Wireless Reviews

QuickView: Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter

Some people think WLAN detectors are a must-have buy, while others think they're just expensive toys. But since Canary Wireless' Digital Hotspotter is the first such device to provide more than just signal level info, some naysayers just may have to rethink their position.

Smart Home Reviews

Apple AirPort Express

You might think that the Apple AirPort Express is just a high-priced iTunes peripheral. But while you'd be right about the high price, you'd be missing a product that has a lot to offer wireless networkers from both sides of the OS divide.

LAN & WAN Reviews

SmoothWall Express 2.0

Next in our series of reviews of Open Source based router / firewalls is SmoothWall Express 2.0. Jim Hubbard takes a look at this free, user-friendly distro, that's speedy enough for pretty much any connection you can throw at it.

Wireless Features

Do Extended-range WLAN technologies deliver?

Longer range and faster speed are the watchwords for wireless LAN product manufacturers and the criteria by which many of us choose which products to buy. We take a look at three "extended range" WLAN technologies - Atheros' Super G / XR, Airgo Networks' True MIMO and Parker Vision's D2D - to see if they deliver as promised.

LAN & WAN Reviews

ClarkConnect Gateway / Server

Linux is definitely becoming more of a real option for desktop users, with many distributions available that anyone comfortable with Windows can install and use. Point Clark Networks' ClarkConnect has taken the same user-friendly approach and converts any Pentium-class box into a dedicated Linux-based Gateway / Server that can be installed and configured by mere mortals and puts many commercial products to shame. And did we mention that it's free? Jim Hubbard puts ClarkConnect through its paces.

LAN & WAN Basics

NeedToKnow: Voice over IP – Part 1

These days you hear the acronym "VoIP" so much that it sounds like the Monty Python skit that launched SPAM into Internet vernacular. But it looks like this time Voice over IP is here to stay. So it's time for one of our Need To Knows so that you're armed and ready to understand its terminology and make intelligent choices among a dizzying array of VoIP products and services.

Wireless How To

How To: Using m0n0wall to create a Wireless Captive Portal

The freedom of wireless networking is now a reality for everybody with a suitably equipped device. At one time too expensive for everything other than corporate use on a business network, Wi-Fi is now mainstream. In many respects, this is due to Intel's extensive marketing of its Centrino brand, launched in mid-March 2003.