Thursday, 29 March 2001
- SMC is expanding their networking line into the Networked Storage market.  Their Barricade 8 Port 10/100 Mbps Storage Server combines a NAT router with a 20GB Windows/MacOS file and print server.  How does this combo work out?  Read the review and find out!

Tuesday, 27 March 2001
- Buffalo Technology is once again first to market with new 802.11b wireless capability.  Their Wireless Print Server will let you set up a wirelessly networked printer that can be used by Windows, MacOs, or Linux machines.  Check our review for the details.

- Buy.com has the SMC 4 port Barricade for $100. Add 5 cents to your order to get free shipping (only through tomorrow midnight), then use SMC's coupon to get one for $80.

- Received the sad news last night that Winmag.com has folded, leaving Scot Finnie's excellent Broadband Report without a home.  Not to be defeated by this setback, Scot is regrouping and will soon launch a new newsletter on his own.  You can sign up here to receive it, and we recommend that you do!

- NETGEAR says that there's a firmware update coming in April that will add Port Range forwarding capability to their new RP114 router.  Hope they'll be nice and add this long-awaited capability to the RT311 and 314, too!

- Concerned about how to protect yourself from those fake VeriSign/Microsoft digital security certificates that were recently revealed?  Sonicwall has updated their firmware to detect the fakes, and has a free firmware update available for download.  Go here for the Sonicwall press release, or here for firmware download.

Monday, 26 March 2001
- Looks like Bluetooth suffered at least a PR setback last week at CeBIT 2001 when a demo network didn't work as planned due to a server card with an incompatible version of the standard.  See the full AP story here. 

- Looks like ORiNOCO's Spring 2001 software update for the RG1000 adds some useful features, like PPPoE support and @Home Host name.  Go here for more info.

Sunday, 25 March 2001
- Outpost.com is listing the new NETGEAR 802.11b wireless stuff.  Not in stock yet, though.  Go here for the links.[Thnx Matt!]

- The NETGEAR RP114 review is up.  See if it can help you guard against unsafe surfing!

Thursday, 22 March 2001
- What has all the features of a NETGEAR RT314 router, is about 1/3 the size, and has scheduled content filters and traffic logging?  It's the new NETGEAR RP114!  We'll have more shortly, but in the meantime, check out this NETGEAR press release and related story for more info.

- Looking for a simple to set up 802.11b wireless system?  Consider SOHOware's NetBlasterII. It surprised us and might surprise you, too!  Read the Review.

- Amazon.com has the NETGEAR RT314 4 port router on special for $99 after $30 and free shipping. Don't know how long it lasts, though!

- Did you know you don't have to use an Access Point to add a wireless client to your Ethernet-based LAN?  There are trade-offs, but you just might save yourself some money by reading this new article.

Wednesday, 21 March 2001
- Intel's PRO/Wireless 2011 Access Point is not for the inexperienced networker, but worth a look if you're looking for an 802.11b AP that can handle wireless AP to AP networking.  Read the review!

- While we were at it, we took a look at Intel's PRO/Wireless 2011 LAN PC card too.  Now you can take a look at the review!

Tuesday, 20 March 2001
- Observant visitors to SMC's Wireless product pages may notice a different looking Wireless Barricade.  According to SMC, the SMC7004AWBR will ship starting early April and will replace the very popular SMC7004WBR Wireless Barricade.  The main differences are the movement of the ports to the rear panel and the addition of 128bit WEP encryption.

Intel dumps HomeRF for WiFi
Reuters and CNET News.com reported today that Intel has switched over to the WiFi standards camp.  CNET said "Intel executives say they will continue to sell its HomeRF products that move data at 1.6mbps (megabits per second). But its next-generation Intel "AnyPoint" product, available as early as July, will support the much faster Wi-Fi technology that moves data at 11mbps."  Read the stories here on Yahoo and News.com.

- Turns out the FR314 Firewall Router isn't the only new thing that NETGEAR has up its sleeve.  Look for another interesting new product very soon...!

- Although not officially released, Orinoco has posted their Spring 2001 release of software, drivers, and firmware version 7 on their ftp site ftp.wavelan.com. They also posted their command line interface for the AP1000. [Thnx Mike Campbell!]

- Steve Gibson's new Patchwork security utility that we mentioned last Thursday, works for Win2000, as well as NT4. [Thnx Daniel Beckman for setting us straight!]

