This ISDN modem can be used to handle all your communication needs. It has a four port hub for data, and two ports for a telephone and fax to handle your voice and faxing requirements respectively. Being an all-in-one makes it suitable for small offices, or even branch offices of a large organization. The modem supports a BRI ISDN connect with two 64 kbps channels.
It’s very easy to set up. Connect it to your ISDN line and connect the PCs to it. Install the accompanying software on the PC, which let’s you change the modem’s IP address as per your subnet. You can then easily configure the modem using a Web browser. There’s an Internet connection wizard here to configure your Internet account, numbers to dial, username and password. You can even test the Internet connection from here. There’s also a cost control setup, which lets you limit the usage time for the ISDN connection.
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DIVA LAN has a built-in DHCP server, which automatically allocates IP addresses to the clients on your network. It supports Internet sharing for up to 50 users. The modem also supports bandwidth on demand, wherein its B2 channel kicks in when the B1 channel gets loaded. You can also set filters to block specific IP traffic. It supports NAT, routing and DNS relay and has a monitoring system, which shows the modem status in graphical form. Other features in the modem include an option to back up its configuration in a file, so that if the modem got reset accidentally you can restore to its previous configuration.
If you want more users to access the Internet through this modem, you’ll have to cascade it to other hubs/switches on your network. If you want to cascade using a straight Ethernet cable, the hub or switch must have an uplink port. However, if they don’t have an uplink, you’ll need a cross-over Ethernet cable for cascading. We’ve not seen this problem with other ISDN modems we’ve reviewed earlier. They can be plugged into any port of a hub or switch using a regular cable.
The modem comes with a power adapter, ISDN cable, console cable, network cable setup utility CD and a six-page instruction manual. The modem also has a console port for configuring if from Hyper Terminal. Plus it has two Phone jacks for connecting analog devices like telephone and fax. We found that the modem could seamlessly switch between these devices without disturbing the Internet connection. That is, if both your 64 kbps channels are connected, and you want to use the phone, then the modem will disconnect one of the channels for the phone, while keeping the other alive.
The Bottom line It’s quite easy to use and configure thanks to its browser-based management. The only downer is that it’s a bit expensive.
Sanjay Majumder at PCQ Labs