SMC Barricade g Wireless Broadband Router (SMCWBR14-G) Review

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(More customer reviews)Update - Dec. 30, 2005: I liked how well this router worked at my home that I bought a second one to install at my mother-in-laws over the holidays. As with my first unit, it installed in minutes, was operational immediately and the only 'set-up' needed was to configure some basic encription which took another couple of minutes.
Perhaps there are more robustly featured routers out there, but what I want is ease, speed and basic security. And this thing delivers all three at an excellent price pont!
Pros:
a)Installed smoothly, replacing an older SMC 802.11b router. Everything was operational within 30 minutes, including three wireless PCs (including my new Hawking USB device on one), a wireless printer (see note below, though) and a secondary Linksys access point.
b)Connections on my two 802.11g-enabled PCs immediately linked at the higher speeds. And you can tell the difference!
c)Surprisingly, my signal strength in the remote office jumped significantly, increasing from ~40-60% levels to 90+% levels. I was not expecting this type of improvement because 802.11g is not supposed to go further, just faster. And this unit only has one antenna vs. two on my older SMC so I was actually concerned that I might even see poorer signal strength.
Needless to say, I am very pleased as my network is faster and covers a greater distance than before!
Cons:
a)Not a real con, but if you must have your router be a printer server as well, this does not have that function built in. Not a big deal for most home applications - just hook up your printer to a PC and slave it from there. Or, use a wireless printer like I do (highly recommended HP 7410) and eliminate the wires altogether!
Installation notes - While everything easily installed an configured as noted above, if you have a second access point or a wireless printer, keep the following in mind:
a)Your access point needs to be reconfigured to a new IP that matches the new router's address range. If you don't, your second access point does nothing for you! Easy to do but easy to forget!
b)Okay, this one stumped me for a while! I had my wireless printer configured to the new network in less than a minute. Everything was `visible' on the network. The PCs all `saw' the printer. But nothing printed! Hmmm ... nothing in the router or printer manuals. No help from Windows XP. Guess not too many people have wireless printers and change their wireless router! The problem isn't the printer, the router or the PC, really. It is just that each PC's printer port is configured to `point' to an old IP address from your prior router and nothing updates this automatically for you. Simple, really. Just open your printer properties and `add' a new printer port (the wizard will find the new IP address for you) and everything once again works flawlessly. This is not an issue for 99% of you who have wired printers, but for anyone with a wireless printer (and I love mine!), keep this in mind!

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2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router.The Barricade g 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router is the perfect networking solution for the user that is lookingfor a simple all-in-one home or small office network product.This platform independent multi-functional router combines a4-port 10/100 Mbps switch a high speed 54Mbps wireless access point Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall security Web-based network management and support for Virtual Private Network (VPN) pass-through into one convenient device. It offersa high data rate that is up to 5 times faster than the widely used802.11b wireless LAN and is backward compatible with existing802.11b network devices. To secure the wireless connection the Barricade g supports 802.1x for authentication Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) MAC address filtering and 64/128-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP). In addition the Barricade g has one detachable antenna that can be replaced with your choice of SMChigh gain antennas for added performance and coverage.-- SPECIFICATIONs ----------------------------------STANDARDS - IEEE 802.3 IEEE 802.3u IEEE 802.11b IEEE 802.11gCONNECTORS - WAN: (1) 10BaseT/100BaseTX/RJ45 portLAN: (4) 10BaseT/100BaseTX/RJ45 portsDATA RATES - 1/2/5.5/6/9/11/12/18/24/36/48/54 MbpsSupports Nitro Lite turbo mode (data rate increase of upto 30%).FREQUENCY - IEEE 802.11b/g Radio: 2.4 GHzUSA : FCC 24122462MHz (Ch1Ch11)Canada: IC 24122462MHz (Ch1Ch11)Europe: ETSI 24122472MHz (Ch1Ch13)Japan : STD-T66/STD-33 24122484MHz (Ch1Ch14)MODULATION - OFDM CCKCHANNELS - 11 channels (US Canada)13 channels (ETSI)14 channels (Japan)ANTENNA - 1 Dipole antenna with RP-SMA connectorGain: 1.43 dBiSENSITIVITY MODULATION RATE-Modulation Rate Receive Sensitivity Typical (dBm) 802.11b: 1Mbps -90 802.11b: 2Mbps -88 802.11b: 5.5Mbps -85 802.11b: 11Mbps -82 802.11g: 6Mbps -88 802.11g: 9Mbps -87 802.11g: 12Mbps -84 802.11g: 18Mbps -82 802.11g: 24Mbps -79 802.11g: 36Mbps -75 802.11g: 48Mbps -68 802.11g: 54Mbps -6...

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