This feature has allowed me to setup two FTP servers, a Terminal Server, as well as Telnet, SMTP, and POP all on my newly built server. For those services, my server is “virtually’ using the IP address of the router. For example, if I were to connect to my server from home, I would type in the IP address in my FTP client, and I would be able to access my server that only has a private IP address.
DMZ is a unique feature I have not seen on many Sharing systems. DMZ allows for “unrestricted 2-way Internet communication by 1 computer.” This means that to all computers on the Internet, they will THINK that your computer is actually the router. It’s like setting up a Virtual server for EVERY port. If a user was not to setup any Virtual Servers or the DMZ feature, the Gateway would also act as a firewall, as it would not let any traffic into your home systems.
In the Access Control Menu, one can get lost in the network administrators heaven that is provided. The first option is the ability to create Security groups, which certain PCs (defined by the MAC address of the NIC) can be assigned to later. These Security Groups will basically filter our all data dealing with a certain port, be it outbound or inbound. This is very handy if you have a Small Office environment, and want to stop people from using the bandwidth for Internet Radio.
The user can also create profiles for each individual PC as defined by the MAC address of the NIC. This gives you the ability to assign each computer to a security group, as well as reserve a IP address for it if it is a server, or other machine that needs that ability. Finally, setup allows the creation of Global filters. It comes reconfigured to block the “finger” protocol, and has room for 10 individual filters for both TCP and UDP protocols each
As a quick side note, CNet also allows remote administration. The user simply turns this option on, and enters in the external port number. Then, they can acess the setup utility from anywhere on the internet. Password protecting the setup interface is also avalible, and works with all browsers.
Printer Setup
My only complaint about the CNIG907BP is the Printer Setup. The program I was provided with was a little buggy under Windows 2000 Pro. The Printer Setup Program install what is called a “Shared Port” which is adds to the system profile. This shared port acts just like any other TCP/IP or Local Printer Port. The installation is very self explanatory, and very easy yet powerful. The Port installation goes perfectly fine, but after that setup, the program skips to install the drivers for the printer. This is where things got messy. Upon asking for the Windows 2000 driver.cab files, it wanted to look in the Û:, not Q: where it was supposed to. After giving it the proper location of driver.cab, it crashed upon file extraction. This really upset me, because at first I thought that my printer was not compatible with the Gateway. Come to find out, it was the program itself. Being I already had the printer installed locally, I simply switched ports, from the local port, the shared port installed by the program via the Printers Control Panel. The bad news is that I must install this Shared Port with the software on EVERY machine that wishes to use the system. I would rather recommend to CNetUSA that they somehow use a normal TCP Printer port that is compatible with all Operating Systems.
Astetics
Visually, the CNIG907BP is nothing more than a tiny stackable switch without rack-mount ability. It features a Power and Status LED, as well as two WAN LEDs, one for Link and one for Activity. It features two LEDs for each of the seven LAN ports. The first is the LINK light that displays orange for 10Mbps and Green for 100MBps, and blinks for activity. The second set is the Half/Full Duplex set. It blinks for a collision and stays lit if in Full Duplex. The LED is off when in Half Duplex mode.
Conclusion
For an MSRP of US$175.00, a SOHO user can’t go wrong with all of the features packed into the CNIG908BP by CNet. This offers the two things that a SOHO needs more, shared Internet without a server and a print server, all in one package for a very reasonable cost. My only concern with the unit it the software that came with it, and the aforementioned problem with driver installation via the program. If it weren’t for that problem, the unit would have easily gotten 5 out of 5 stars, but it only comes up to 4.5.
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