Netgear upped the ante in the 802.11g space last month with the release of its $150 WGT624 108M-bps Wireless Firewall Router.
To approach the claimed 108M-bps speeds, the router uses two 54M-bps Wi-Fi channels. Although my test speeds hovered closer to 30M bps, organizations with a need for speed should by all means take a look at the WGT624.
The WGT624 is equipped with a four-port, 10/100M-bps Ethernet switch, and it is backward- compatible with the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless standards. I connected to the router using Netgears $90 WG511T 108M-bps Wireless PC Card. Any 802.11b/g-enabled client can connect to the router, but youll need the WG511T card to take advantage of the 108M-bps capabilities.
The WGT624 offers remote management capabilities and security that goes beyond the usual home-user wireless router. Netgear provides more than 10 security and privacy features with the WGT624, including Network Address Translation and Stateful Packet Inspection firewalls, 64- and 152-bit Wired Equivalent Privacy encryption, security logging, and intrusion detection.
Netgear officials said the router can support 100 VPN pass-throughs—something that will likely come in handy for enterprise organizations. IT managers should note, however, that although the router supports WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access), a firmware upgrade will be necessary. The WPA upgrade was not available at press time.
More information is available at www.netgear.com.