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The FR3002AL is an 802.11b wireless version of Asante's FriendlyNET router. It's a decent performer, but Asante made a few trade-offs in the design that you might not like...
Pros:
- Fast routing - Good wireless performance - Built-in print server supports Windows, MacOS, and UNIX/Linux
Cons:
- Overpriced - Only two LAN ports - No dialup support - 50% WEP-enabled throughput decrease
CDRom with HTML setup guide, PDF copy of User guide, and more
printed Quick Installation Guide for the Wireless Card
driver and documentation CD for the Wireless card
driver and documentation CD for the router
120VAC power supply
Other
"Patch" style antenna on removable PC card radio. No way to attach a "booster" antenna.
NO Hardware Reset switch
NO Uplink or Normal / Crossover switch for LAN Ports (see this page if this concerns you!)
Introduction
Basic Design
NOTE: I reviewed the original FriendlyNET last July (...boy has a lot happened in inexpensive routers in a year!). Since then, Asante has changed the admin interface and feature set enough that I thought it was worth including new screen shots and another feature summary. You might find it helpful to read the original FriendlyNET review if you need a little more explanation of features.
The AL's design is essentially the same as the non-wireless FriendlyNETs, except for the following changes:
new 3 port 10/100 switch chip is used
serial COM port and dialup capability deleted
2 10/100 LAN ports vs. four
PC Card slot added for the wireless card
With only two LAN ports and no uplink port, it would have been nice if Asante had used a switch chip that provided auto MDI / MDI-X capability like other newer routers are doing. But they didn't, so if you need help with port expansion, just see this page.
Routing Features
The AL contains a pretty full set of routing features and the screen shots below show most of what you can do. All broadband connection types except for RoadRunner TAS login are supported, but note that the dialup capability has been removed. Logging features are still very basic, with no data traffic (Web site) logging, or ability to save or clear the logs.
For Access Control, four sets of port ranges can be defined to block or pass specific port ranges for groups of IP addresses. Port forwarding includes a "Popular Applications" (Triggered port forwarding) feature with 4 sets of port ranges with a single trigger port for each, 20 "Distributed Servers" for single port forwarding, and one DMZ port for placing a single computer completely outside the AL's firewall.
57.1% | 
42.9% | out of 7 reviews