anker’s PowerLine II USB-C to Lightning charging cables. The 3ft version is $16 on Amazon, available in black or white, and sturdier than the Apple cable while still being MFI certified and ready to rapid-charge even your largest iPad Pro. The 6ft version is coming in June for about $20, and gives the same sturdiness and power potential with twice the length.

If you’re looking for a wall charger to supplement the above extensions (and charge up the batteries and your devices), check out my review of the Anker PowerLine II cable. There are six adapters listed there that I’ve personally used. You might have one or more already, and that post may give you an idea of what to look for if you choose to get something else.

With current prices, those six suggested power adapters are:

Where Do I Put All This Stuff?

I have no shortage of luggage, from a Waterford Executive Folio (from $89 direct from the maker) for my iPad, to my checked-bag Samsonite 8-wheelers. But I’m finding that my regular travel fits well with a couple of pretty easy choices.

First, for a laptop bag I’m still liking the Solo Duane 15.6 Hybrid. It’s a briefcase-style bag that holds 15.6″ laptops (including my Thinkpad P51 juggernaut) along with an iPad (like the 12.9 I use as a daily driver with a keyboard case) and power adapters, chargers, magazines, and other gadgets. It converts from briefcase to messenger bag (with detachable strap) to backpack (with stowable straps) and fits under most airline seats. I have the slate one ($50 at Amazon) but the gray one is only $37 as I write this.

My sub-1-week preference remains the AER SF Travel Pack. The new version (Travel Pack 2, $230 direct from the maker) has some additional features, but I still find the original to be great for up to a week of carefully curated clothing and toiletries. There’s a laundry or shoe pocket in the bottom, laptop sleeve that easily handles even the Thinkpad mentioned above, a lot of useful pockets, and straps to keep everything together.

Where do we go from here?

Off to a conference, of course!

If you’re looking for an accessory suggestion that’s not covered above, leave a comment and I’ll see what I can do.

And by way of additional disclosure, while I do get a commission from Amazon on many of the items above (unless mentioned as “from the maker”), I am not recommending anything I have not personally purchased (or otherwise received) and used for travel purposes. Also, no vendor has paid for, previewed, or requested inclusion in this post. It’s all based on what will be in my luggage (or what will be my luggage) this summer and fall.

On The Road With A Travel Router: The RAVPower FileHub WD009

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A few weeks ago, the folks at RavPower asked if I’d like to do a livestream review on their Facebook group for the newest version of their FileHub travel router/battery pack/micro-NAS device.

You can find the video of that 25 minute session here on Facebook.  Skip to 4 minutes in, and excuse the terrible laptop audio artifacts.

Promo codes turn up in the RAVPower Official Group on Facebook from time to time, as well as on the Amazon listings themselves. You can purchase through this link and also support rsts11 a little bit. .

I also talked about their newest “PD Pioneer” 20100mAh 45W Power Delivery charging bank on another live stream on May 8th,

See part one: “Introduction and Overview” for an explanation of the concept of a travel router and what you might look for in one. Watch for part three coming soon.

Disclosure: RavPower provided the review unit at no cost to me, and provided me with a commission for any sales through my promo code. They also shared some use cases to focus on, but did not preview or edit the  livestream or this post.

WHAT’S WITH THIS RAVPOWER FILEHUB YOU WERE TALKING ABOUT?

The WD009 FileHub. Credit card sized hotel key card and US quarter for scale.

The WD009 FileHub. Credit card sized hotel key card and US quarter for scale.

So first of all, here it is on Amazon. The usual price on Amazon is $59.99, but they often have checkbox discounts of a few bucks, or discount codes on their website and Facebook community.

The FileHub WD009 is (I believe) Ravpower’s third generation travel router. I’ve used the first generation (WD02, no longer available on Amazon) and they have a WD03 “FileHub Plus” model that’s available internationally with 802.11n wireless connectivity.

If you can’t acquire the WD009 (sorry to the Aussies in particular), the WD03 is a good deal at $43. It is single-band like the WD008 “FileHub Nano“, so no option for 5GHz band, and I’d expect it to be a little bit slower (and with no one-touch backup option–we’ll discuss this later). It does have the same 6700mAh battery built in. Continue reading →

On The Road With A Travel Router: Introduction and Overview

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A few weeks ago, the folks at RavPower asked if I’d like to do a livestream review on their Facebook group for the newest version of their FileHub travel router/battery pack/micro-NAS device. Since I’d used previous versions and had a grasp of the feature set, I agreed to do it, and they sent me a free unit to test and discuss.

