SMC7004 Family/SMC7004WBR review: Feature-rich Low price
Written: Aug 22 '01 (Updated Aug 22 '01)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to install, VPN pass-thru, Good price, print server works with Unix/Linux
Cons: The printer server is not bi-directional, No hard-copy of user guide
The Bottom Line: SMC7004WBR/WABR has very good features. I recommend anyone to choose the product which is cheaper.
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| harinair's Full Review: SMC Barricade Broadband Router |
I was using a Linux based server as my firewall and router. I had a hub and local network that I setup almost a year back (Read my review on Linksys Network starter kit - http://www.epinions.com/cmd-review-6BC5-14F6856F-38FE425D-prod2). Now when my company gave me VPN (Virtual Private Network) access using Bay-Network client, I encountered a major technical issue. My Linux box is not supporting IPSec (A type of VPN protocol used by Bay Network VPN client). I knew that I should patch my kernel to support VPN pass-thru. I have done kernel patching before and I know that it will at least take a whole day of my time. In past I had high drive and time to do that; now I can’t even think of sitting before my PC for that much time. So I though it may be a good idea to shop for a IPSec supported router. It took me 4 months to decide on a product – I tried 4 different firewall/router products and finally decided to be a proud owner of SMC Barricade 7004 product.
I liked it so much that I wanted to write an opinion on this product. I searched a lot on Epinions.com and finally found this section. I am a little unhappy that epinions.com did not give separate sections for SMC7004 products. In real world there are 4 SMC Barricade 7004 products. It took me at least a month to figure out the differences between these products. SMC Barricade 7004 is available in product model numbers SMC7004BR, SMC7004ABR, SMC7004WBR and SMC7004AWBR. I will be describing the SMC7004WBR here. I will use this as the base document for the SMC7004AWBR product review. These products have three-port switch. 11 Mbps wireless access point, firewall security and built-in print server. The SMC7004BR and SMC7004ABR are similar to the other two products mentioned above. The difference are that latter products have (i) 4 port switch instead of a 3 port switch (ii) Does not have the integrated wireless access point.
SMC7004WBR review
Pros: Great product, support Unix based printing
Cons: Supports only 64 bit encryption, price is a little higher than comparable products.
SMC7004WBR is the 3rd product I tried. I was very sure that this is a product made for me. Only the price was too high. I paid nearly $300 when I brought it from a nearby electronics/computer store. The prices in the net were also near $335. I liked its box like structure that allowed stacking of hubs, cable/DSL modems over it. The sleek transformer of the power adapter is almost an inch wide, allowing me to plug it into a regular slot of the power cord. I loved that! Why didn’t other manufacturers think of that?
Connecting and setting up the router was very easy (I anyway had some experience setting-up the other two products I tried). The print server worked great with my Linux server (That is my discomfort in using D-Link’s DI-713P) and I think it is the only product in its class to support Unix print access. In Unix systems, you should use setup for a printer lp on remote lpd server. Accompanying Barricade software is to be installed to use print server in Windows platforms. The print server does not have bi-directional communication. Hence your driver may not report the printer statuses like “out of ink” and “out of paper”. I found that the Epson bi-directional printer driver did not work with the print server. I had to switch to a unidirectional printer driver to make it work in Windows platform. However I do not see this as an issue.
IPSec protocol (for VPN) did not work in first shot – Had to call technical support but the announcement told that all problems with Barricade 7004 WBR will be resolved if the firmware is upgraded. I could get the latest firmware from the SMC website. Upgrading the firmware cannot be easier than this. SMC7004 supports firmware upgrade through three methods. (1) Windows users can just run the executable (2) Can be done using an FTP transfer to the router or (3) Can be done accessing administration screens of router using a web browser. IPSec worked very well after the firmware upgrade.
This router included wireless access point. I connected my laptop to this using an SMC2632W wireless card. I soon was browsing the net and watching my favorite TV shows at the same time. I have a two-floor house on a 4600 sq. ft. plot. I keep my router on my home office in the second floor. I could access the network from all the points in my home and yard. Sometimes when I am moving, the signal quality and strength drops to a poor rating and sometimes the connection speed drops down to 2Mbps. But when the laptop is stationary, the connection speed mostly bounced back to 11 Mbps
This product is feature rich. To name a few, it supports all the possible connections to your ISP. Some forms are static (@Home, Enhanced DSL by Pacbell/SBC), dynamic, PPP over Ethernet (PPPoE – used by Pacific Bell basic DSL), dial-up Internet using an external modem, etc. I personally tried setting up the router with two major ISPs of Bay Area: The @Home and Pacific Bell Basic DSL service. Both cases the product worked without giving me any trouble. Accessing the router using a web browser from inside your LAN gives you the administrative screens. The administrative screens are easy to navigate. Another feature worth mentioning is wireless access based on MAC Address (Network Card ID).
The firewall uses NAT (Network Address Translation) technique. You can map each and every external port to any machine in your internal network. This allows you to expose machines and port selectively. The access logs provides only the incoming accesses to the unmapped ports. I wish that the access logs were a little more comprehensive like that of Ugate 3300 router from Maxgate. Ugate 3300 gives comprehensive incoming and outgoing logs. Also it has better access control – the supervisor can block external sites to some or all users in the network. These two “nice to have” features are not available in SMC7004 routers. Anyway a regular home user never uses these features.
The integrated DHCP server can be used to assign dynamic IP to 252 clients, much more than what is needed even by a small business. You can allocate the pool of dynamic IP addresses the DHCP server allocates. This allows you to reserve IP addresses for the static IP machines like the web servers and DNS servers in your network. You can also do fixed mapping of clients based on MAC address.
I called SMC technical support couple of times to see how it is. The support was responsive and they were available 24x7. The average wait time was found to be 20 minutes. The only thing that made me uncomfortable was the price. I also was a little unhappy that this product supported only 64-bit Wireless Encryption.
When I was comparing in detail the difference between SMC7004WBR and SMC7004AWBR, I came to know that later had all the functionality of SMC7004WBR and above that it supported 128-bit Wireless Encryption. The product looked a little more stylish. It made me happier to know that SMC7004AWBR is a later product and the retail price is lower. I couldn’t believe my eyes when I saw the product was sold at pcmall.com for a mere $195. At that time there was $20 manufacturer mail-in rebate making the overall price near $175. Within days I returned my SMC7004WBR and became a proud owner of SMC7004AWBR!
It has some improvements but I missed some things I loved in SMC7004WBR. I will soon write a review of SMC7004AWBR.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
harinair
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Location: Livermore CA
Reviews written: 8
Trusted by: 2 members
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