3COM Corp U.S. ROBPTICS 802.11G 54MBS ( USR5450 )

Rating:
Summary: Unmanageable
Review: I'm a network engineer for a small business in Northern Virginia. We have about 40 users who connect to our wireless access points. We are expanding to a new floor on our building and purchased 4 x USR5450's for additional wireless coverage.

While the USR5450 may be adequate for a home networking solution, it was an unmanageable solution for our business. In addition to using WEP encryption, we use MAC address filtering for security purposes. It would have been nice to have been able to import a list of authorized MAC addresses without having to enter each individually by hand. It would also have been nice to have had more than 8 characters to use for the name/description of each MAC address. But these oversights are forgiveable.

Compounding the problem was the fact that the web interface wouldn't even allow me to cut and paste a MAC address, but required a tab between each pair of hex digits. In addition, for each address I added, the web interface would forward me to a new web page telling me that the system was resetting. After waiting several seconds, I could click on the "Back" link and enter my next MAC address. In frustration, I turned to the US Robotics supplied software.

Before continuing, however, I thought it best to update the firmware to the latest version. Perhaps a newer version would fix some of the glaring problems with the interface. I noticed that the new firmware was supposed to allow 64 MAC addresses. I hadn't seen anything previously about this limitation, but began to worry about running out of MAC addresses. I wondered what it had been prior to the firmware upgrade. I downloaded the new firmare and installed it--only to find that it totally wiped out all the MAC addresses I'd managed to input along with all the other configuration changes I'd made. Unbelievable!

So I downloaded the latest configuration software and gave it a try. I was pleased to see that I could cut and paste MAC addresses individually and that the system didn't reset after each one. However, the configuration software didn't let me enter any sort of name or description for the MAC address. (I would soon learn why.) In any case, the interface was still incredibly clunky, requiring me to hit the "refresh" button after each "apply" before I could make any additional configuration changes.

I loaded the entire list of MAC addresses and then opened the web interface to see if I could add a name/description there. To my surprise, I noticed that several name fields were already filled in with junk binary characters. I cleaned them out. However, when I then looked back at the configuration software, I noticed that several of the MAC addresses I'd entered had disappeared. It took me a few times of adding MAC addresses and deleting junk characters before I realized that the config software must be using the name/description space in order to store additional MAC addresses. Disgusted, I told my manager that I thought we should send back the USR5450's and try a different product and vendor.

I can't really comment on how well the hardware works, which is why I'm not giving this review lower than 2 stars. But for me, the software and web interface were enough to convince me that this product wasn't for me. It was just too unmanageable.

--Paul