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MSI Wireless Residential 

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PCQ Bureau
New Update

Wireless technology is a boon for small office users, since they can build their entire network using it. The 802.11g-based wireless gateway and PCI card from MSI are meant for this segment. Home users can also make use of them. 

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The 11G PCI card-PC54G-like most PCI cards can connect to wireless LANs either in ad hoc or infrastructure modes, support 64/128-bit WEP for security and work on most versions of Windows. The adapter is very easy to install and comes with a detachable antenna. Apart from its normal function as a wireless adapter, it can act as a virtual access point or gateway, by switching to the respective modes.

The 11G residential gateway, RG54GS, has a four-port 10/100 Mbps switch built-in to connect machines to the local network and one WAN port for connecting to a cable or DSL modem. This is a standard RJ45 Ethernet port, so you need to check as to whether your ISP supports its connectivity. Since most ISPs provide RJ11-based DSL connections, which is connectivity over standard telephone lines.

On the security front, the gateway can encrypt all wireless transmissions with 64/128-bit WEP (Wired Encrypted Privacy) encryption. The gateway can serve as a DHCP server, and has a built-in Stateful Packet Inspection firewall. It supports MAC address filtering as well as association control, in which one restricts users from accessing the Internet and the other prevents them from accessing the wireless network altogether. It can also work as an inbound virtual server, wherein you can specify IP addresses on your LAN that can be made accessible from the outside. You can host your own Web or FTP servers on these IPs and allow remote users to access them through the gateway's WAN link. Another interesting feature in the gateway is a built-in print server. It has a separate port to which you have to connect your network printer. All users on your LAN, including those with wireless connectivity can print to it.



We tested this gateway using NetIQ's Qcheck for throughput, response time and streaming data rate between a wired client and a wireless host, with the gateway as the communication link between the two. We managed to achieve a throughput of up to 14 Mbps and a good response time of 2 ms. In the data streaming test, it performed well as it managed to give a throughput of 949 Kbps at the rate of 1000 Kbps for 20

secs. Plus, its resistance to interference was pretty good.



The Bottom Line: Considering the price and the number of features supported, both products are a good buy.



Rupin Vij

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