wireless routers
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Netgear FWG114P Prosafe 802 11G The following report compares gadgets using the SERCount Rating (base on the result count from the search engine). |
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POPULAR HAT - 2006-02-13 11:31:00 | © Copyright 2004 - www.hat.net () | sitemap | top |
As with most vendors, I suspect you'll have better compatibility if you use a Netgear WiFi NIC with this unit. I can get it to work with a Cisco Aironet NIC, but I cannot get WPA encryption to work. WEP (for what it's worth) works, but I'll probably have to spring for the corresponding Netgear NIC if I want to move to WPA.
The print server took a hit with the flash upgrade, however. Now it will only work as long as the PCs using it never reboot. If they do, you lose the connection to the print server until the firewall is rebooted. Tech support has been, um, less than helpful in resolving the issue. For that reason, my rating still stands at 4 stars. I strongly recommend you check the printer compatibility list on Netgear's site before you count on this as a print server.
A couple of other notes:
- The firewall is solid. I'm a networking guy, and I've tried to hack my way in a couple of times. Nothing's perfect, but this is a good solution in the home or very small business market. The worst I've been able to do against this unit is a denial of service, which disabled the Internet connection to my home network until I rebooted the unit.
- If you plan to use MSN Messenger 6.2 and/or Windows XP's Remote Assistance, you'll need to enable UPnP on this unit, which is a bit annoying, but more of a Microsoft issue.
- The e-mail logging is VASTLY improved over that of the previous flash. My logs are much more manageable, and the number of false-positive security alert messages is minimal.
- You can now create up to two remote access VPN tunnels with the new flash. I tried it and it works, although as a home user I can't imagine ever needing that feature. Difficult to set up, though, so unless you have a solid understanding of IPSEC VPN protocols, good luck.
Still, I believe this is a good unit for a home office. For me, combining the functions of print server, wireless access point, and hardware firewall into a single device make it worth the price.