The most recent articles from IT Week

Group review: VoIP-enabled Wi-Fi routers

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

IT Week Labs tries out six solutions for bringing low-cost IP telephony to branch offices

Internet telephony has been possible for a long time, but implementation was usually fiddly, requiring a PC and headset, and a good understanding of voice over IP (VoIP). However, a new generation VoIP-enabled wireless broadband routers designed for homes and small offices have made adoption a whole lot easier.

The devices reviewed for this group test allow broadband-enabled homes or offices to take advantage of the relatively low cost of VoIP calls. Most allow multiple VoIP accounts, and also enable administrators to set up dialling rules so that, say, calls to the US go through the least expensive account.

Several other telephony features come bundled with these routers, so can they handle pretty much all the communications needs of a small office, as their makers claim? This is what we wanted to find out with this group test. We set our baseline at Wi-Fi-enabled Ethernet ADSL routers with the ability to handle VoIP using standard Session Initiation Protocol (SIP).

Most of the products we reviewed were supplied by Telappliant, one of the UK’s VoIP pioneers. Where possible, we installed Telappliant’s VoIPtalk service, as well as VoIP services from VoipBuster and Sipgate. We tested each product on an ADSL line, using normal Wi-Fi clients and Dect phones.

For a comparatively new class of product, there is already a fairly high level of standardisation. That said, the products reviewed here display some variation in terms of features. For instance, most of these products include some sort of USB connector, but a few only allow PCs to connect to the internet through the router – not especially useful now, given that virtually all PCs are equipped with Ethernet. We’re more impressed with products that provide a normal USB socket that can be used to share a printer or a storage device.

Another variation is in the flexibility of the phone ports. Some of these devices are VoIP-only, while some combine VoIP and PSTN by providing a socket to connect to the office phone outlet. Some have dual-mode ports that include the PSTN in the dialling rules, while others allow no customisation and, in some, the PSTN port is a “lifeline” that is only active when the box is switched off or power fails.

But it is in ease of use where these devices vary most widely. Some provide a well-designed web interface, and helpful guidance, while others have interfaces that are so packed with management features that configuration and admin becomes pretty tricky.

We also looked for products that could connect via an Ethernet uplink instead of their built-in ADSL connection, because some internet connections are presented as an Ethernet port on customer premises equipment. In our case we used a highly-reliable Urban WiMax point-to-point wireless link presented as Ethernet, as well as a rather low-quality DSL line from TalkTalk.

Read the reviews:

Conclusion

The wide variety of functionality on show in this group test meant choosing a product for our Editor’s Choice award was no simple task. Each of the six has its particular virtues, and could easily be a best buy for one specific set of user needs.

If, for example, you only need a limited set of features, why pay more than the price of a SpeedTouch 780WL? If looks and stability are important, the Zyxel is the obvious choice. Meanwhile the Draytek is great for a set-up where a lot of network tweaking may be required. The poor old D-Link DVA-G3340S has less obvious merits, but it is conceivable that it might fit a niche in some company’s branch roll-out.

In the end, there were two products that really stood out. If you want to run your own company phone service, we really think you should look at the Intertex SurfinBird IX68, which is one of the most cost-effective small business SIP systems on the market. But our Editor’s Choice goes to the AVM Fritz!Box, which simply could not be beaten for value, design and features.

Review: Zyxel P-2602HWL-D voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

A good-looking product that does what it needs to - but no more

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

Zyxel has a well-deserved reputation for supplying solid products that meet the needs of small businesses. This is a good-looking product that does what it needs to, but lacks imagination.

Most of the boxes reviewed here come with an optional stand that enables them to be mounted upright; the Zyxel does away with this in favour of a tapered design that allows the device to be stood up on its end. Colour-coded ports and a slick user interface make it easy to set up. Functions are easy to find and change in the management screens.

DSL implementation is perfectly satisfactory, and includes some diagnostics. The system can also use a LAN port as an uplink.

Wi-Fi capabilities are good. The system boasts support for the WMM quality of service standard – useful for doing VoIP over Wi-Fi – but we didn’t test how effective this is. It has all the usual security options, including WPA2, and allows SSID to be turned off. It can also filter access by MAC address. The Wi-Fi can also be reconfigured as a bridge.

