Networking Reviews

Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance is perfect firewall system for offices with moderate threat level to their security. Firewall device 501 is ideal for securing high-speed broadband environments, the Cisco PIX 501 delivers up to 60 Mbps of firewall throughput, and supports up to 3 Mbps of Triple Data Encryption Standard (3DES) VPN throughput. The Advanced Encryption Standard-128 (AES) VPN throughput has 4.5 Mbps speed capability.

The Cisco PIX 501 Security Appliance provides several options for securing network communications between mobile users, remote offices, and corporate networks over low-cost Internet connections. However, for bigger corporate and enterprise level and to support complex network configurations, this is not a right product. I still believe that checkpoint is a better solution for bigger networks but its support is not as good as Cisco.

Moreover, Cisco devices are generally fully compatible with other Cisco products like routers and VPN concentrators.

Again, The quality and reliability should not be discussed here as it is another standard quality product from Cisco Inc. Cisco 501 Security Appliance will serve the purpose well for smaller offices with fewer remote locations.

You can get every goodies of network security from this little baby, except the DMZ and VLANs. In response of previous comment, you can always get PIX 515E, 525, or even 535 for more network demand. But again, basically they are all the same. The differences are only the DMZ, VLAN, and speed.

Since this kind of product requires sufficient knowledge of networking, I advise not to blame products due to your lack of knowledge. Most problems with firewalls (and other networking devices) are improper choice of product, poor configuration, and lack of networking knowledge. You should know what you are doing and what are the implications.

Cisco products have been proven as top of the line in regards of their customer services. As an example, go to their website. You will find wealth of networking tips, which is gold mine even for non-Cisco users. Never other companies have this kind of website.

You can your every penny worth with Cisco products (including this PIX 501) as long as (one more time) you know what you are doing and why.

I purchased the GCS1734 to use with my iBook, G4 tower, and my Linux/WinXP box. I'm currently using a Logitech Elite keyboard and Optical Wheel Mouse. The KVM switch installed quickly and easily after reading the instruction manual.

The only problems I've noticed so far:
1. My Mac's will not go to sleep and remain asleep.
2. I cannot operate the iBook with the screen closed, it will try to sleep after 5-10 seconds, then wake up, then try to sleep again. This doesn not happen when the keyboard, mouse, & monitor are plugged directly into the machine - only when using the KVM.
3. After installing the Logitech drivers the wheel mouse would not work when plugged into the USB mouse port on the front of the KVM switch. Moving the mouse to a "peripheral" port on the rear of the KVM fixed this.
4. The audio switching feature is nice, but it cuts the low frequencies off around 100-150Hz. My Klipsch Promedia 2.1 subwoofer was not thumping like usual when run through the switch, so I do not recommend using this feature if you like good sound.

All in all, I feel this KVM switch is an excellent buy. The hardware is well designed and very compact. The cables are well sheilded and I see no "ghosting" on my CRT display - a very common result of using inferior RGB monitor cables. All keys and mouse buttons are mapped correctly and as far as I can see there are no fatal flaws in this product. I really appreciate the ability to update the firmware as well.

If you've been searching for a KVM that works with your USB mouse and keyboard... without having to give up the custom features of your USB keyboard and mouse... the IOGear GCS1734 is the one to get. I've ran into many problems with other IOGear as well as Belkin KVM's that support USB console and PC's... they usually work, but you usually only get basic functionality from your keyboard and mouse i.e. you don't get access to multimedia keys or volume control on your keyboard, or access to additional buttons on your mouse. The GCS1734 is the first KVM I've come across that has no problems with my Logitech Elite keyboard (volume, multimedia keys, scroll wheel etc all work fine... note I did not install any drivers... none were needed) and my Microsoft Intellimouse Explorer (4.0... the one with the tilt wheel)... both work fine. I'm using the KVM with two Windows XP machines, an IBM laptop port replicator (for the T30 series)... and a Suse Linux PC. I can switch between them with no issues. Add to that the ability to also switch sound etc... this is the KVM to buy!

Negatives? It's not cheap... an On Screen Display would be nice for what you pay.

I was given this hub by one of my business associates because his company was upgrading. I tested this hub by connecting it to my current DSL/Cable router thereby increasing my available ports from 4 to 24. No problems at all. It allowed my cable router to act as the DHCP so it acted just like I was actually plugged into the router itself.

BTW, if you want to add a hub to your DSL/Cable network you must have a Gateway/Router to be able to share the internet connection. Connect a cable from the Uplink port on the router to port #1 on the hub and you're all set.

The picture is a bit different from the actual product but this hub is actually the Linksys model EF2H24 - EtherFast® 10/100 24-port Auto-Sensing Hub which usually runs for $200-$250 and it works great! I plugged it in and that was it.

