AnandTech: Gigabyte 802.11g VPN Wireless Router

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Gigabyte 802.11g VPN Wireless Router

Date: August 21st, 2004
Topic: Networking
Manufacturer: Gigabyte
Author: Brian Ng

Buy the DLink DIR-130 VPN Firewall Router

	$99.99
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Conclusion

All in all, Gigabyte's attempt at a wireless VPN router was a pretty good one. There are minor annoyances with the web administration, which should be easily fixed in a future firmware. The VPN capabilities should be better documented on the box and the documentation itself. Too many average users do not fully understand that one vendor's implementation of VPN in their router is not necessarily the same as their competitor's, even if both companies use the word "VPN" in their marketing.

An added bonus is the fact that the wireless NIC can be removed without affecting the functionality of the BR404W as a LAN router. It is a nice touch that you are able to take the NIC out and plug it into a laptop for use on another wireless network, such as in a café.

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6 Comments - Last by Wesleyrpg, 1997 days ago

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No Subject by Vincent, 1998 days ago

Does this device work as an access point only? If I already have a router on my network, can I use this device to share my internet connection to wireless clients?

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No Subject by schmoe, 1998 days ago

I believe its a router from the configuration screens and the title of the article. The wireless clients will have their own subnet with their own range of IP addresses which can be connected to your current (I'm assuming) wired router. For example the clients on the wireless router may be assigned IP addresses in the range of 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 and the current wired router may assign IP addresses 192.168.10.1 to 192.168.10.255.

The wireless router may then be connected to your wired router with the wireless router's uplink port. Then all traffic to external IP addresses will be routed over that port, which will then be routed to the wired router's uplink port (since its an external IP address).

So yes you can have the wireless clients communicate to the Internet. You will have some issues with communicating from the clients connected to your current router to the wireless router. These issues may be solved by configuring the wireless router to accept file sharing traffic, relaxing the firewall rules for clients in the IP range of the wired router. Also you may configure the wireless clients to be part of the DMZ. Each router has its own settings, so results may vary.

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No Subject by Wesleyrpg, 1998 days ago

great review and a nice router, however i currently have my eye on the Asus WL-500g, which looks kinda interesting because it has a usb port on the back on the router which can be used with webcams and USB harddrives and then can be used as a server.

Do you guys at anandtech have any plans on reviewing the WL-500g, as i respect your opinions on all things hardware and would love to know what you guys think of it.

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No Subject by KristopherKubicki, 1997 days ago

Wesleyrpg, send an email to brian and CC me, i will make sure ASUS sends us one.

Kristopher

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No Subject by Wesleyrpg, 1997 days ago

kris, i sent the email to brian, but for some reason it bounced on your email address? is it still kris@anandtech.com? if it is different could you please update your contact info on the 'contact us' part of the website.

thanks heaps

Adam

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