Draytek Vigor2000 review

Aimed squarely at the SoHo market, the Vigor2000 from Draytek offers a complete communications solution as it combines a six-port 10BaseT Ethernet hub with an ISDN router. With a modest price tag of £199, it looks excellent value, offering shared Internet access as well as dial-in access, LAN-to-LAN links and a host of other features not normally seen at this price point.

Along with ML-PPP links, the Vigor2000 allows a dual-channel link to be created using two ISPs simultaneously. It also acts as a CAPI server for Windows 95, 98 and 2000 clients, and the bundled copy of BVRP PhoneTools provides facilities to use the ISDN line for sending and receiving faxes, making voice calls and transferring files using the EuroFileTransfer protocol.

The Vigor2000 has a comprehensive set of LEDs spread across the front panel showing the status of all Ethernet ports and ISDN channels. Along with the 10BaseT ports at the rear you get a console port and an uplink port for cascading the unit from another hub or switch. Installation is extremely easy as the VigorTools utility searches the network and displays discovered routers using their MAC address.

From the Smart Start screen, assign an IP address to the router and move straight over to Web browser management. A small background utility accessible from the System Tray provides direct access to your Web browser and also allows Telnet sessions and firmware upgrades to be fired up quickly. Internet access is set up from a single screen and you can opt to use one or two ISPs and implement BOD (bandwidth on demand) so the second channel is only called upon when user-definable thresholds are breached. Download performance held no surprises, with five test files retrieved over a dual-channel link from our dedicated FTP site, Pavilion Internet, at an average of 114Kbits/sec. I reran the test with a simultaneous link to Pavilion and BT Internet, seeing almost identical transfer rates.

Overall, the Vigor2000 is excellent value as it offers many features at a low price, making it ideal for small offices looking to implement their first network, share an Internet account and provide remote access.

Author: Dave Mitchell