Inexq ISW054u

All the basics covered at a good price.

Price: £52.87

Manufacturer: Inexq

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Verdict

Pros:
Attractive; low price.

Cons:
Printer support for Windows only; basic firewall.

Verdict:
The Inexq has all the basics covered at a low price, although you might want a more expensive router if you need more control over the settings.

Alex Arias, Personal Computer World 06 Sep 2004

As broadband grows in popularity, the combination of a high-speed Internet connection and wireless networking becomes even more appealing. Inexq provides this functionality with the ISW054u, designed for home or small office use with a cable or Ethernet-based ADSL modem.

Its silver casing includes a firewall, four-port Ethernet switch and USB printer port. The wireless access point is based on the 802.11g standard.

Installing the device is straightforward. The manual will give you the default IP address, which can then be used to connect to the browser-based management interface.

The interface won't win any awards for design, but it is easy to navigate to configuration pages with a mouse click or two. The basic wizards will get you onto the Internet quickly although they won't guide you through the wireless Lan setup.

A built-in DHCP server automatically allocates IP address to both wired and wireless clients. IP filtering can be implemented, which means you can manage traffic based on IP addresses and basic web filtering can be applied, but there's no anti-virus option.

Wireless security is based on Mac address filtering and the ability to prevent the broadcast of SSID. Standard Wep encryption is supported up to 128bit. Wireless distribution system (WDS) can be implemented to aggregate extra access points. The online help does a reasonable job of explaining terms, and some of the more advanced features, such as Virtual Server and multiple DMZs (Demilitarised Zones), can be set up with ease.

Its management screen may not be as slick as others, but its core functionality and price make it a solid and attractive entry-level product.

Conatct: Inexq
www.inexq.com

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