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Wireless-Ready Multimedia Gateway
from Actiontec
Score: 2 out of 3
Review Type: Hands On
Reviewer: Chris Kaminski
Date: Dec 2, 2001
Firmware: 1.0.1.04
Link: Actiontec
Price: Aprox $80
Wireless Card: Aprox $80
Actiontec’s Wireless-Ready Multimedia Gateway is an entry level cable/dsl router
with 4 switched Ethernet ports. It features a unique dual-PCCard design that allows
a consumer to expand the router when the need arises. Currently, Actiontec offers
an 802.11b 11Mbps wireless Ethernet expansion card but plan to bring out others.
Depending on consumer demand, Actiontec could bring out PhoneLine adapters, bluetooth
adapters, 802.11g/a adapters or anything else that popped up.
An expandable router is great in theory, but may end up costing you more in the
long run. At the time of this writing, the Gateway was $134.99 and the 802.11b card
was $104.99 bringing the total up to about $240. This puts the router on the expensive
side of the market these days but may be worth if Action brings out other adapters.
Setup
One of the strongest parts of the router is the setup routine. The web based setup
wizard has multiple paths depending on your particular configuration. A DSL user
will see screens specifically related to DSL configurations while cable modem users
will see a different set of screens. I hope everyone takes a few hints from these
guys.
Security
Like all other routers, NAT offers you a good level of protection from the outside
world. Outgoing security is limited and takes the form of two features – website
blocking and services blocking.
Website blocking simply allows you to type in a list of URL’s that the
router will not pass. The documentation is not very specific, but this is actually
a string based URL blocker. Blocking “www.homenethelp.com” would not block http://homenethelp.com
but typing in “homenethelp” would block http://www.homenethelp.com,
http://homenethelp.com, http://homenethelp.net, etc.
Services blocking allows you to block specific application ports. You have
a choice of blocking ftp, newsgroups, IM or email on any LAN IP address. This is
a VERY basic outgoing port blocking solution since it does not allow for custom
ports.
Summary
When compared to other routers in this price range, this router falls a little short.
I would like to see the ability to back up your configuration, better NetMeeting
3.0 support, more flexible outbound security. Some kind of security logging would
be nice too. Although the idea of an expandable router is intriguing, the
actual future expansion capabilities are questionable since the only card available
is an 802.11b adapter.
Positive
+Great Setup wizard
+Great expansion possibilities
Negative
-Too expensive
-Only 802.11b expansion out right now
-Light on advanced features
-Upgrading firmware wipes out current configuration
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