Monday, 19 March 2001
- It's official!  NETGEAR has announed their FR314 Cable/DSL Firewall router.  And, of course, we're first out with a review for your decision-making pleasure!

- We've added a couple of Bluetooth articles to our list of Wireless articles.

- CompUSA has the Linksys BEFSR41 4 port router on special for $99 after rebates. Price good through this Saturday 3/24. [Thnx, Brian Rose!]

- BestBuy has the Linksys BEFSR11 router (that's the 1 port version) on special for $89 after instant rebate (thnx Erik Olson for pointing out the correct price!) Price good through this Saturday 3/24. [Thnx again, Brian Rose!]

Friday, 16 March 2001
- Simon Osorio of Linksys has started a Linksys router Beta firmware thread over in the PracticallyNetworked Linksys forum.  Simon has posted a Version description list (up to version 1.38.2) and an email address where you can sign up to be a Beta tester).  Go on over to the Forum!

- This week's edition of Scott Finnie's excellent Broadband Report contains the news that availability of Hughes Electronics' two-way satellite internet service (dubbed "Pegasus Express") has slipped.  Originally slated to roll out last month, Scott says to expect "late Spring, early Summer" availability.  Go read the article over at Scott's site.

Thursday, 15 March 2001
- Steve Gibson (of ShieldsUp fame) has been busy with a number of new projects:

Patchwork, available now and free, is a an Internet Anti-Intrusion Patch Verification and Intrusion Evidence Scanner — for Microsoft Windows NT only.

GRC Netfilter (in development) is described as "like a privacy and security enhancing firewall that deals with the growing number of Internet privacy problems and annoyances". This one will cost you $24 when available, with free lifetime upgrades and will run on all flavors of Windows from Win95 up.
Drop by and check them out!

Wednesday, 14 March 2001
- AMIT has posted 1.91c firmware. Go to the Asante/SMC Help page for details. [Thnx Christopher Castro!]

- Gamers who are using hardware routers and are having problems with GameSpy server refreshes should check out our new gaming tip, straight from GameSpy!

-3Com Airconnect users can get the new 2.0 update from the 3Com download site.  Be warned!  It's a 30Mb download (entire CD contents), so read the download pages carefully to be sure you're downloading the correct update. [Thnx to Fred Guaraldo!]

- Apple has also upgraded their Airport firmware.  The Version 1.3 release contains PPPoE support, DHCP client ID support, Wi-Fi certification, WEP encryption, and AppleScripting ability and sample AppleScripts. Follow the download link from the Airport Support page. [Thnx to Joel Hakam!]

-3Com finally shipped in their Home Ethernet Gateway and it's deja vu all over again!  Check the review to see what we mean...

Tuesday, 13 March 2001
- Travis Watford's IP Mailer 1.5 adds support for D-Link's DI-704 router. Download from the Tools page.

- Steve Winograd has put together a nice ICS for Win2000 Pro walk-through which we've added to our ICS HowTo Center.  Lots of screen shots and clear, step-by-step instructions will get you sharing your Internet connection the ICS way before you know it!

Monday, 12 March 2001
-We've been sitting on this one for awhile, but it now looks like Nexland has announced their completely revamped ISB router line.  Starting from the entry-level four port SOHO at a list price of $159,  the line includes single, 4 and 8 port models, including the top end PRO800 Turbo, which includes an 8 port switch and dual WAN ports for $399. The "Pro" members of the series include serial WAN ports for use with dialup modems or ISDN TAs.

They also announced their WaveBase Wireless, an 802.11b 4 port router plus Access Point, with a $499 list price.  All products have a Q1 2001 availability. Read the full press release for more info.

-We've had a few reports of bad browser display problems with the 3.24 firmware for the NETGEAR RT311/314 routers.  The firmware worked fine for us, although we did see an occasional frame refresh problem. All we did was hold down the SHIFT key while hitting the browser reload to force a full refresh and all was well.

- Reader Christian Altenbach alerted us that our recently posted instructions for disabling the NETGEAR/ZyXEL routers' default filters opens a very bad security hole!  If you followed the instructions, go see the new instructions right now and fix the problem!  Sorry about the mistake!

- Sonicwall has released version 6.0.0 firmware for their Sonicwall line.  Check the release notes on their Web site.

