Editors' Rating
Published: 28 Feb 2002
Actiontec has put together a broadband Internet gateway product that supports wired and wireless users, could be expanded to include future wireless technologies, and is easy to install. However, relatively poor performance and a relatively steep price count against it.
The 'Wireless-Ready' part of this product's name means that, on its own, the Gateway has no wireless functionality. However, add one of Actiontec's PC Card adapters and it becomes an access point in addition to all its other functions. There are two PC Card slots in the gateway. Although at present there's little you can do with the second slot, firmware upgrades could allow such things as Bluetooth connectivity to be added in future.
There are four Ethernet ports for wired PCs, all allowing up to 100Mbit/s full duplex operation. A further Ethernet port allows connection to a cable or DSL modem should you have one. If you don't, the gateway doesn't offer a direct way of using a dial-up connection to access the Internet. You could, in theory, connect a PC with dial-up router software installed and a modem or TA to the broadband port, but you then wouldn't be able to use that PC for anything else.
Installation should be fairly simple. Configure all your PCs -- wired or wireless -- to use DHCP to get their IP address and connect them to the Gateway. The PC Card wireless adapter will work without any configuration, so you don't need to have a wired PC to set the gateway up.
You use your Web browser to configure the gateway, which is why it's important to use the built-in DHCP server -- you can't change the Gateway's IP address if you can't connect to it. You have a choice of basic or advanced setup, depending on which network applications you'll be using. If you're an online gamer or use IP telephony, for example, you'll need the advanced option.
The Gateway includes firewall functionality, but the extent to which you can configure it is limited. You can prevent certain PCs from accessing Internet services, such as the Web or newsgroups, using their IP addresses. This facility is limited, since if you're using the gateway's built-in DHCP server the IP address of a particular system on your network can change. Similarly, the service-blocking system uses the standard port numbers for these services, a measure which could be circumvented by a reasonably knowledgeable Internet user. You can also block access to specific Web sites by DNS name for all PCs on the network.
Note that this blocking is to prevent PCs on your network accessing the outside world. By default, all incoming traffic is blocked by the gateway's firewall. If you only want to use standard Internet services -- the web, email and FTP, for example -- you shouldn't have to do any further configuration. If you do want to play games online, use instant messaging applications or host a Web site on your network, you may well have to set the gateway up to allow this traffic through. Port forwarding facilities are provided, so that any requests coming in are forwarded to a particular PC on your network. There's also a 'DMZ' host facility which allows you to remove all firewall protection from one PC on your network. This latter option is the most useful for gamers.
Actiontec's product is a disappointing performer -- using either the USB or PC Card adapters produced the lowest throughput figures among the six solutions tested. At around 3Mbit/s, the Actiontec equipment only achieved roughly 75 per cent of the performance of most of the other products. This figure is still well above the bandwidth available from domestic broadband connections, and is plenty for applications such as streaming audio. You need to decide whether the lower performance of this unit is more or less important to you than its good feature set.
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