There are no USB sockets on the device, which is disappointing, but the phone ports are well implemented.

Zyxel gets good marks for making its VoIP implementation as close as possible to “real” telephony, but loses points for its lack of flexibility. The phone ports have the same dial-tone for internet and PSTN, and both allow dialling out over PSTN as well as VoIP. There is only room for two SIP accounts, and it is not possible to dial out on the PSTN for preference – you have to dial a preset code for the analogue dial-tone. One of the phone ports keeps its dial-tone when the box is switched off.

Read the conclusions of this group review...

Review: Thomson SpeedTouch 780WL voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

Despite being aimed a home users, the web interface of this router is better suited to experts

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

None of Thomson’s business broadband routers combines Wi-Fi and VoIP, so we looked at the SpeedTouch 780WL, which sits at the top of the firm’s consumer range.

Although it is very cheap compared with the other products we tested, the 780WL does combine all the features we specified.

The web interface has fewer functions than the other products, and is not particularly easy to use, despite being aimed at home users. The functions are basic, and are accessed via large, somewhat patronising icons. These are spread around a confusing jumble of pages, which takes a while to get used to.

Having said that, we found it easy to set up DSL and Wi-Fi, and also found the box could use one of its LAN ports as an uplink. Wi-Fi security is turned off by default, with the LED on the box showing red until the security is applied. The system also has unique default WEP and WPA keys sensibly printed on the bottom.

VoIP was a bit more fiddly, with separate screens to enter the provider and account details. It limits users to only one SIP provider, though it does provide more than one account to be used through the two phone ports.

Although the 780WL has a socket to connect to the PSTN, it did not have the flexibility of the Fritz!Box. We could not see a way to make the box dial on the PSTN for preference, for instance, or apply any other dialling rules.

Although the firewall is visible, it cannot be adjusted, and there are no VPN options. Somewhat surprisingly, the 780WL offers the WDS protocol to extend a wireless network using multiple boxes. There is a USB port, but only for connecting PCs.

Next review: Zyxel P-2602HWL-D

Review: Intertex SurfinBird IX68 voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

Relatively limited as a voice gateway but can act as a full session-initation protocol (SIP) server

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

This is a box of surprises. At first sight it looks like a somewhat limited internet gateway, but we rapidly realised it is a lot more than that. While the other boxes in this review allow SIP clients to be installed, the IX68 includes a full SIP server. It can actually be used as a telephony provider for a small company, allowing employees on multiple sites to phone each other for free. It can register to an internet telephony service provider (ITSP) for cheap connections to the PSTN. It has two phone ports, and can support multiple SIP phones as well as SIP-enabled mobile handsets using Wi-Fi.

In this mode, it can handle around 30 simultaneous phone calls, and support an office of about 50 users, Intertex says. In this group test, the IX68 is overkill – indeed, for individual home users or small offices, it performs less well than some of the other boxes. It only allows one SIP name and provider per port, it requires a fixed code to dial out on the PSTN, and waits for four seconds to dial out, unless users press #.

Despite its many functions, the box is just six inches square and comes with a warning to stand it upright to dissipate heat correctly. Its unconventional LED display shows the security status of the firewall as “Hi”, “ Lo”, “AC” (custom) or “blo” (blocked). There is a button on the front of the box that changes this status, which strikes us as a bad and risky idea. In fact the “Lo” setting is more or less as strong as usual firewall rules, so the actual danger is of someone disabling the whole internet connection, or blocking IM by setting the firewall to “Hi”.

The user interface takes a bit of getting used to and there is also a somewhat fiddly option on Ethernet Port 4 to convert it into an uplink. Two negative points: the device has no USB port, which may not be too much of an inconvenience; and there is no documentation CD, which is something a device this complex should definitely ship with.

Next review: Thomson SpeedTouch 780WL

Review: Draytek Vigor 2800VG voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

A high-spec product with no shortage of useful features

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

Draytek has a long-standing reputation for high-spec routers, and the 2800VG is no exception. A comprehensive series of web management screens presents a blizzard of features and functions that can be tuned and tweaked.

