Go Baby Mobile Dongle Dock is a small
hand-held wireless router with a USB socket for a 3G dongle modem. It has buit-in
battery, but is mainly designed to use in cars, ships, or caravans, so as to
allow laptops, smartphones, and tablets of your whole family to access internet
connection of 3G dongle.
Dock has a single Mini USB socket on the
back, and a top standard USB host port. You plug dongle into the top host port,
but the back Mini USB is just for power source. Tutorial document warns that
plugging it in the computer can cause harm, and our tested laptop’s USB ports
were not powerful enough to provide electricity for Dock. It is accompanied by
1800mAh battery, and lasts 4 hours 7 minutes with a 3G dongle plugged in the
same laptop attached to permanent router. Besides, there is a USB adaptor for
car’s cigrarette lighter and USB charger in the box. There is an Ethernet-to-USB
cable that you can use to connect to PC’s network port or to share cable
modem’s internet connection.
Setting up dock is simple. At first the
network is not secured, so you can directly log in and go to the web interface.
Dongle Dock is a complete router accompanied by advanced features such as port
switch, QoS, Dynamic DNS, and UPnP throughput management. You can even set up
many guest networks that are isolated from the main network. The interface is
clear, but English help text sometimes can be strange.
Genius idea
Clicking the Wizard button takes you go
through choosing internet connection type, using a USB dongle, DHCP, or static
IP address and DNS to connect via router, or PPPoE for cable modem. Setup page
for 3G dongle lets you choose country and 3G network provider, and will fill up
any necessary information for you, such as APN, username and password. You can
also enter PIN if your SIM card is locked. Then, set up Dongle Dock’s wireless
network name and WEP or WPA encoding. The wireless transfer speed of Dock is
slower than that of normal routers, reaching 16.9Mbytes/s at 1m and 8.9Mbytes/s
at 10m, and cannot maintain connection at the range of 25m. However, it is fast
enough for 3G data connection.
We faced no problem in making Dock work with
2 in 3 network’s donges– Huawei E1750 (replaced by E353) and Premium E367
HSPA+. The web interface’s status page is updated to show you whether the donge
works or not, from recognizing donge to activating modem to network connection.
If dongle is unable to connect, you will know whether Dock recognizes donge, or
whether your network settings are incorrect.
With $90, Dock can be compared to hand-held
3G wireless devices like MiFi of the 3 firm. MiFi is $127.5 (paying in advance)
while Dongle Dock and 3G dongle are just from $120 to $135, depending on your
network provider. Dock’s ability to connect to a cable modem or router makes it
more flexible. It has more advanced features than MiFi, and adaptor for car’s
cigarette lighter makes it more suitable to be used in a car. If you like
freedom to wirelessly share any USB dongle, it is a good bargain.
Summary
Verdict. A good way to connect 3G dongle’s data
Hand-held USB router modem. 802.11n, 1 LAN port (10/100Mbytes/s),
1 WAN port, QoS, 20 x 120 x 70mm, one-year RTB warranty
Power consumption. 4W – on mode
Ratings: 
Price: $90
Website: www.gobabymobile.com
