If Only It Worked The Way It's Supposed To
Written: Aug 13 '02 (Updated May 21 '03)
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Pros: Easy set-up, print server.
Cons: Randomly changes status to "DISCONNECTED" and stops routing.
The Bottom Line: If you don't have any need for a truly persistent connection, it should work fine. The constant restarts are a pain.
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| caradoc's Full Review: (SMC7004AWBR) Wireless Router |
I've been using the SMC Barricade since April, and have yet to go more than three days without having to perform a hard reset on the router in order to get traffic moving again.
Buying the router was easy. I picked the box off the shelf, and paid for it.
Setting it up was easy, too. I plugged an ethernet cable from the hub connected to my DSL modem into the WAN (standing for Wide Area Network) port on the router, and another cable from a LAN (or Local Area Network) port on the router to my Mac.
I then followed their directions and used a web browser to go to http://192.168.2.1 - this redirects to http://192.168.2.1:88, which is a non-standard "webserver" port. Web servers usually sit on port 80 for unencrypted traffic.
I configured the router to use one of my four static IP addresses, connecting all of my "home use" machines on the "in" side of that router. I don't use DHCP - each machine on my network uses a static IP address instead of dynamic, and I own four static "routable" addresses through my DSL provider.
I then configured the Mac to use the router as an lpd (Line Printer Daemon) server, so I could access the HP Laserjet that I'd connected to the printer port.
That allows both of my Macs and the two Linux boxes to use the same printer, all without having to load any particular drivers. The HP uses PostScript, and a "generic PostScript" driver works fine this way.
The one Windows 2000 machine on my little network required some tweaking, but it too is able to print.
I've even set the router up to pass some traffic back through the "firewall" to a local machine.
I can't really call the box a "firewall" per se, because it's really only doing NAT (Network Address Translation) to convert all of the 192.168.2.x machines into the single "exposed" IP address assigned to the router.
The problem is that the router randomly decides to stop passing traffic, and sets the status window to "DISCONNECTED" three or four times a week. This usually happens at the least opportune moment, such as when I'm in the middle of an IPSEC VPN session to reboot a server on the East Coast.
SMC Technology has been less than helpful - they've given me an as-yet-unreleased version of the firmware, and it hasn't solved the problem. Further attempts to contact SMC Technology have gotten me fairly useless tidbits from their outsourced tech support in India: "Make sure your DHCP lease time is set to 0, so it'll be 'infinite.'" I use static addressing - DHCP shouldn't have any bearing on it. "Make sure that the firmware is the latest revision." Um, DUH - they sent me firmware that is so "latest" that it isn't on their website yet. That was note #3, and they sent the firmware on note #1. They're not even paying attention to the history of the problem, despite the fact that it's attached in every e-mail we send back and forth.
They've also asked me to make sure that the connection is really up when the router says it's down. The other three machines on the other three static IPs attached to the DSL line have all suffered ZERO downtime during each of the Barricade-generated outages...
Overall, the device works rather well. It's easy to configure, and even does things that SMC says it won't (like supporting Mac printing - if you configure the lpd options on the Mac side, it works!) If I could just get it to stop "forgetting" what it's supposed to be doing, I'd be much happier.
Updated 8/16/2002
Well, I finally got hold of someone at SMC after sitting on hold for more than 45 minutes, explained the situation, got a case number, and was directed to call back the next morning since Customer Service doesn't share the same hours as Tech Support.
I requested that someone call me instead of making me sit on hold for another 45 minutes to get an RMA number instead of my case number.
She agreed, and so I spent yesterday morning working away, wondering when they were going to call me.
They didn't. Apparently, their "Tech Support" representative screwed up a single digit in my area code. I discovered this when I called them back again yesterday.
The "Customer Service" representative who took the call sounded genuinely concerned that his company had managed to stretch the problem out for so long, and gave me not only an RMA number, but SMC's FedEx account number so that they'd pay for the shipping, as well as sending me a new device to replace the one that doesn't work.
It's a good thing he gave me the account number, because the "new" Barricade they sent me to replace the one that hangs all the time is not a wireless version - it's a wired router, with no wireless capabilities at all. And guess what the difference in model numbers is? Yup - a single letter. SMC has managed to make a habit of single-letter or single-digit screwups.
So, now I have *three* SMC devices to send them - the original wireless Barricade that doesn't want to stay connected for more than 72 hours, the new wired Barricade that they sent me that isn't even going to get plugged in, and the SMC 802.11 PC Card that the laptop uses to connect through the Barricade.
I will never do business with SMC again. They've had all the chances they need to turn what could have been a really simple swap-to-fix into a comedy of errors.
If only APC made routers and hubs - *they* know how to do customer service.
Updated 11/20/2002
The check arrived from SMC on Monday, the 18th, to refund the money I'd spent on the SMC 7004AWBR and the matching PC Card I was using in the laptop.
I've purchased a D-Link DI-614+ wireless router (the "plus" means it'll do a proprietary 22Mbps instead of the regular 802.11b 11Mbps) with a matching DWL-650+ or other AirPlus PC Card from D-Link.
I plugged them in, installed the latest version of the firmware from D-Link's website, and all has been well with my little network here for the last few days.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): $199
Driver Availability: Other
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Epinions.com ID:
caradoc
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Member: John Groseclose
Location: Scottsdale, AZ
Reviews written: 182
Trusted by: 133 members
About Me:
System admin, technology addict, knife thrower, and dog "caregiver."
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