Despite this, the box was easy to set up; we had DSL and Wi-Fi working very quickly, with multiple VoIP clients installed in the box. The box supports ADSL 2+, and Wi-Fi support includes WEP and WPA with the option of pre-shared keys or 802.1x.

We feel the Vigor should appeal to corporates since firewall functions can be set up according to company policies. There are also extensive options for VPNs passing through the firewall. It supports Routing Information Protocol (RIP), can run up to four virtual LANs (VLANs) and can detect and block Syn Flood and other denial-of-service attacks. It also allows one port to be exposed as a “DMZ” host, outside the firewall and exposed to the internet, while the other ports are protected by network address translation (NAT). This might prove useful for running services that cannot get through firewalls easily.

The Vigor can be used on standard LANs as well, since the onboard Ethernet switch has a port that can act as an uplink without any need for reconfiguration.

The VoIP provision is good, with space for six SIP accounts, any of which can be prioritised on either of the two phone ports. There is no option to plug into the PSTN, however, so dialling rules cannot use the normal phone network.

The Vigor 2800 also offers the opportunity to spread wireless across a larger office using Wireless Distribution System (WDS) to link between multiple routers. A minor failing is the largely undocumented USB port, which does not appear to do anything very much.

Next review: Intertex SurfinBird IX68

Review: D-Link DVA-G3340S voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

A product best suited to large-scale rollouts to multiple branch offices - if you can agree a good price

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

D-Link does not have a listed product in this category, so it sent what it describes as a “special project” item. In the UK, the DVA-G3340S is only available in bulk. It is primarily aimed at large enterprises or network operators that want to roll out large numbers of devices for a particular project or service. The product is only available to individual end-users in Australia and New Zealand.

The box is solid but rather old-fashioned looking. Firmware upgrades tend to be fairly infrequent for this type of product, and the user interface is one that the vendor has stopped using on its mainstream products.

This type of product is designed to be shipped pre-configured by a systems integrator. This is probably just as well. While the Wi-Fi and DSL management screens are usable, the VoIP screens are not. There is a welter of unrelated and unexplained data fields, no help and no support in the on-disk manual. Even after a firmware upgrade, the box would not accept our VoIP account details. That said, a competent systems integrator should be able to sort this out, although it’s unlikely to be much fun.

Aside from this, the Wi-Fi implementation was usable, if lacking in bells and whistles. The box had plenty of tweakable networking functions like VPN support, and the firewall was exposed. There is no USB port on the device.

Wi-Fi security was usable, with WPA supported, using both PSK and 802.1x certificates. Overall, the box showed that D-Link has the nous to make a decent integrated gateway, but has not seen the need to make a thorough-going product yet. This might be worth using for the aforementioned “special projects”, but only if D-Link offers a good enough deal.

Next review: Draytek Vigor 2800VG

Review: AVM Fritz!Box Fon voice-enabled router

Peter Judge — 2007-03-28T00:00:00.000Z

Peter Judge, IT Week, Wednesday 28 March 2007 at 00:00:00

This capable box wins our Editor's Choice award in this six-way group review

This article is part of a group review of six voice-enabled Wi-Fi routers

AVM’s Fritz!Box is a very flexible and well packaged system with a comprehensive set of features. It connects to the PSTN using a Y-cable that plugs into both ports of the master phone socket. Regular phones plugged into the device can dial out using the PSTN or through VoIP accounts loaded into the box – and it is easy to use dialling rules to set up preferences.

With a flat-rate dialling plan from our PSTN provider, we preferred to have all ports dial the PSTN, and use VoIP only if our PSTN line was busy. Surprisingly, the Fritz!Box was the only product that allowed this.

Setting up Wi-Fi security is very straightforward using AVM’s Stick & Surf USB dongle. Plugging the stick into the Fritz!Box installs WPA2 security codes, while inserting the same stick into a PC loads drivers, security data, and sets up a connection.

Even without Stick & Surf, the Fritz!Box has an easy Wi-Fi set-up, as each box has a unique default key, which is printed on a label on the bottom of the device, that can be entered into a PC. Wi-Fi can be disabled by a button at the back of the box.

