The CG814M tidily resolves the problem of multiple networking and broadband-access devices cluttering up your desk. In a networked home or small business, you may have three to five devices, all with busily blinking lights, network cables, and wall-wart transformers that hog multiple outlets on your power strip. Making them work together is an exercise in frustration.

The five-tools-in-one CG814M, about $230USD street if you can find one (it's brand-new), combines a cable modem—traditionally a standalone device—with an Internet firewall for security; a router that allows access by multiple PCs and masks their presence from broadband vendors, some of which want to charge extra for multiple PCs; a four-port switch that connects up to four Ethernet-wired PCs; and an 802.11b wireless access point, which connects any wireless Ethernet notebooks or PCs you have. All this comes in a shiny 1-by-10-by-7-inch case with rounded corners, which looks like a jumbo sardine tin.  buy...

16 February 2003  |   permalink