Reliability

Getting connected was all well and good, but staying connected proved to be more of an issue. While 99% of this was due to the fact that I tested this software mostly inside a moving rail car while my device hopped tower to tower, one thing could have improved my experience. On my train route, on any given device, my connection has a tendency to be flakey. I notice it die, then I usually manually kill the data connection and re-establish it. This takes some vigilance though. If I let the device handle it, it always takes around 3-4 minutes before the device realizes it has a zombie connection (or it never realizes it at all), and resets it. What I would love to see WMWifiRouter do is run a periodic network check (e.g., maybe ping an IP address) and if it fails, automatically disconnect and reconnect the cellular data connection. This would be a great added feature, I didn't expect it to do this out of the box.

Figure 2: The statistics screen shows how much data has been used and moved.

Other than issues related to my connection, I had no real issues with WMWifiRouter - it simply worked as I wanted it to, and with a stable connection it worked fast and seamlessly. Using my Dash 3G, it was awesome to utilize 3G speeds over WiFi while travelling. And now working at a WiFi-less cafe or shop is the city is no issue.

Other Connection Options

I should mention that Cellular Data to Wifi is not the only connection option that WMWifiRouter facilitates. It also will assist you in connecting Cellular Data to USB, and Cellular Data to Bluetooth. Windows Mobile includes these connection abilities by default, but having them in this package makes sense - users can easily connect up whatever they want using one program! In addition to those two options, WMWifiRouter also includes 2 rather novel options that I find quite cool. The first is a WiFi to USB mode, which effectively turns your device into a WiFi dongle. Now using older devices without a WiFi card (or desktop computers) to connect to a WiFi network is easily done.

The second novel option is USB to WiFi. When would you use this? Well imagine you're visiting a co-worker who works in a basement office where the corporate WiFi doesn't reach. You have a document on your computer you want to send him, but he doesn't have a spare ethernet cable. No problem, connect your Pocket PC up to his computer through USB, configure USB to WiFi, and use your laptop to connect to WMWifiRouter. Now you're using his Internet connection eventhough he has no Wireless Adapter. Pretty neat!

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