Dual-Mode Routers Do More than an AP

Written By
Bruce Brown
Bruce Brown
Published: Dec 24, 2002
Updated: Feb 2, 2021
1 minute read
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Setting up a new wireless network? Then you should be considering a dual-band network that supports both 802.11b and the faster 802.11a standards. And these multifunction a/b routers from D-Link Systems and Netgear might be just the place to start. Both routers come with four-port 10/100 Ethernet switches, NAT routing, DHCP servers, VPN pass-through, firewall security, and even Ethernet cables for easy configuration via a PC with a wired network adapter.

Bruce Brown

Bruce Brown, a PC Magazine Editor, is a former truck driver, aerobics instructor, high school English teacher, therapist, and adjunct professor (gypsy) in three different fields (Computing, Counseling, and Education) in the graduate departments of three different colleges and universities (Wesleyan University , St. Joseph College, and the University of Hartford). In the fall of 1981 he was bitten by the potentials of personal computing and conspired to leave the legitimacy of academia for a life absorbed in computer stuff. In the fall of 1982 he founded the Connecticut Computer Society and began publishing a newsletter that eventually had a (largely unpaid) circulation of 28,000.Bruce has been a writer covering personal computing hardware since 1983, the year he co-founded Soft Industries Corp., a computer consulting company, with Alfred Poor (also an ExtremeTech writer) and Dick Ridington (a Fortune 500 consultant with Creative Realities, Inc., a Boston consulting firm). In 1988 Bruce left Soft Industries to be a full-time writer. He has written for several now defunct publications including Lotus Magazine, PC Computing, PC Sources, and Computer Life as well as Computer Shopper and PC Magazine. In 1990 he and Craig Stinson co-wrote Getting the Most Out of IBM Current, an immediately remaindered work published by Brady Books.Married to PC Magazine Editor Marge Brown, Bruce is the father of former PC Magazine Staff Editor Richard Brown (a former and currently thriving writer), Liz Brown (a recent graduate of Colgate University who aspires a career in marketing and public relations), and Peter Brown (who evaluates console gaming systems and games for PC Magazine and various Websites).Bruce can be contacted at bruce_brown@ziffdavis.com.

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