This was a great deal!

I highly recommend using this product with a NetGear Access Point or NetGear firewall combo-device like the FWAG114. The only caveat is the signal was sometimes surprisingly low in a small area, but as it constantly polls different frequencies, it improves over time.

It's difficult, if not impossible, these days to find a pci based wireless card that handles all three bandwidths a/b/g with adequate power and an external antenna connector so you can extend the range of your card significantly. The FCC has a mess of regulations regarding the 5 gig band and the addition of transmit and receive sensitivity, whether by adding your own external attenna or raw power output of the card, is strictly regulated. On the surface it might look like this card falls lock step to the FCC code as it comes with a netgear shield over it and a seemingly fixed wire that runs out to the end of a 2.5 inch fixed dipole.

But on closer inspection you only need to pop off the shield with some needlenose pliers (taking into account the voidance of the warranty of course) to discover the hidden mcx connector that you can detach the stock antenna and add your own mcx pigtail of your choice. There's even a nice little solder block to allow you to solder your own pigtail onto and opening for the connector on the card. The b/g radio can crank to 98mW and 11a up to 50mW of power. There are only a handful of PCI tri mode cards, and this is one of the only that have the power requirements and external antenna requirement I wanted without having to soder my own straight onto the pcb.

So for your small network you need a Router, 4port hub and occationally want to connect to it from on the road.

this is the box you want, It will do everything other routers do
plus it has a VPN SERVER that works with windows right out of
the box. It natively support PPTP, so you do not need additional software. Beware with other VPN server like linksys you WILL need a client software it you are using windows.

Negative: telnet administration, with more learning curve than
the web based interfaces you see with Linksys, etc.

nobody does broadband access better than Netopia. that is because of their products and their USA based tech and customer support. in this day of 'disposable' equipment, Netopia keeps on producing the best in class and helping with upgrades and support too.

This is a decent router for people that don't know a lot about networking. The only real complaint that I have about this is that I have trouble with the web based configuration interface. Sometimes it does't want to load for me and the I have to restart the router and try again, which really only takes a second or two and can get annoying after several tries. But other than that, it is a good all around router.

This is a very good router and does not slow down your internet a bit. Very easy to set up and very compact and small.

Installation was a snap and lucky for NetGear that it was. The instruction manual does need to be worked on as it really doesn't explain very much.

Works very well, haven't had any problems with it mechanically. One problem I do face is that now I can't do a ipconfig under Windows 2000 to see what my dynamic ip address is from my cablem modem provider.

Otherwise, this router is really efficient. It assigns and handles as the DHCP server so that all my networked computers are able to access the internet with just one IP address from my internet provider. Throughout the week I have yet to see any attempted intrusion to my computers via ZoneAlarm Pro because of the router's firewall security protection and NAT technology features.

A great buy for multiple computers in a home.

I'm not sure if it can be compared with Linksys' BEFSR41 4-port Etherfast Cable/DSL router, but both seem to offer very similar features. Linksys cost more and I think the router has a plastic shell rather than a metal casing. I favored NetGear mainly because it matched my NetGear FS105 switch box.

I purchased this router a few days ago, and I'm stunned by how easy it was to set up. I use high-speed internet access, and I wanted to be able to share the line with another home computer. By reading the instructions that came with the router, I was able to install everything in about 15 minutes. This is pretty amazing, since the internet provider I use normally requires a software program to log into it. All I did was enter the login information into the web-based interface, connect the cables, and both computers had seamless high-speed internet access. The case is made of metal, and it operates silently. The lights on the front offer useful information, like informing me the LAN card in my older system offered only 10MBPS rather than 100MBPS, like the newer system, and telling me when the computers are turned on and accessing the internet. The built-in switch is great, too. It lets you create a home network without needing to purchase anything else. So now my computers have fast access to both the internet and each other. What really sold me on this product was reading about the problems people had with different routers in the high-speed newsgroup. Apparently Netgear has excellent and speedy customer service, while its main competitor in this product line has very slow and quite unhelpful customer service. (This last point should be taken with a grain of salt, since it is second-hand information, and I had no need to call Netgear's customer support.) Also, if it matters to anyone, Netgear is owned by Nortel, which is known for excellent products in its own right. I couldn't be happier! Highly recommended for small SOHO networks of four computers or less.

This router was easy to configure right out of the box. Have used it for 3 years without a hitch and have never been infiltrated.

