Our recent look at Viewsonic’s WMA100 Media Adapter found a basically good product, but with rough edges in its user interface. This time Jim Buzbee looks at the companion WMG120 Media Gateway, which he found lacking in a number of important areas.
We went, we saw and now we’re reporting. There was lots to see in the world of networking at last week’s CES. Our final report will give you a sense of the things to come in the year ahead, which looks to be an interesting one!
The annual gadget-fest known as the Consumer Electronics show has come once again to Las Vegas. With Comdex now but a distant memory, CES has become the show to be at. Our first report will get you up and running on what’s new in Networking.
The ability of most routers to control the who, what and when of Internet access leaves much to be desired. Micah LaCombe found that ZyXEL’s HomeSafe Parental Control Gateway is an exception to this status quo and doesn’t command a premium price either.
Sometimes innovative products are the ones that just bundle the right combination of existing capabilities into an easy-to-use package. We found that Buffalo Technology’s WZR-RS-G54 fits this bill and merits a look if you frequently need to reach back into your LAN from afar.
ViewSonic recently decided to expand into the home networking space with a line of products aimed at multimedia networking. The WMA100 Media Adapter can play digital audio, video and still image files, but Jim Buzbee found that it took some getting used to the product’s way of doing things.
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.
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.
Anyone who has used Apple’s AirPort Express to connect to a remote iTunes server knows the frustration of having to trot back and forth to change playlists or even advance to the next tune. Fortunately, Keyspan’s Express Remote lets you stay put and let your fingers do the walking.
Compact 2.5 inch drive enclosure that provides Ethernet and 802.11g wireless NAS features. Functions as AP or wireless client. Includes DHCP and FTP servers
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.
The wait is over for wireless networkers who have been waiting for an 802.11g card for their PDAs. If your PocketPC has a CompactFlash slot, the Linksys WCF54G will get you on the air quickly and we found wireless speed improvement to be better than expected.