RE: Home Network for the boss! - Summary

["BUTLER, Tony, FM" <tony.butler@xxxxxxx>]

> Any reason for the USR network cards, I've been using Netgear
> FA311 for a

Me too - they just work is all I can say!
XP though recognises them as Linksys something or other, but still no
probs,
so didn't bother looking for XP specific drivers.

> Interstingly if a little off topic I see that netgear have
> release 54Mbps
> Access Points for $536

Nice!  is that the 802.11a standard?

> Also I do get the impression that there are problems with the
> Vigour USB
> solution.

Seems to depend on the version of the firmware used & alcatel drivers
and
indeed what you are trying to do with it.

The current frog 1.4 drivers and 2.02(?) 2200USB firmware seem happy enough
for most uses.
It's easy to get the impression that there are major problems with
<X> if
you look at a BB or mailing list and see problem reports - that's coz very
few satisfied customers will post just to say everything worked fine for
them!

>from
what they are talking about, and really try to help you if you have a
problem.
This is worth a lot to me as I have dealt too often with 'tech support' ppl
who are merely reading from lists of known problems/workarounds and have no
idea what they are talking about.

The frog/router route(!) does look a bit expensive (especially if you don't
need the built in switch) when you can get all-in-one adsl routers for less
money & a wires only ADSL connection.  I'm not sure if draytek do an
ADSL
router yet (check out www.seg.co.uk), but if they do it should be well
worth
a look - all their 2200 series use essentially the same firmware, so you
get
a hell of a lot of features for not a lot of money.
Just the ability to have it update dyndns dynamic IP entries rather than
frigging around with a program on a PC is a godsend when you're sorting
this
out for someone else (after all, you _Expect_ to have problems yourself
&
have to frig around with PC configs etc!).
They seem to be adding more features all the time & will apparently add
uPnP
in the future if that's important to you.....

Having said all this, I do not use a 2200 series for my home CM connection
-
for some reason it just didn't get on with Blue Yoda and/or the CM box
itself. SEG tried and tried to help, but with no BY connection themselves,
they couldn't exactly try anything themselves.
It was with much regret that I had to return it to SEG & ultimately
ended up
with an SMC barricade - this was cheaper than the 2200 I was using, offered
a serial & parallel port connection (now my printer is on the network
rather
than connected to a PC and shared) and a 4 port switch too.
I like it, easy to set up, and just worked - but not nearly as feature rich
as the 2200 series :(
I'm sure ppl have problems with this too - I don't.

I think really you need to look at what features are required, how much you
are willing to pay, and DYOR into the various products!


Tony


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