Tuesday, 27 February 2001
– MaxGate has entered the competition for the best 802.11b wireless router. See how their UGate 3300 measures up in our review.
– Outpost.com‘s $30 rebate on the Linksys BEFSR41 4 port Etherfast router has been extended to March 19. [Thnx again Brent Heiss!]
Monday, 26 February 2001
– Having trouble getting your D-Link DWL-1000AP Wireless Access Point configured? Try this procedure, contributed by reader Tom Haas.
– Outpost.com is offering a $30 rebate on the Linksys BEFSR41 4 port Etherfast router. With free overnight shipping, the cost after rebate is about $100. Rebate ends March 2. [Thnx to Brent Heiss!]
Sunday, 25 February 2001
– Got the urge to try out making calls over the Internet via your broadband connection, but don’t want to futz with special hardware or software? Well, Linksys’ new EtherFast Cable/DSL & Voice router may be just what you need. See how it performed for us!
– WARNING! Been getting some reports from Asante FriendlyNet router owners who loaded AMIT or SMC firmware and are trying to upgrade to the latest Asante 2.02 firmware. One reader says that he ended up locked at version 1.90, another says he can change to other (post 1.88) AMIT/SMC versions, but can’t go to 2.02. See the Support page for more info.
– If you’re a StarBand two-way satellite subscriber and have been wondering how you can get that Ethernet port on the back of your Starband 180 box working, check Ken Knight’s Starbandusers.com site for step-by step instructions!
Friday, 23 February 2001
– Reader Mark Naber reports that Fry’s now has the Linksys BEFSR41 on sale for $119 from now until next Tuesday, 27 February.
– Outpost.com is offering a $20 rebate on SMC’s 4 port Barricade router. With free shipping, the cost after rebate is about $95. Get ’em before Feb 28 when the rebate ends! [Thnx to Jerry Falatko!]
Thursday, 22 February 2001
– The Fry’s NETGEAR RT314 $99 offer is available in all Fry’s stores, not just California as we said yesterday. (Sorry for our confusion!)
– It may not be the most hi-tech item we’ll test this year, but Buffalo Technology’s External Flat antenna might just be what you need to squeeze that last bit of range from your wireless network. Read all about it!
Wednesday, 21 February 2001
– Looks like NETGEAR is clearin’ the shelves to get ready for their new stateful inspection version of their popular RT314 router, the FR314. Reader Brent Heiss reports that the RT314 can be had at Fry’s Electronics today and tomorrow for $99! Too bad only our California friends can take advantage of this offer!
–3Com’s HomeConnect product line has arrived and we’ve taken the Home Wireless Gateway into the lab to see what it’s got. Read the review to see what we found.
– A 30 day trial of TZO’s Dynamic DNS service now comes bundled with the MultiTech Routefinder router.
Tuesday, 20 February 2001
– Reader Andrew Deo says that Amazon.com has a deal on the NETGEAR RT314 router for $100 plus shipping ($130 price with $30 rebate).
Thursday, 15 February 2001
– SMC just announced their Broadband Storage Server. The product is positioned as an all-in-one networking solution for home and small-to-medium sized businesses. Looks like it combines an 7 port Barricade router with 20 Gig of networked storage for a street price of about $750. More info in SMC’s press release.
– Reader Todd Miller tipped us that Buy.com has this info on the soon-to-be-out NETGEAR FR314 Cable/DSL Firewall router.
– Dan Tseng’s WallWatcher is a nice, new, FREE, logviewer app for the Linksys router. Hop over to the Tools page and give it a look.
Wednesday, 14 February 2001
– We’ve updated our Wireless Networking Backgrounder with new information on what Access Points will and won’t do, Wireless Routers, and what to expect for range with these products. Take a look!
Tuesday, 13 February 2001
– MaxGate has new firmware for their UG3200P that fixes problems with VPN connections. Go here for download info.
– ORiNOCO (now part of Agere Systems – the spinoff from Lucent Technologies Microelectronics Group) just announced a $30 price cut for both their Silver (64bit WEP) and Gold (128bit WEP) cards. The new prices are already posted!
-We welcome Steve Winograd as a contributor to PracticallyNetworked. Steve’s first piece for us is a HowTo for WinMe’s ICS feature, including how to set it up to handle multiple networks. Check out our revamped ICS HowTo Central!