Pluses:
web-based interface
menu driven telnet interface
NAT
flawless performance
Netgear web support, phone support
light-weight, slim design, sleek looks
low-price

Minuses:
none

Bought a Linksys BEFCMU10 (version 2) in January of 2003. Initially had a few problems requiring that I reset the modem. Problem turned out to be an ISP problem. Problem fixed and had a year and a half of excellent service.
Yesterday, my Linksys BEFCMU10 failed. I bought a new (version 3) and am back in business.
At $10 per month to rent a modem from my ISP, I am still money ahead buying my modem. However, the Linksys modem does get hot and the heat is probably exacerbated using the modem with a stakable Linksys router as I do.

After frustrating results trying to set up the cable modem and 20 hours on line with @Home... no, not @Home. Today, ATTBI... (will it be ATTBI-Comcast???)

The new ATTBI help desk officially does not support this modem. However, the reason for my troubles was because the flunkies that were helping me failed to properly register my MAC address.

Be persistent with updating your MAC address with your cable ISP and the Linksys BEFCMU10 will work like a charm.

This is a great little modem. I hooked up through the ethernet port so I didn't have any compatibility problems with the operating system, that only applies through the USB connection. My ISP is ATTBI. Initially, the cable light would not stay nailed up like it did on my leased RCA modem. According to the manual, the cable light is an indication of communication between the modem and the internet. If you are not sending or receiving data, the cable light cycles about every 20 seconds. This was an indication to the ATTBI technician that the modem was receiving an intermittent signal (an incorrect assumption). He advised me that the modem was bad and to contact Linksys. He did however, despite the conclusion he had made, load the MAC address for my Linksys modem into the system luckily for me (I'm sure the irony was lost on that individual or else they were looking to charge me twice to change out the MAC address twice anyway...). Fortunately, I had some "techie" friends who saw through that tech support nonsense and told me to proceed through the set-up process. I never had to contact Linksys and my modem works great. It took less than 5 minutes to set up.

I have two computers in my home connected to the internet via a DSL modem. My ISP provider dynamically assigns an IP address and uses the popular pppoe protocol. Before buying the Linksys I had a hub connected to the output of the modem. My ISP was apparently happy to assign different IP addresses to both computers simultaneously and this arrangement worked fine but I didn't really have a full-fledged LAN in my home. By replacing the hub with the Linksys router that problem is solved. Now when I run Windows 98 on both computers each one can access the others files, etc. There is a price, however. With the previous arrangement I could use either PC as an SSH server to the outside world. I could, for example, leave my laptop running under Linux, jot down its current IP adress on a piece of scratch paper, and then log onto the laptop from the lab where I occasionally consult. The Linksys prevents this. I can't even ping the laptop from the outside world (or the router, for that matter.) There may be a way around this with a different configuration of the Linksys but the documentation only provides vague hints about how to set it up. I had trouble at first setting up the router. Things began to work after I uninstalled all the software for connecting directly to the ISP through the modem. I had been using Winpoet for this, for example, and removing it from my hard disk seemed to be necessary for getting to first base with the setup. My recommendation to new users is to set the little printed manual aside and CAREFULLY follow the instructions on the CD that comes with the router. I have been connected for about a month with only one glitch. Once, for no apparent reason things quit working. I had to power everything off and reboot, starting with the modem, then the router and then the PC's, allowing about one minute for each unit to go through it's self-test, handshaking, etc etc, before starting the next. Speed of access to the internet is a bit faster with the Linksys than when using the Winpoet software, although Winpoet was fast enough and was completely reliable.

We have a PC upstairs, which is our primary computer, and a Mac downstairs in the tv room. I wanted both to be able to share our broadband Internet service. I looked at several routers, both wired and wireless. It came down to the Linksys (wired version) and SMC Barricade Wireless. I kept coming back to Linksys because a friend owns one and raves about it.

Besides the fact that it looks really cool, it almost took me longer to get it out of the box than it did to set it up. No kidding! Using the QuickStart guide, I was up and running in less than ten minutes. You hook up the necessary cables, restart your computer, log-in to the Linksys website to configure your router, restart your computer again, and you're good to go.

I wasn't as optimistic about setting up my Power Mac G3. However, I was pleasantly surprised and it took me all of about five minutes before I was doing some high-speed surfing on that machine as well. Fortunately, my Mac has an Ethernet port so it was just a matter of attaching the CAT-5 cable from there to the Linksys and setting the TCP/IP control panel to the Ethernet and DHCP options. I saved my configuration, opened up my browser and spent the next two hours high-speed surfing with no problems.

I have no problem recommending the Linksys, especially for its ease of setup on a PC and Mac network. While I would have preferred a wireless setup, they've received mixed reviews and I was concerned about Mac compatibility. After seeing how well my Mac performs with this Linksys, I'm ready to make ours a wired household!

