Specifications

marketplace. The other minor quibble
has to do with the battery light—namely,
there isn’t one. In fact, there’s no way to
know how much battery life you have
left until the power light flashes red,
which loosely translates to “this router
will commit suicide in two minutes unless
you plug it in to something from which
it can draw power”. Still, in the grand
scheme of things, it’s a minor problem.
The major irritant is an oversight
that keeps the PHS300 from completely
knocking my socks off. The thing
doesn’t have an Ethernet port, and
not having one limits its utility when in
the presence of a wired uplink. It also
makes it useless as an independent Net
segment for diagnostic techs on a wired
network. Alas, despite its otherwise bril-
liant potential as a WAP, the lack of one
port pooches the deal, which is particu-
larly disappointing since its little brother,
the CTR350, has one. Paying more for
less isn’t exactly my idea of a good
time; however, the PHS300 makes up
for it with the firmware’s bandwidth
management and load-balancing abili-
ties, which maximize the speed you get
over your 3G device. Used as a 3G
router, its transfer speeds outperform
both the CTR350 and using a 3G phone
or modem directly from your laptop.
Despite this, it’s an excellent little
appliance, quite reasonably priced, and
(at this point) it’s one of only two battery-
powered travel routers on the market
(the other being Cradlepoint’s CTR350).
If you have a use for one, it’s worth
picking up and supporting a company
that’s advertising is Linux compatibility—
and living up to it!
I
Dan Sawyer is the founder of ArtisticWhispers Productions
(www.artisticwhispers.com), a small audio/video studio in the
San Francisco Bay Area. He has been an enthusiastic advocate
for free and open-source software since the late 1990s,
when he founded the Blenderwars filmmaking community
(www.blenderwars.com). He currently is the host of “The
Polyschizmatic Reprobates Hour”, a cultural commentary pod-
cast, and “Sculpting God”, a science-fiction anthology podcast.
Author contact information is available at www.jdsawyer.net.
REVIEWS
Cellular broadband terms of
service vary widely from carrier
to carrier and plan to plan. Using
the PHS may be against your
carrier’s terms of service—check
your service contract to make
sure you’re in compliance.
The PHS300 is advertised as a universally
compatible, secure, simple solution for
emergency response, vacation broadband
and mobile business.