Question : Problem: Looking for a portable wireless access point for use with hotel networks

I have a group of customers who travel often together in groups with their laptops and often need remote access to the office through VPN, OWA, etc.  More and more of the hotels that they stay in are offering wireless internet connectivity and in more cases are not not offering a wired capability in their rooms.  We are now starting to outfit our newer laptops with wireless cards, however I was curious as to whether or not there is a portable light-weight access point solution that would connect to a hotel's wireless network and provide connectivity to a small workgroup inside their room either through their wired or wireless connections.

Thanks in advance for your assistance

Answer : Problem: Looking for a portable wireless access point for use with hotel networks

What you probably need is an access point (or a router with AP capabilities), or a wireless repeater with built-in Ethernet ports. However - a simple and cheaper solution is to bring a small 8-port router, connect all laptops to it, and set up one laptop so that it connects to both wireless network and a hub, and enable Internet connection sharing in network setup on that laptop. Then, configure TCP/IP settings on other laptops to use that laptop as the default gateway. Now, everyone will be able to access the Internet through the laptop. However, the connection will likely be very slow, AND most importantly, if you use VPN - you will be able to use only one laptop with it.