sohoware broadguard NBG800 broadband router review

Broadguard NBG800 Router

SohoWare  link

Review Type: Hands On

Reviewer: Courtney Lewis

Date: Apr 23, 2001

Broadguard router and firewall features: 

1 RJ-45 10Mpbs Ethernet WAN port

Summary

The SohoWare Broadguard is the first sub $200 router to sport a firewall with statefull packet inspection. The web based user interface features pop-up help screens that are especially informative and helpful. The Broadguard has a well rounded feature and represents a new measure by witch other routers should be measured.

A quick story about my adventures with the Broadguard

When I first started using the SohoWare Broadguard I was excited about the superior firewall features but less than impressed with the operations of the unit as a basic broadband router. Some key features were missing from the Broadguard that I had come to expect in any modern broadband router. After some fiddling, I downloaded the latest FlashROM upgrade from the SohoWare site and –BAM- a whole new set of features appeared. All the areas where the Broadguard was lacking were suddenly fixed– all through a simple FlashROM upgrade. If you purchase a Broadguard, do yourself a favor and keep up with the upgrades – they are WELL worth it.

The configuration interface is web based and can be administered from any platform. With remote administration enabled it can also be administered over the Internet. The IP schema can be completely user defined, but the default should work for just about everyone. A combination of pop-up help boxes and a configuration wizard makes the router especially easy to configure. I found the on-line help very informative and the wizard easy to use.

Port Forwarding and DMZ

A new feature for the Broadguard is port forwarding. The Broadguard supports only very basic user defined port forwarding, but does not expose the level of control that some other routers have. More features ARE available in the router, but are not yet exposed in the web interface. I expect more features to appear in the web interface with the next upgrade.

The DMZ is something special. Most routers let you map your single Internet IP address to a single LAN computer. The Broadguard’s DMZ allows up to 8 other DMZ’s to be established in case you wish to utilize multiple internet IP address. They can be mapped to the same LAN computer or different ones.

We ran the firewall through a series of tests and it performed perfectly. A thorough port scan showed the router to be locked down tightly. Unlike most other routers that rely on NAT as the firewall, the broadguard includes statefull packet inspection. This allows the unit to detect and thwart many advanced kinds of attacks that other routers choke on. This level of security is great to see in router that costs less than $200. (see firewall test results )

This is the only area that the Broadguard is weak in. The device will display a list of its current activity, but does not track any historical data. I would have liked to see a better loggin system, especially with such a strong firewall.

The Broadguard includes an e-mail agent that will send a message whenever it detects an attack- SohoWare calls this ‘Hacker Alert’. Hacker Alert is either On of Off. With it on, every time an attack comes in, an e-mail is generated. With it off, no alert is generated and no log of the attack is kept. By default, Hacker Alert sends e-mail through its own mail server at NBG800.com. This can be changed but SohoWare recommends using theirs.

The web interface is not the only administration interface available on the Boradguard. The Broadguard also has a telnet server built in that lets advanced users control a few more features than the web interface allows. Here are some of the undocumented features I found.

1) Fully configurable SNMP trap setup

2) Advanced port forwarding with mismatched internal and external ports

I fully expect that these features will be exposed in the web interface in time, but why wait! The Broadguard is a powerful machine so take advantage of it’s entire feature set.

Manual and FlashROM upgrades can be found at

sohoware broadguard NBG800 broadband router review