ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (WHAT THE TECH?) — You might have never considered taking your own router on vacation but there may be some reasons you may want to.

Travel routers are a relatively new invention. Like the router in your home, these allow you to connect to the internet and allow devices, like computers and phones, to connect it. They’re small and maybe something you should put in your suitcase.

Travel routers connect to any provider over their Wi-Fi or ethernet cable. Then, with your other devices, you connect to your own Wi-Fi.

Why would you want to do that? Some hotels allow for a limited number of connected devices. With this, you can connect to as many devices as you’d like.

Some rental properties don’t offer Wi-Fi. If they do, it may be an additional cost. You can connect a travel router to the hotspot on your phone, and connect other devices to it through the router.

Travel routers more secure. Set up your own password to prevent others from possibly seeing your devices, encrypt the connections to avoid hack attempts on public Wi-Fi and you can run a VPN on them to hide your IP address.

If you use Netflix or another streaming service on the road, you can stay logged into your account wherever you go.

One more benefit is when you’re not traveling, you can use a travel router in your home to extend internet connections to hard-to-reach parts of your home.

I should mention you could take an old router you no longer use at home, but the travel routers are small enough to toss in a suitcase and they’re available for under $50.

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