The VoIP support is comprehensive, with excellent logging. Phone calls and usage are stored on the box, and can be emailed regularly to a specified email address. It is also possible to use the box as a gateway – dial it from another number, and it can use the internet to dial you through to numbers abroad.

The Fritz!Box does have a firewall but AVM keeps the standard settings under cover, so that users cannot turn it off by mistake. This may be a drawback for companies that want the to be able to apply specific settings on a firewall, but over the course of our test, we did not find that this feature inhibited us in any way.

Next review: D-Link DVA-G3340S

Review: Allied Telesis PoE switch

Dave Bailey — 2006-10-09T00:00:00.000Z

Dave Bailey, IT Week, Monday 9 October 2006 at 00:00:00

Allied Telesis’s latest Layer 2 Power-over-Ethernet switch has a rich set of features and a superior GUI

Launched in May and costing £1,100 + VAT, Allied Telesis’s AT-8000S/48POE is a 48-port, 10/100Mbit/s, Layer 2, managed, stackable, Power over Ethernet (PoE) switch.

The AT-8000S has two integrated gigabit links for stacking further AT-8000S units into a ring topology using standard untwisted pair (UTP) cabling. There are also two Small Form-Factor Pluggable (SFP) 10/100/1000 uplink ports and two standby gigabit uplinks to connect to other switching hardware.

The AT-8000S switch is aimed at branch offices and the wiring closets of larger firms needing to support powered devices such as IP phones, wireless access points or remote video monitoring devices.

The AT-8000S can support 256 virtual LANs (VLANs), has an 8,000 MAC address memory space and can support quality of service (QoS) based on 802.1p. It can prioritise traffic using 802.1p, Type of Service (ToS) and Differentiated Services Code Point (DSCP) with four transmission queues. Six AT-8000S units can be stacked, and port mirroring, trunking and VLANs can be run across stacked systems.

We found the switch was easy to set up and once we had given it an IP address and pointed it towards domain name servers and the IP gateway, we could log in outside our labs using LogMeIn and control the device remotely.

Power for devices comes from PowerDsine’s PoE chipset, offering total available power of 375W for use through the 48 Gigabit Ethernet ports. This means 48 class two devices can be used drawing half power or 24 class three devices can be supported using full power.

Not all ports can have full power, so the device allows a priority to be set on each port. We could set high, medium or low priorities. When connecting a device requiring power through Category 5 cabling, the graphical interface automatically identifies the class of device, the output voltage, current and power, and the power limit. Plugging in our 3Com WLAN AP7250 access point showed the port delivering 6.6W and 130mA but an indicated 506V rather than 50.6V was clearly a bug.

The AT-8000S boasts one of the better graphical web interfaces. A minor criticism was that we could not define a group of ports and then change parameters for the group as if for a single port. Allied Telesis said this shortcoming will be addressed soon with a firmware upgrade.

There is full support for Simple Network Management Protocol (SNMP) versions 1, 2, and 3. For users we set up switch access with a local password, but we could have easily used Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (Radius) or Terminal Access Controller Access Control System (Tacacs+). Switch users may be given full configuration rights or monitoring-only rights.

Onboard system utilities include a cable tester, which reveals the distance to any cable breaks. There is also a troubleshooter for the SFP optical transceivers, to show temperature, output power, input power and faults.

3Com SuperStack Switch 4400 PWR

Alan Stevens — 2004-04-01T17:37:21.000Z

Alan Stevens, IT Week, Thursday 1 April 2004 at 17:37:21

Layer 2 switching and Power over Ethernet in an easy-to-manage package

Following ratification of the IEEE's 802.3af standard, Power over Ethernet (PoE) is common in devices such as wireless access points. But for these to get their power from the local area network (LAN), it is necessary to route it through standard Ethernet cabling using a separate mid-span hub or an end-span switch, like the SuperStack Switch 4400 PWR from 3Com, which combines PoE and Layer 2 switching.

The 4400 PWR has 24 auto-sensing 10/100Mbit/s ports at the front plus two slots at the back. These accommodate optional expansion modules able to support either fibre or copper Gigabit Ethernet connectivity. They also allow up to eight 4400 PWR or other, non-PoE, SuperStack switches to be stacked together.

