The ASUS RT-AX57 Go travel router is a must-have accessory for summer travel

This summer, about half of American adults will head out for a well-deserved vacation. Many will document their trip on social media, while others will stay connected with friends and family back home via smartphones, laptops, and tablets. In many cases, doing this will force them to rely on a public WiFi network that could potentially expose their tech to the increasing threat of cyberattacks. Travel safety is especially important in airports, cruise ships, and anyplace where numerous strangers gather within a relatively small space to share the same WiFi network. With so many strangers using a single network, it’s inevitable that a few will have harmful intentions.

On cruise ships, a common threat scenario involves an attack against a tablet or laptop computer using the ship’s public WiFi. The attacker will infiltrate the device, access its default email account, and download the contacts list. Next, the attacker creates a new email address that looks nearly identical to the victim’s email. The attacker impersonates the victim by sending messages from the new email address to the victim’s contacts. The attacker will usually pretend to be in trouble and ask for gift cards or money. In many cases, the victim’s friends and family could fall for this trick and send the requested funds. Of course, the attacker might also gain access to sensitive financial data saved on the device, or even upload malware that can take control of the device completely.

To make matters worse, the victim might not learn their tablet or laptop has been compromised for several days. Passengers on a cruise ship can be out of contact for up to a week, giving the attacker plenty of time to impersonate them while mining their data.

This scenario is just one of many possible threats. Before you head out for some sun and fun, we recommend sliding a compact ASUS RT-AX57 Go travel router into your luggage. The RT-AX57 Go gives all your technology a WiFi bodyguard, letting you stop worrying about network security so you can focus on fun. Better yet, the RT-AX57 Go lets you expand this protection to all your trusted traveling companions by giving their devices access to your mobile private WiFi network.

Travel routers help you make the most of public WiFi networks

A lot of vacationers might wonder what makes a travel router necessary. After all, plenty of smartphones provide ultrafast 5G data downloads worldwide. With that much coverage, travelers might not plan to use public WiFi at all.

That strategy works for vacationers who stay in cities without going into rural areas. But a growing number of travel scenarios make public WiFi the best option. Consider the enduring popularity of cruise ships. The cruise industry catered to almost 32 million tourists in 2023, and no country loves cruising more than America. According to the Cruise Lines International Association’s May 2024 report, global cruising has grown nearly 7% since 2019, while American cruising grew more than 17% during the same timeframe. Simply put, over one in twenty Americans went cruising in 2023 with more signing up every year. Insiders predict that the cruise industry will grow by 10% before the end of the current decade, with millennials showing the most interest.

The popularity of cruises is understandable. Today’s ships are floating villages with all the amenities a tourist could crave. Without leaving the boat, vacationers can dine at practically any hour of the day, indulge in a spa treatment, catch a movie or live show, climb a wall, work out in a gym, have a drink at an ice bar, barrel down a water slide, or just relax and take in the views.

Unfortunately, these floating villages present challenges for tech users who want to stay connected to the Internet. Nearly all cruise ships are cut off from access to 5G when they’re out to sea, just like any mountaintop cabin or out-of-the-way AirBnB. Starlink satellites typically provide public WiFi networking for an additional fee. But doing all your business over a public WiFi network can leave your data vulnerable to would-be cybercriminals.

A travel router can use a connection to the ship’s public WiFi signal to create a private, secure network for your devices. As with your router at home, a travel router gives you a private network with your own name (or SSID) and password. An ASUS travel router also gives you a suite of security software that will protect your devices from cyberattacks. And the small, lightweight ASUS RT-AX57 Go will fit easily inside your shoulder bag, purse, or waist pack.

Plug in the RT-AX57 Go for yourself and all your travel companions

The next time you connect to the cruise ship’s public WiFi, imagine a better scenario. You and your traveling companions get together every day for lunch. You all chat about your plans for the afternoon while enjoying some tasty cuisine. Then you reach into your bag for the RT-AX57 Go, plug it into a convenient outlet, laptop, or mobile battery bank, and connect your mobile router to the ship’s public WiFi.

Your router needs just one internet connection to set up a private WiFi network. After you set up your ASUS RT-AX57 Go in Public WiFi (WISP) mode, your companions pull out their tablets, laptops, smartphones, and handheld gaming devices. Every single one of their devices connects to your network and enjoys fast connection speeds with transfer rates up to 3,000 Mbps. It doesn’t matter how many internet-hungry devices your traveling companions brought, since the RT-AX57 Go supports up to 70 devices.

The next hour goes quickly. The kids quietly make some progress on their favorite games. Everyone else awes their friends back home with jaw-dropping pictures of the scenery. You catch up on your emails and then, if you’re like the half of all travelers who use public WiFi for financial transactions, you do a little online banking. You don’t think twice about sending your sensitive financial data over the public airwaves.

The RT-AX57 Go puts all this convenience in easy reach. The tiny, powerful travel router provides a WiFi network as secure as your home network thanks to its robust suite of AiProtection security features. This package of commercial-grade software shields your devices from cyber threats on even the most crowded public WiFi networks, without any extra hassle for you. The router monitors traffic across your network for suspicious activity to block threats and identify compromised devices right away, and you’ll get free security updates automatically.

If you’re traveling with children, you can rely on the common-sense, hassle-free parental controls that come with all ASUS routers. These free parental controls take the guesswork out of keeping kids safe on public WiFi networks with preset profiles based on age. Inappropriate content can be filtered out, and potentially malicious websites that open their devices to attacks will be blocked automatically.

The ASUS RT-AX57 Go puts peace of mind in the palm of your hand

Before you head out for a day of sightseeing and fine dining, you probably pack a bag of essentials. Sunscreen and lip balm protect your skin, water keeps you hydrated, a pack of tissues helps clean up accidents. A travel router will fit right into your bag. The RT-AX57 Go measures less than 4.75 inches per side and less than one inch tall, so it’s an easy traveling companion. This travel router also comes with a stylish black carrying sack with space for its AC/DC power adapter, and the whole package weighs less than twelve ounces. For added convenience, you can power the RT-AX57 Go from your laptop with an optional USB cable and leave the AC/DC adapter at home.

If you are one of the nearly 40 million people planning to go on a cruise by 2027, we encourage you to take along a little peace of mind and a whole lot of convenience. When you put an ASUS RT-AX57 Go mobile router into your luggage, you give yourself and your travel companions the security of home WiFi networking mixed with the convenience of public WiFi.

When you get back home, your ASUS travel router can continue to play a role in your daily connectivity. It’s a perfectly capable standalone router. If your home router is an ASUS model compatible with AiMesh, the RT-AX57 Go serves as a node in your AiMesh extendable network. Or just plug it into your existing router to create a second WiFi network in your house. You can dedicate your second network to VPN connections or use it to create a safe network for visiting children and grandchildren.

Staying connected while you’re traveling can be more convenient and secure than you might have thought was possible, even if you have many devices and traveling companions. Use the links below to get an ASUS RT-AX57 Go travel router of your own today.