Edimax 3G 3G-6218N

This portable router lets you share Internet connectivity from a USB dongle based 3G/3.5G data card or even an xDSL based Internet connection with other devices over Wi-Fi. As the name suggests, this is a very tiny device that's so thin and light that it would even fit into your shirt pocket. Since it comes with a rechargeable battery, you can use it even when you're not near a power outlet. The good thing is that this router supports all popular USB data cards in India, which include MTNL's pre and post-paid cards, Reliance, Tata, and MTS.

Setting up the router is a piece of cake. Simply connect your data card to the router's USB port, connect the router to your PC for the first time using the bundled LAN cable, and enter your data card details in the router's web based configuration interface. Once done, the router will automatically start dialing into your service provider. Once that's done, simply configure the router's Wi-Fi settings, and you're ready to go. All common Wi-Fi security protocols are supported, so you can choose one as per your requirements. One small nag is that every time you make even a small change in the router's configuration (like a change in timezone), it requires a restart, which takes 90 seconds.

Performance

You can access the Internet through the router using any device that supports WiF i-laptop, various smartphones and tablets like Apple's iPad2, iPhone 3GS, etc. The router's Lithin-Ion battery lasted a little more than 4 hours, even when we accessed the Internet from multiple devices. The only crib we have about this device is that if your data card gets disconnected from the Internet, the router doesn't provide sufficient info on why it happened. For instance, data cards have a tendency of abruptly loosing the signal. When this happens, the connection doesn't break, but Internet access is gone. The router has no way of showing this. Plus, there's no way to manually connect/disconnect to the Internet. So there's nothing much you can do except wait for the Internet connection to get restored, or restart the router.

As far as connect speeds go, there's not much of a difference between what you'll get when connect through this router or by directly connecting the data card to a laptop. The speed completely depends upon your service provider's network, what time of the day or night you're using it, and the location. For instance, we managed to get download speeds as low as .22 Mbps and as high as 6.7 Mbps through this router, which were measured using speedtest.net. The router also supports Internet tethering using 3G enabled smartphones, which basically allows you to share your smartphone's 3G connection with other devices over Wi-Fi.

Bottomline: Overall, a pretty handy router, which is very easy to configure and provides good battery backup. We only wish it would provide manual dialing/disconnecting to the Internet, in case the automatic one is taking too long.