You can find the video of that 25 minute session here on Facebook.  Skip to about 4 minutes in if you can.

The promo code originally offered in Spring 2019 has expired, but you can watch their Amazon listings for checkbox discounts on a regular basis. If you want to skip the video, you can purchase through this link.

Some of the advice in this post will apply to other routers, including some I’ve discussed in past blog posts.

The second part of this series covers the RavPower WD009 travel router in detail.

Disclosure: RavPower provided the review unit at no cost to me, and will provide a commission to me for any sales through my promo code. They did also share some use cases to focus on, but did not preview or edit the livestream or this series of posts.

WHY DO I WANT A TRAVEL ROUTER?

With a travel router, you’re able to connect multiple personal devices to a single Internet connection, with some level of security protection. And you can do this for all of your devices (or your family’s devices) without having to pay for extra device connections to your host facility’s service.

Some hotels still limit the number of devices or MAC addresses that can connect on a single account. Others may have mobile-unfriendly splash screens or access methods. And if your hotel’s WiFi uses your highly secure loyalty program password that is a pain to type on a mobile phone and can’t be auto-filled from your password manager, that’s going to be a headache too.

So with a travel router, you can authenticate to this device, and whenever you go somewhere, you connect to its portal and set up the Internet connection once. Everything else just connects in.

Some travel routers have additional features. Most have a battery built in so you don’t have to plug into the wall (and you can even charge your phone from it). Some have options for USB modems for cellular connections. Many offer some sort of media sharing and backup feature. Depending on your needs during travel, one or all of these features may be desirable.

SO WHAT IS A TRAVEL ROUTER? HOW IS IT DIFFERENT FROM A REGULAR ROUTER?

You probably know that a router is a device with at least two network connections that acts as a gateway between those two networks. You have one at home if you have Internet service. It might be built into your cablemodem or DSL modem, or it might be a product that connects to that modem. It may even provide your WiFi access point too. For me, I have a Meraki MX84 for my home network, and my DSL backup uses the provider’s router with integrated wifi.

The problem with these devices for travel use is fourfold:

  1. They’re often expensive. A good home router is probably going to cost around $200, although you can get viable devices for around $100.
  2. They’re often heavy/bulky. My MX84 is a 1U rackmount device that would take up a lot of room in a suitcase. Many consumer devices have unwieldy-for-travel antennas.
  3. They almost always require wall power (although with devices like the Omnicharge battery packs with AC out, you could get around this).
  4. They usually don’t support WiFi-as-WAN, which is what you need to connect them to a WiFi network, whether in a hotel, a business center or conference facility, or even a coffee shop. Some do, but not all.

And since I ruined my intended threefold list, a fifth item is that if you pull your home router out to travel, anyone still at home is out of luck (or you need a second expensive device).

So here comes the travel router to save the day. Let’s run down the fit.

  1. They’re usually inexpensive. Think $75 or less for a full-featured device.
  2. They’re often light and manageable. Most of mine are the size of a box of bandages or a small block of cheese, and one would fit in about half of a Red Bull can. Not sure why you’d have a block of cheese or an empty Red Bull can in your laptop bag, but that’s fine.
  3. They almost always have an integrated battery, which powers the router and wifi functionality as well as offering an external charging source for your phone or the like. The few that don’t will use a MicroUSB connection to power them, so you can plug into a phone charger or your laptop for power.
  4. They almost always support WiFi-as-WAN, letting you log in once to the hotel or conference WiFi and run all of your devices behind it.
  5. Since it’s not your home router, nobody left at home will even know your travel router is gone.

So the take-home summary is that with a sub-$100 travel router, you can share a public and/or paid Internet connection with multiple devices, sharing media and connectivity between your own devices securely, and even back up your mobile devices on the road.

SO WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?

This is the first part in a three part series on travel hubs. Check out the second part that goes into deeper detail on the RavPower FileHub WD009 (posted here), and keep an eye out for the third part covering another vendor’s travel hub that provides cellular hotspot and Ethernet bridging.

If you do choose to buy the FileHub WD009, use this link to Amazon (and it sends a couple of bucks my way). It’s $59.99 as I write this, with a $3 coupon on Amazon (and I’ve seen $3-5 coupons before).