Product Reviews

Despite its increasing popularity, Internet access for networks is still largely in the hands of professionals, and connecting a router demands expertise in IP addressing, routing and security. However, if manufacturers can ease the configuration process by producing a nice-looking box that is cheap to install, low on rental and remotely fixable, they could tap into a lucrative market.

Farallon has addressed this with its latest range of Netopia ISDN routers, which provide LAN access to a dial-up Internet account, giving cheap, fast and trouble-free Internet access for small-to-medium businesses.

Routers generally come in ugly grey boxes about the size of an average software box. But the Netopia design breaks the mould with a sleek design which can be wall- or table-mounted. It has a full array of LEDs which give plenty of information about the router's status, and the rear of the box has LocalTalk, Ethernet (RJ45 or EtherWave and AUI), ISDN and serial ports - all well laid out and clearly marked. Farallon has even provided a small metal clip for holding the power lead in place when the unit is wall-mounted, so it should blend perfectly into any office.

The Netopia router can use a single ISP dial-up account which can be as low as £10 per month, saving a business up to 70% on their monthly fees compared to a LAN-routed account. It does this with a feature called SmartIP, which maps the LAN IP addresses to the single dynamic IP account provided by the ISP. This makes the LAN-based IP addresses invisible to the Internet and so more secure.

The SmartIP feature

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also offers dynamic host configuration protocol (DHCP) which, in lay man's terms, dishes out IP addresses to the computers on your network. This avoids you having to buy a server, not to mention the associated administrative nightmare of manually configuring TCP/IP addresses across your LAN.

Configuration is simple if you have had experience with this type of device. If not, the manuals provided are of a high-standard, although it's still advisable to leave plenty of time to set it up. You connect a Mac (or PC) via serial cable and set up the IP address and network. Here, Farallon lets the Mac user down, as it doesn't come with any commsware that will provide a VT terminal emulation link via serial cable. Luckily, ClarisWorks will do this for you, but provision of the excellent Vicom Host Connectivity software (or similar) would be sensible. Once the box is on the LAN, you have two options: continue set-up using the serial cable, or use a Web browser. The browser option is a superb step forward that eases the pain of router set-up by taking away the need for the administrator to be at any one terminal (all they have to do is remember the IP address and password). Initial set-up of the router is done from the simple set-up menu which, again, is easy if you have done this type of thing before. However, if you haven't, it could prove to be hard work. Farallon could have improved usability by putting help buttons within the HTML set-up pages for browser configuration. The company has included a link to its home page, but that's not much good if you can't get your Internet router to work.

The router lets you route between offices (LAN-to-LAN) and between LocalTalk and Ethernet. The box also has a PCMCIA slot which allows a remote administrator to dial in and configure it. Lastly, using SmartPhone you can make use of ISDN's voice services by attaching a telephone handset or fax.

If you're serious about Internet connection, take a good look at this box. It's not the cheapest Internet router, but it is the only one to offer PCMCIA. Configuration is easy compared with many other boxes, and once up and running, it gives trouble-free Internet access.