Originally posted by: k1114
(My post from FW, now updated a bit )
Allright guys here goes:
First impressions and the box
In the box was exactly what I expected, one network cable, power cords, an ethernet cable, and a vertical stand. The usual router setup, nothing special. The router itself is rather small, maybe 7.5x6x2 overall, about the size of a cd-rom drive with rounded corners. The plugins are well marked and everything is as easy as can be, the physical connections should be no problem. You can use either crossover or straight cables or a mix, the router auto detects them either way and adjusts as necessary.
Quick Setup
The router comes pre-configured for basic use, once everything is in you should have an immediate connection, although you may will need to reset your cable or dsl modem the first time. Make sure your NIC's are set to DHCP. The CD that comes with the router is worthless, don't bother even looking at it. There is one small program that identifies the model of the router and points you to
http://192.160.10.1 when you double click it. You can do this yourself from a web browser at any network point. You
cannot set this up as a router to router wireless bridge, 99% of SOHO wireless routers cannot communicate directly with other wireless routers.
Configuring and Security
Below are images of all the pages for the router setup, which is accessed by going to the link I just mentioned (
http://192.168.10.1) and entering the username and password. By default the username is "admin" and the password is "password", and you will want to change these on the administration (10th) page.
Note that you MUST use IE for setting up the router or not all options will work or even show up! It took me a while to realize this, and things like WEP keys and RADIUS functions are not shown in the images below.
Page 1
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Page 6
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Everything is probably how you want it to be, but you should take note of two things: First your wireless network is completely unsecure out of the box. While I doubt the range on this router is astounding, there is still a notable risk to leaving your network open! You can enter the mac address of any wireless NIC's accessing your network (See page 6 / "Wireless LAN Security") to help block out other systems, and for an extra layer of security I recommend enabling the "WEP" (encryption) and setting it to 128bit. I don't know why anyone would use 64 bit these days unless they have a network card that doesn't support 128bit.
You might note that there are no wired network security options. A wired connection is conisdered to be secure on a basic level since it is behind the router and would require another physical link to access. No changes you make on the Wireless LAN Security page (page 6) will affect your wired connections so don't worry about accidentally locking yourself out if you are using this feature.
The wireless side
Range is excellent for me, even without any "antenna" on the unit. My laptop gets "excellent signal" quality anywhere in and around my house using the integrated dell wireless feature with no antenna. Encryption via 64 and 128bit WAP, MAC adress filtering, and RADIUS authentication can all be enabled at once, so I give it a good mark for securtiy
Firmware updates / Software updates
I'm still looking into this The chipset is 802.11g compatible so i'm hoping someone will make a hacked firmware for it