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Grex Micros Item 248: The 802.11b router/firewall item
Entered by scott on Sun Jun 16 20:50:22 UTC 2002:

I've been looking into wireless (802.11b) access points ever since getting
an Apple iBook with an Airport card.  At the moment I've just finished doing
some research on various 802.11b access points / ethernet hubs / internet
firewall products.  These seem to be sold for less than just an access point,
and it doesn't seem necessary to actually have a broadband connection to use
one.

Probably the Apple Airport base station is the most obvious; it's got a
router/firewall and also a built-in 56K modem.  A bit pricey at $295, though.

I checked out similar (none with a 56K modem, though) products from Belkin,
D-Link, Linksys, and Netgear, all for $140-200.  Some include a 3 or 4 port
ethernet switch on the "local" side of the firewall, and a couple have a
built-in print server with a DB-25 connection.

Any comments or advice?  The Belkin F5D6230-3 got at least one favorable
review ( www.80211-planet.com ) and is the cheapest.  The Netgear unit looks
pretty good, also on the cheap side.

3 responses total.

#1 of 3 by scott on Mon Jun 24 18:56:20 2002:

I ended up buying a Netgear MR-314, after both picking it in my own survey
and then seeing it get highest rating in a Macworld shootout (lucky me; I'd
been browsing magazines in the library and happened upon the latest Macworld
with just the review I could have used).

It's home, and working great.  Took a few minutes to figure out the settings
on my own, rather than using the built-in wizard (it's all Web-based) which
assumed I already had a broadband connection.  Also blew a few more minutes
on figuring out the WEP (security) settings; there's a bit of weirdness with
having to put a $ at the beginning of the 26-byte key on my iBook (documented
in the Airport card paperwork, though).  Then I blew another few minutes
getting my Linux desktop to act as a router over its own dialup link, and
getting the right router settings (had to disable the Netgear's DHCP server).

Now it works great!  Coverage inside and outside my (all metal!) house is
great, which I was a bit worried about.  I just need to spend a bit more time
figuring out how to use the Linux text-based ppp-dialup instead of the KDE
dialer, and I'll be able to start and stop the dialup remotely as needed.

And some day in the future I'll have a real Internet connection, and I'll get
to use the router/firewall features.

#2 of 3 by jp2 on Mon Jun 24 20:23:46 2002:

This response has been erased.

#3 of 3 by nharmon on Wed Feb 15 17:30:38 2006:

I use an 802.11g router (Linksys WRT54G) at home, and have been pretty
satisfied with it, but I do wish I would have bought a seperate router
and access point.

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