Sunday, 11 February 2001
A little traveling music, please…
– Yes, the site looks a little different, but we’re still here! As part of the internet.com and EarthWeb merger, we’ve moved over to the EarthWeb part of the network. The new “file folder tab” nav bar at the top of the page will take you to the EarthWeb “channels” (topic areas), so please explore our new neighborhood…
– The PracticallyNetworked navigation bar has changed, too! The Serving link has been replaced by the HowTo link. This will take you to our new…you guessed it…HowTo section, which should help you find our expanding collection of networking tutorials and backgrounders, including the Serving information. Explore a little!
– Travis Watford’s IPMailer V1.2.2 fixes a bug for SMC Barricade users and includes some other fixes. Check the ReadMe and grab the download from the Tools page.
Friday, 9 February 2001
– A helpful reader (where would we be without them?!) pointed out an SMC press release from last December (so we’re a little slow…) that describes some of the features of their upcoming Barricade Pro product line, slated for release this quarter (Q1 2001). They’ll be using a new processor from Conexant, which can run Watchguard’s LiveSecurity software. Go here for the full press release.
Thursday, 8 February 2001
– ZyXEL has released V3.21 firmware for their Prestige 314 router. More info here.
– Ever wonder whether those software wireless Access Points work? So did we. That’s why we checked out Zoom’s ZoomAir Access Point software. See if it’s the solution for you.
– 2Wire has added Dell to their list of distributors, along with CompUSA. Go to the Dell site if you’re looking to buy!
Wednesday, 7 February 2001
– Nexland has been tapped to supply the embedded routing technology for Bell Canada Enterprises‘ (BCE) new technology project. Code-named ‘ComboBox‘, it will combine BCE’s Bell ExpressVu satellite TV and high speed Sympatico Internet services into a suite of advanced interactive services. See this press release for the details.
– If you were looking to get in on NETGEAR’s IPO, better make other plans. Reuters reported today that in a filing on Wednesday with the SEC, Netgear said it “has elected not to proceed with the offering due to general market conditions.” Full story here from Yahoo Finance.
– Latest addition to our Tools page is a listing of File Transfer tools. Take a look.
Tuesday, 6 February 2001
– Travis Watford’s IPMailer has been updated again. Version 1.2.1 fixes a Windows 2000 shutdown problem. Go to the Tools page for the download.
– We welcome Paul Muehr as a contributor to PracticallyNetworked! His first article: “Sharing Files via the Internet” will show you there’s more than one way to get a file to where you want it to go!
– BuffaloTechnology has released PPPoE upgrade firmware for their WLAR-L11-L “Local Router Model” only. Go here for the upgrade info.
–ORiNOCO has also released new firmware for their notoriously-difficult-to-setup RG1000. New client card drivers, too! Get the details here.
Monday, 5 February 2001
– Linksys has new BETA firmware that they say will cure your Quake disconnection problems, among other things. You can download it from here.
– We finally unpacked our Sonicwall Tele2 eval unit and dug into it. Is it really 10x faster than the old design? Check the review and see.
– Thanks to the many readers who sent various links to articles about the 802.11b WEP security issues uncovered by the ISAAC group at the UC Berkeley Computer Science division. No need to bolt the doors and draw the blinds, at least not yet. Just some info that WEP isn’t foolproof and can be compromised by people with enough incentive and time on their hands. Go read the actual report if you’re interested and judge for yourself!
Saturday, 3 February 2001
– SOHOware has introduced their BroadGuard Secure Cable/DSL router, which provides a Stateful Packet Inspection firewall for under $200. Have they made a breakthrough? Read the review and judge for yourself!
Friday, 2 February 2001
– Heard that Linksys had a little problem with AT&T Broadband in New England recently. A bug in old versions of the firmware for Linksys’ routers caused the router to request a new IP address every 7 seconds. This problem finally got troublesome enough that AT&T shut out all affected Linksys routers.
AT&T did call affected users to tell them what they did, but after the disconnection. Users had to upgrade to 1.37 firmware and contact AT&T with proof of the upgrade to get reconnected!
– In other Linksys news, looks like they snuck out the first firmware upgrade for their 8port BEFSR81 router. No details on what’s different are available, however. Go here for the download link.
– Are you a MaxGate UG3000 or 3200 user who has been experiencing problems running game servers? Help has arrived! MaxGate just released new firmware, which should fix you right up. Go here for the download info.
Thursday, 1 February 2001
JUST IN!
– SMC just released new firmware (1.90h) for their Wireless Barricade that fixes the problem that ORiNOCO PC Card users have with getting 40/64 bit WEP to work. The firmware is posted on the SMC downloads page, and you can get it here! (Our link has a .zip file has a README, .bin file and Windows updater file.)
– Buy.com has the Linksys BEFSR41 for $105 plus shipping.