- Farallon has released a new 802.11b wireless product.  The SkyLINE 11Mb Wireless PCI card adapter will let you add MacOS desktop machines to your 802.11b wireless network.  Farallon says the adapter will work only with their SkyLINE 11MB PC card.  You can also buy a bundle with both the adapter and PC card.

Sunday, 11 March 2001
-Linksys' much-awaited wireless router is almost here!  We've got ours and put it through its paces.  Question is, should you get yours?  Check the review!

Saturday, 10 March 2001
-MaxGate is offering a $50 rebate on their UGate 3200P router and $20 rebate on their new UGate 3300 Wireless router.  You must purchase between 3/1 and 3/31/2001.  Go to MaxGate's Home Page for links to the coupons. [Thnx to Paulo Lopes!]

Friday, 9 March 2001
-SMC is offering a $20 rebate on their Barricade 4 port router for purchases between 3/2 and 4/30/2001.  Download the PDF rebate coupon from Outpost.com here. [Thnx to Jeff Klink!]

- Did you see the story about Proxim suing 3Com, Cisco, Intersil and a few others charging infringement on their wireless patents?  Check out the full story on News.com.

Thursday, 8 March 2001
-The problem with the Product Review Opinions, has been fixed.  Thanks for your patience!

Wednesday, 7 March 2001
-If you're trying to read our Product Review Opinions, you can't!  We're having a site problem and hope to have them back on the air soon.  Sorry for the inconvenience!

-ZyXEL is branching out into 802.11b wireless territory with their Prestige 316 Broadband Sharing Gateway with Wireless LAN.  Our product review can help you decide if it's the product to get your LAN on the air!

- If you've ever tried to make an FTP, Telnet or Webserver accessible from behind a Netgear RT311 or 314 or ZyXEL Prestige 310 or 314 router, you may have given up trying to find the secret.  Now, you can just read our procedure, just added to the Netgear/ZyXEL Help page.

Monday, 5 March 2001
-Our apologies for the problems with slow page loading on the site.  We've been having trouble with our ad server since Sunday afternoon.  Hope to have it fixed later today!

- Travis Watford's IP Mailer 1.4 (yes, another revision!) adds support for Nexland's ISB2LAN router. Download from the Tools page.

Saturday, 3 March 2001
-D-Link has released new firmware for their DI-713 Wireless Router that fixes the Lucent WEP incompatibility problem.  Go here for the fix.

- NETGEAR has released version 3.24 firmware for their RT311 and 314 routers. This version makes just about all common admin features (including port forwarding) available via browser interface. Go to the Help page for the download info and ReadMe.

Friday, 2 March 2001
-Buffalo Technology has released a MacOS driver for their AirStation WLI-PCM-L11 PC client card.  It's offered "without support" however, so check out the ReadMe and decide for yourself if you want to take a chance!

-Those of you who can't wait to get your hands on NETGEAR's soon-to-be-released FR314 Firewall Router can pre-order one from Outpost.com.  Price is $255, so go here if you want one. [Thnx to Jason Silver!]

- SMC has released new firmware for their regular and wireless flavors of Barricade routers.  Go to the Help page for the download info and ReadMes.

- Andrew Ross of Kiwi Enterprises informed us that the ReportGen application that we mentioned yesterday is actually written by Ralph Murray and is shareware, not freeware.  Consider it done! (Yesterday's news item has been corrected below.)

- Travis Watford's IP Mailer 1.3 adds support for the MaxGate UG3200. Download from the Tools page.

Thursday, 1 March 2001
- Kiwi Enterprises has released version 6.2.9 of their Syslog Daemon.  Basic version is free and it now supports both SNMP traps (like Linksys uses), as well as syslog logging. If you're looking for a log capture tool, give this one a look.

- If you're a Sonicwall user, you might want to check out RnR's ReportGen shareware. It takes the SonicWall's logs and displays a user selected report in a web browser.

- Linksys has released version 2.36 firmware for the BEFSR81 that looks like it's a real upgrade this time. Go to this Linksys support page for the download info.

-Linksys has also released new firmware and an SNMP manager for their WAP11 Wireless Access Point.  Haven't explored it yet, but it's reported to include Station, Statistics and Trap info buttons under the "About" tab. Go to their Help page for the download.

- Been meaning to get this link up to Robert Graham's Firewall Forensics FAQ.  Good place to go if you're trying to figure out what your firewall logs are trying to tell you!  Get the link from our Tools page Network Security section.