2Wire HomePortal 1000HW DSL Modem and Network Router Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)My 1000H Homeportal has been a solid performer and was extremely easy to install. I have been using it for three years and have had no problems. However, I don't recommend this device unless you are looking for the cheapest, most reliable solution to sharing an Internet connection, files and printer between computers. The 2Wire 2700HG-B DSL Modem Router Wireless Access Point currently sells for about the same price and is a much better product.
The 1000HW acts as the network Access Point for up to four PCs, which can then simultaneously share a single internet connection, printers, and files between any of the computers. The Homeportal has only one ethernet and one USB 1.1 connection, meaning that the connection of more than one PC to the unit will require Wireless networking or a seperate device that allows multiple ethernet cable connections. The Homeportal is limited to Wireless 802.11B connections. This means slower connection than 802.11G when networking wirelessly, and definitely not a good thing for those looking to stream music or video files or any video rich Internet content. Given that, I highly recommend getting the 2Wire 2700HG-B DSL Modem Router Wireless Access Point. The 2700HG-B is 802.11G and allows four ethernet connections.
The 1000HW has a built-in firewall that will provide all the security most users need when coupled with Anti-virus software, and requires no configuring by the user. For those who want to create more access to their network, the 2Wire software allows more advanced users that flexibility also. It is capable of WEP and WPA encryption modes.
Pros:
- cheap
- easy to install
- very reliable
Cons:
- only one Ethernet connection
- USB 1.1 not the faster 2.0
- 802.11b is too slow for those whose primary interest is streaming digital entertainment (music, videos, photos), need 802.11G, and probably 802.11N if wanting to stream Hi-Definition content
- Can probably get a 802.11g product from 2Wire or other manufacturer for about the same price and will need the extra speed to meet the future demands of Media rich content used at home or in the office.


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The 2Wire HomePortal 1000HW is a wireless base station for the home or small office network with a built-in DSL modem to make the connection to the Internet and a wireless 802.11b router and access point to share the connection. ? The built-in professional-grade firewall helps to protect your network from outsiders. ? Supports HomePNA 2.0 and 1.0 ? The 2Wire HomePortal 1000HW comes with both USB and Ethernet networking ports, providing flexibility and compatibility.

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IOGEAR USB 2.0 Print Server, 1-Port GPSU21 (Silver) Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)The print server hardware worked fine, but the setup software
caused a few problems as a result of oversimplication.

I was able to get the server going with a Brother HL-5150D USB
printer on a home network with 4 computers (3 wireless, 1
ethernet), an all-in-one networked device and the USB
printer itself. This is using a mixture of computers with
different flavours of Windows XP. The print server is wired to
a router using DHCP. I did not chose to put the print server on
a static address (as the manual prefers) since that does not
reflect my network setup (home networks are usually DHCP).
I encountered problems because:
(a) My software firewall first caused the installer to crash.
I wanted to avoid turning it off entirely, but
to no avail. I was able to leave my router's hardware
firewall on but had to turn off my software firewall
for the installation. The manual asks that firewall
be turned off at installation, but I find that drastic.
I guess I should have cut off my internet connection when
I did this.
(b) I installed my printer drivers and print server back-to-back
without rebooting the computer in between. The manual
allows for this but I was not able to avoid the "the
segment of the print server is different from your
computer" error no matter what I tried. So I rebooted
and started the print server install a second time over.
Worked fine. The manual's guidance for this error was
incorrect in my case.
So, if what I've learned applies:
(i) install the printer driver as a normal USB
printer on your computers first.
(ii) reboot the computers
(iii) install the print server software.

Did this for all computers on the network, and
now I can print from anywhere (note that I did not
reconfigure the print server hardware each time, only
on the 1st computer, but I don't see the harm if one
does it for each computer as long as one is consistent
in placing the same settings each time).
(c) The installation of the print server software caused
my printer settings to go from "Use Printer Online"
to "Use Printer Offline". My printer swallowed all
my jobs because of that and no pages were coming out.
To remediate this go to the "Control Panel", "Printers",
"Viewed my installed printers",
right click the printer and select "Use Printer Online".
Did this for all computers.
Everything worked after that, with all firewalls reenabled.
Some day in the future, the network will go down
(power outage or other), and DHCP router might
assign a different dynamic IP address for the print server.
If that is the case, I'll have to point my computers to the
new IP address. To findout what your computer thinks the
printer address is: "Control Panel", "Printers",
"View installed printers", right click the printer and
select "Properties". Select the "Ports" tab,
then "Configure Port". Then compare the IP against the
new address your router gave to the print server
(go to your router's web page to find out). If they don't
match then you'll need to reconfigure. That said, I tested
a new IP address on the print server by power cycling it.
I then rebooted the computers and found that the new print
server address had been matched automatically on my
PCs. So things can fix themselves even if the network goes
down (the name of the port was still had the old address,
but the actual address it used was the new one...)
I've not tried this with IPP printing (remote location
printing, not did I test it under Linux or Mac).
The print server's web access is rather primitive.
But it has all I need. I intend to use this with Linux too.
The device worked as advertised and I am satisfied with it.


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IOgear GPSU21 Print Server GPSU21 Print Servers - Wired

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External Antenna USB WiFi Wireless IEEE 802.11G/B WLAN 54Mbps Network Adapter USB2.0 Wireless Lan USB Adapter for Laptop Noteook Desktop PC Suport Vista/Windows 7(32bit & 64bit)/Linux Review

Average Reviews:

(More customer reviews)I purchased two of these for my wife and myself because we like to sit out back on nicer evenings and wear down our laptop batteries together.
I have installed the drivers on XP, Vista, Windows 7 and tonight on Ubuntu 10.10. In order of ease-of-install I go with Win7, Vista, Ubuntu and XP. Win7 and Vista both installed the drivers without the disk, Ubuntu seemed trickier but not really. I plugged it in, ran update manager and rebooted (Ubuntu does a full reboot on my netbook in under a minute and a half.) XP was a nightmare of picking through the mis-labeled folders on the disk, giving up and finding the drivers online.
As far as performance is concerned, I saw little signal boost on XP (went from 1 bar without to 2 bars with.) Win7 and Vista both showed a steady two bar increase (1 without to 3 with) but the most impressive was Ubuntu. On Ubuntu I went from barely 1 bar without the dongle to full signal with a rare fluctuation down to 3 bars if someone stands directly in the signal path.
I've read the other reviews and they seem pretty mixed but my opinion is that this is hands-down the best purchase under $20 I've ever made.
I'm writing this review from my back patio with my Ubuntu powered Ideapad s10-3t and wireless dongle.
"A computer is like an air conditioner, it works great until you open Windows."

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For the driver, please install from the CD disk, if the CD cannot work,please go to http://www.ralinktech.com/support.php?s=1. Please choose the operation system on the left nevigation and the correct Chipset model (this one is RT2070)

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