Product Reviews

Network media receivers, which allow you to stream music, video and photos from your PC across a network to your living room, are a relatively new concept, and Netgear's MP101 is the first example we've really loved. It handles music only, but easy installation and fantastic ease of use - thanks mainly to its built-in screen - make it the perfect addition to a wirelessly networked home.

The networking market is dominated by anonymous utilitarian boxes but wireless technologies have injected a bit of fun. The devices that made our shortlist allow you to surf the web at broadband speeds when you're away from a phone socket, enjoy MP3s on your PC from anywhere in the house and even stream DVD-quality video wirelessly to the bottom of the garden.

We include two routers on our shortlist. One, the Linksys WRT54G, is great for small businesses and the other, Netgear's WGT624, has an extra turn of performance for activities such as video streaming. This combined wireless access point, four-port switch, router and firewall conforms to the 802.11g standard but also has an enhanced mode that allows it to communicate with other compatible Netgear equipment at up to 108Mbit/s.

Another

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great product that almost made our shortlist is Netgear's DG834G. It's a 54Mbit/s device but incorporates an ADSL modem for around the same price as the WGT624, making it ideal for sharing an ADSL connection across a wireless network. However, Belkin's F5D7230uk4A is a similar product that costs just £70 inc VAT.

Vodafone's 3G Mobile Connect is more unusual, and something of a technological breakthrough. It provides internet access via the 3G mobile phone network and delivered transfer speeds of up to 335Kbit/s in our tests, which is only a little slower than ADSL and cable broadband. This is a massive improvement over the 14Kbit/s transfers of GPRS (which the card also supports). However, it misses out on an award because of relatively poor network coverage, which is limited to the UK's largest cities, and its running costs of up to 50p per megabyte, which make it impractical.

There's nothing impractical about our award-winning network product, though. While other network media receivers such as Pinnacle's ShowCenter provide living-room access to music, video and photos stored on a PC, playing music is complicated by the need to switch on the TV to browse your music collection. The Netgear MP101 gets around this problem by incorporating an LCD screen into the unit. It's supremely easy to set up, even on a WEP-encrypted network, and the remote control and a great menu system on the screen make it just as easy to use. The lack of video and photo support will disappoint some, but for us music is the key task for this kind of device, and the MP101 handles this beautifully.

EXPERT'S VERDICT

"Brilliantly easy to set up and use; for playing music wirelessly, it's unsurpassed."

EDITOR'S VERDICT

"Puts some fun into the networking market."