Product Reviews

Billion's myGuard 7500GL is a combined ADSL modem, 802.11g wireless access point and router with four Ethernet ports. It has a built-in firewall, which is a common feature, but also includes Trend's anti-virus and anti-spam software, which is relatively rare on routers at this price.

Hardware firewalls are usually better than software firewalls at protecting PCs from certain types of denial of service (DoS) attacks, and the 7500GL managed to stop our test attacks. It also has website blocking, to prevent users accessing undesirable sites. This can be customised to improve its detection of nasty sites. Its spam filtering is also a useful tool, as it should cut down on the number of unsolicited emails that hit your inbox.

The anti-virus protection

The 7500GL has some attractive networking features. It supports VPN connections from the internet, which allows you to connect to your network remotely and securely. This works even if your ADSL service doesn't provide a static IP address, as it is compatible with a large number of dynamic DNS services, including DynDNS.org and No-IP.com. The wireless network is easy to set up and transferred data across the local network at a respectable 12Mbit/s.

If you want another layer of anti-virus security to shore up your desktop security software, the myGuard 7500GL is a useful tool. Its VPN option might attract some buyers, too, but if you don't need this you'd be better off with the £88 Speedtouch 580 in our Hotlist (left).