Installation after all was smooth but the CD wizard didn't work; it was telling me it couldn't establish connection to the Internet. I went then with the manual approach, which was pretty straightforward.
By the way, for those who are new to the networking I'd recommend to try running a useful configuration utility program "winipcfg" from Start->Run command. It will display all those IP, Subnet Mask, Gateway and DNS addresses, which you will need during the installation. No calling your ISP is necessary at this point. After clicking the "More info" button, it will show you everything you need. Just make sure that in pull down menu you see the name of your Ethernet Adapter that is used for your high speed connection, not AOL or PPP for example. It should be displayed there by default, though.
If you already have firewall software on your PC, you can still use it after the router's installation as an additional security from within your system. If you don't have it, you need to get one. Router itself shields you pretty well only from the outside intruders. And don't forget to disable firewall during the router's installation.
As a new user of this router I'm giving it my highest ratings for the price and currently very good performance.

I have had two DLink routers and both have died from overheating. I use my router every day, about 3-5 hours altogether, only doing normal web surfing and minimal to moderate downloading. The first router completely failed, had lasted about 2 years so I thought it had a good run. Bought another Dlink, because hey they *are* cheap. It's been a little over a year and the thing is overheating just like the first one. You can feel the heat just rising off the cheap plastic box. It works intermittenly and will probably fail completely soon. Besides spending money twice on something that died so easily, I had ALWAYS had trouble with the advanced features such as opening up ports and even using the DMZ feature. I could never get my router to open up correctly to outside traffic. I'm going to go with a Linksys, hoping it will last me a little longer and will perform more reliably.

I got this little router some time ago, from an online store to set up a home network for the family. I got it because it was cheap and its 4-ports and 100Mbps speed would be adequate for our needs. We have a Ameritech DSL connection, which works just great by itself to my mom's PC. Now, I am an experienced and trained computer technician, and know how to set up networks. However, once I set up our three-computer network a day ago and put this router in it, it has been a real nightmare from the first second. I cannot share files or access other computers on my home network. The firewall is tricky and a nightmare--it blocks access for file sharing.The web-based configuration is nice, but it could be a little bit more streamlined, plus better and more documentation for it would help. Now for the big bummer---about every hour to 2 hours, my computer's connection to the router will freeze up. Yesterday evening it happened 4 TIMES and I had to restart the router each time. (Finally after the last lockup, only having used it for less than 24 hrs I just yanked the power plug out and unplugged all my cables) I had first thought it was my cables, I redid them to make sure they were perfect but the problem still happened even when I tested and certified the cables. I then realized it is not my computer, my modem, or my cables, it is that little box they labeled a "router"! I am very unsatisified with this cheap plastic and silicon box. Also the D-Link sticker on the bottom appears to be counterfeit--it showed only the D-link & FCC logos and model number, but NO serial number,MAC number, or Firmware number! It has the look of having been quickly put together by some dumb schmuck who just wanted to make a fast buck, as I found out later it was a "refurbished" model!! I am also appalled at the lack of print manuals and no paper proof of guarantee or warranty was issued with it. Also I applied for the rebates given AND NEVER got it! Plus the weird thing is that the Acrobat manual showed the newer version (the Rev. E, which is gray and blue) of the DI-604 while the one I had was the older all-gray model (Rev. A,B, or C--take your pick I don't know mine because of that blank sticker!)! Also, it overheats really good and i could feel the heat on the plastic cover! There is no heatsink on the processor inside. Now, my DSL modem does not ever feel like that, even in the midst of running both an AIM session, a huge 50MB download, and browsing a webpage. I am going to toss this defective router, and will NEVER EVER again buy computer parts and equipment from online "stores" (this is the second time in my life I have been ripped off by vendors) or from D-Junk, er D-Link! From now on I will go with Linksys, which all my tech friends say is best for home networking.

Installed the D-Link DI-604 with 2 computers, one running Windows 98 and the other one running Windows XP Pro. The installation took about 20 minutes. The firewall works well. I tested the firewall by using Shields Up Test ...I recieved the newer DI-604 case than is shown in amazon.com picture. I did update the firmware by downloading the binary file from D-Link's website. The web based interface for the configuration is nice and does it's job well. And I do like the ability to turn off or control the times of use for a network connection hooked up to the DI-604. One thing I do wish it did have was a log showing all traffic or website pages that were surfed to. The unit is a bit on the light weight size and it is physically kind of small. The DI-604's WAN network connection to my Cable modem is only a 10MBit connection, but it's more than enough considering the maximum the Cable modem can deliver is 1.5Mbit. The other 4 LAN connections are 10/100MB connections and work fine at 100MB. Overall, quite a nice package with good performance for the price.