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F E A T U R E

WaveBase: A Gateway to Wireless Heaven

October 29, 2001
By Dave Molta

SMC Networks Wireless Barricade Router

The SMC Wireless Barricade Router is based on a hardware and software platform nearly identical to that of D-Link's DI-713P. While we were extremely impressed with the features, range and performance of the Wireless Barricade Router, offering our enthusiastic recommendation is difficult for a product that didn't work when we received it. In fairness to SMC, the company was prompt in sending a replacement unit, and that unit worked well during testing. If it were not for the fact that we had similar reliability problems with its cousin from D-Link, we might have dismissed the failure as an unfortunate twist of bad luck. If the vendors can resolve their quality-control problems, this might be the best value.

The Wireless Barricade Router's range was near the top of the list for all the products we tested. Many of the products included in our tests depend on a PC Card interface and the card's internal antenna, but SMC takes a different approach. It still uses a PC Card radio, but the radio is permanently mounted inside the box and connected to two flexible antennae mounted on the back of the unit. The larger antennae and the separation between them likely provides slightly higher radio-frequency gain and better immunity from multipath interference, a common source of wireless-range problems.

The Barricade's performance was also very good. However, like that of many of the other products, performance dropped significantly when WEP was enabled, particularly for data transmitted from the router to wireless clients. We found the configuration and management interface easy to use, and the unit is packed with features. The built-in print server worked as advertised, and the security implementation was complete. The Barricade is one of only four products in this review that supports access-control restrictions based on MAC address, a security feature that is relatively difficult to manage in an enterprise environment but useful in a SOHO environment. In fact, some might argue that MAC-address-based access control is a more powerful security feature than WEP, and it doesn't hurt performance.

Wireless Barricade Router (SMC7004AWBR), $250. Available: Now. SMC Networks, (949) 707-2400, (800) SMC-4YOU; fax (949) 707-2360. www.smc.com