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Best Remote Access Hardware

Shiva Outraces The Remote Competition

This year's crop of hardware remote access servers witnessed a dominance of advances in management, client software and speed. While none of the products we've tested are truly plug-and-play, they're certainly much more so than their software-based brethren. For minimal hassle, this is the way to go.
While Shiva's LANRover/E PLUS and Microcom's LANexpress 4000 stand out, we also have to point out the speed and stability of the U.S. Robotics' Courier V.Everything with V.34, which has made an outstanding contribution to the remote access market.
Our winner, Shiva's LANRover/E PLUS, has a fine combination of speed, Windows-based management, and varied, but solid, client support. Its throughput was fast and consistent. It performed at the top in most of our remote access tests, and showed no degradation, whether one or several clients were blasting data at 115 Kbps.
The Novell NetWare 3.1x server bindery and Shiva's Windows manager are complete and provide everything you need to troubleshoot and control the remote access server. Shiva has also played a significant role in developing and promoting ubiquitous client support by offering Mac support and PPP IP and IPX client support.
Microcom's LANexpress 4000 had the best Windows management application, with the most comprehensive statistical feedback options, and the ability to control the internal modems from the management console. It has a tightly integrated client. Microcom includes an additional technological advance: the elimination of the need for high-speed U ART serial interfaces by providing a DTE modem interface through the parallel port of the client PC. The V.Everything modem from U.S. Robotics gathered top honors for speed, reliability and its ability to be equally at home serving a single desktop or in the machine room as part of a central site remote access solution.

Shiva LANRover/E PLUS, $2,799-$106,788, Shiva Corp., Northwest Park, 63 Third Ave., Burlington, MA 01803. (800) 977-4482; (508) 788-3061; fax (617) 270-8599.

Runners-Up
LANexpress 4000,
Microcom, 500 River Ridge Dr.,
Norwood, MA 02062-5028,
(800) 822-8224; (617) 551-1000,
fax (617) 551-1968.

Courier V.Everything with V.34, U.S. Robotics,
8100 N. McCormick Blvd., Skokie, IL 60076-2999.
(800) USR-CORP; (708) 982-5010; fax (708) 933-5800.