A growing number of peripheral devices are now being adapted to draw power from Ethernet cables, including IP telephones and security cameras. The 4400 PWR can provide power for up to 24 IP telephony handsets. This, combined with support for Layer 4 traffic classification and prioritisation, and Radius security network login and accounting, makes it suitable for firms looking to support voice over IP on their networks.

The switch features an Asic-based switching fabric with a bandwidth of 8.8Gbit/s. Capable of switching up to 6.6 million packets per second, the 3Com fabric can support up to 8,000 MAC addresses, making it suitable for LAN backbone as well as edge deployment. It provides QoS (quality of service) facilities with four priority queues per port.

Management interfaces include a command line interface accessible via a local console port or remotely via Telnet. SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) support is built in and there is an integrated web server for browser-based setup and monitoring. This has facilities to monitor and manage ports in terms of data and power transmission. How much power each port handles can be fixed and guaranteed. Ports can be disabled and access restricted via Radius authentication.

A built-in AC adapter powers the switch, and connecting to a 3Com SuperStack Advanced Redundant Power System stops disruption in a power failure.

Price: £1,048 + VAT

Contact: 3Com 01442 438 000

Inmarsat BGAN satellite terminal

Martin Courtney — 2004-02-25T14:43:34.000Z

Martin Courtney, IT Week, Wednesday 25 February 2004 at 14:43:34

An internet connection that works almost anywhere - for those that can tolerate high prices and slow data rates

With an increasingly mobile workforce, the need for roaming staff to stay connected to the internet, email and other office systems from wherever they happen to be is more important than ever.

Inmarsat's regional BGAN system is a portable satellite modem that provides ubiquitous connectivity from virtually any location with a clear view of the sky, but low bandwidth and slow connections demand a degree of patience when using it.

Cost is also an issue, with the BGAN modem reviewed here priced at around £1,000 + VAT, and service provider bandwidth charges are as high as £10 to £15 per megabyte transmitted.

The ruggedised modem is roughly the size of a standard A4 format notebook PC, but a couple of inches thicker and a lot lighter. Alongside the two rubber power-on and mode-select buttons on the front, there is a row of LEDs that indicate whether the device is being used on battery or mains power, and whether the link to the host PC is using Bluetooth, Ethernet or USB connectivity.

The requisite SIM card is about the same size as those used in mobile phones, and inhabits a small pull-out compartment on one side, next to the removable battery.

Once the drivers and connection software are installed from the single CD, the program brings up an internet connection wizard that runs the user through configuration. In our lab tests, the software eventually recognised the USB cable and automatically opened the pointing screen that helps to position the modem for optimum signal strength.

Siting is crucial to getting an initial network connection - the device must be placed on a flat surface with a clear view of the sky before connection to Inmarsat's geostationary satellites is assured. The sign on the side "Caution: RF Radiation Keep Away One Metre" gives a little cause for concern, although the USB, Ethernet and power cables supplied are conveniently long to help put the modem in a safe position relative to the user.

The software indicates the precise direction that the device's hinged lid should be pointed, as well as the correct angle, using beeps to direct the user to the best configuration. We tested the modem at various locations within the UK and found that it always needed to be pointed to the south east and it needed an angle between 17 to 18 degrees to get the best signal.

We were able to get a connection from behind window panes, but the satellite signal was always stronger when the modem was placed outdoors. The strength of the signal can fluctuate, meaning users might have a connection at one moment, and nothing the next, which sometimes prevented us from getting a connection at all, or broke off the one we had achieved.

Although we were unable to measure bandwidth precisely, the experience when browsing the web is very similar to using a dial-up modem, indicating approximately 42kbit/s downstream in most instances.

Satellite systems have long been called the Hobson's Choice of fixed data connections, a last resort that saves the day when there is no other type of access technology available. Considering this performance it is not difficult to see why.

The regional BGAN is better suited to truly mobile users who work outside in very remote areas where broadband options are non-existent, GSM and GPRS coverage is patchy or unavailable, and even dial-up analogue lines are hard to find.

Price: £1,000 + VAT

Contact: Inmarsat 020 7728 1000