SMC7004VWBR Barricade Cable/DSL router w/ 4-port 10/100Mbps and 802.11b 11 Mbps Access Point

Rating:
Summary: Don't buy SMC
Review: Completely random blocking of functionality- sometimes I can click a link and it works sometimes I can't, sometimes I can send an email sometimes I can't. Problem goes away when not using SMC router. Repeated emails to customer support are repeatedly IGNORED. Would NEVER buy from them again.

Rating:
Summary: GET SOMETHING ELSE!
Review: I saw some of the reviews on Amazon and thought that this router may be worth a shot.. So I got it.

Installation was a hassle, and I still can't get it to setup right. I have DSL, the router doesnt like to work for anything but "Cable".. I have my DSL running as "cable" with a bunch of tweaks just to get it to even see my modem. It works now, just not very well.

The settings were as basic as it gets, with no real 'power user' setup (what I want). Their "advanced" setup is nothing more than more wizards and generic settings. For most users, this would be nice, but if you are a power user, you will be disappointed with how generic the settings are.

Onto usage. Well, It seems to be great for my wired connections. My ethernet connections haven't dropped, and the router itself hasn't needed to be booted in the butt (or rebooted, if you will).

Now, wireless... Well, if you are looking at this router for wireless connectivity and not much else, then hit "back" right now. This router is a wireless flop. My laptop is sitting in it's recharging area (about 7 feet from the router).. I'm picking up a signal of 78%.

When I first installed the card in my laptop and 'refreshed' the list of wireless networks, where was my network? Here? No. There? No. Apparently the 'auto' channel selector doesnt work right, after setting the channel to 11, it picked up the faint signal. As for interference or maybe crosstalk, no. I only own 1 other 2.4ghz device, and thats my PC-TV transmitter. I turn that off when I'm not using it. I live about half a mile from any neighbors, so thats not the problem. I have tried all of the channels I have, and all of them show a poor signal.

While the signal quality lacks horribly, the signal length is somewhat better. I walked around outside for a while with my laptop, and at 80 feet, I dropped down to 1mbit. I held 1mbit for a while as I walked further. I made it around 400 feet before it dropped (it was sitting next to my opened window at the time). Not the greatest, but still can be much better.

Bottom line: If you want a good wired router and dont mind poor installation, this is a nice router. While the maintainance is too simplistic for power users, its great for most people. If you want a good router for your wireless devices, look elsewhere, because sadly, the SMC lacks horribly in this area.

Rating:
Summary: horrible wireless, try Belkin or Lynxssys
Review: It's cheap and you get what you pay for. The setup was easy. That's the end of the praise. If you don't use encryption on your wireless link it seems to work fine. But with encryption enabled it won't keep the link. It continually drops the link and the re-init time kills your connection. Even with excellent signal strength. My wireless card, SMC EZconnect 2635, works great with other networks, but this SMC 7004 WiFi AP stinks.
SMC EZconnect card seems to work fine, not great, but acceptable.

Rating:
Summary: Poor Customer Service
Review: *** Update 2/23/2005 ***

Well this thing went into the trash can after it couldn't even function as a simple 4 port switch (no WAN connection). The ports were dropping in and out after about an hour of use, it does seem to run really hot, even in the basement of my house which is on average about 70 degrees.

All in all, I got a few days use for my $70+ investment, it had been sitting in a box since writing this review and I pulled it out for a LAN party I was hosting over the weekend. I ended up buying an 8 port Linksys that day to replace it and haven't looked back.

Don't waste your money on SMC like I did. D-Link, Netgear and Linksys all make capable home firewalls but as always, do your research first!

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I purchased this firewall to add wireless capability to my home LAN for my PDA. After browsing through the setup screens, I was so amazed at the functionality that I replaced my trusty Linux based firewall with it.

Not to long after that, I took it off my network and re-instated the Linux firewall, more on that later. I have a 24/7 cable modem connection to the Internet so a firewall is mandatory here.

The SMC Barricade features time synchronization via SNTP, dynamic dns (via tzo.com), 64/128 bit WEP, mac filtering, port forwarding, DMZ, intrusion detection, stateful inspection and some tricked out firewall features I've only seen in enterprise level or more expensive SOHO firewalls. You can actually create custom rules and apply them to specific clients on your network such as URL/keyword blocking (great for blocking porn sites) and specific tcp/ip services. You can also schedule these rules by specifying a time frame on any given day of the week and assigning it to one or several clients. This is great for keeping the kids off the net after certain hours!

After setting it up I ran it through several security scans over the web (grc.com, sygate.com) and probed it myself from the office with various Linux and Windows scan tools. Being a Network Security Specialist I can tell you this, the SMC Barricade is a solid little firewall and whether you decide to purchase it or not, do not go out on the Internet without one. <-period

I purchased mine at the beginning of 2003 for $$$, at the time of this review it is now $$ with a mail in rebate. Sounds like SMC wants to unload their stock as soon as possible.

The wireless capabilities are ok but not great with my PDA. After about 50ft the signal gets pretty useless. This is most likely my wireless adapter and not the SMC. What can one expect from a battery powered wireless card the size of a matchbook anyway?

Now for the complaint section of this review:

First of all, there is no provision for external logging outside of the built in security log which isn't too bad. But the ability to log the data via syslog would be nice.

Secondly, this thing chokes when UDP traffic gets heavy. Too put this in context for the non technical folks, when you have more than one client playing games on the Internet, this firewall is going to kill those connections. Even with the intrusion detection parameters tuned as loose as they'll go and/or even with SPI turned off, this firewall either just can't handle it or thinks it's under attack and blocks the connections. It shouldn't do this under the cirumstances.

Thirdly, there are bugs, even in the latest firmware, currently rev 1.23. If you are using the firewalls DHCP service and if you disable the UDP setting under SPI (you must also disable TFTP and h.323). When these are turned off, forget about any kind of DNS resolution from this firewall.

Because it doesn't pass along the DNS IP addresses it obtains from your ISP to the clients on a DHCP request, but instead assigns it's own IP address for DNS resolution, you must manually enter the DNS settings on your clients.

Now maybe I am missing something here but I don't think so. The SMC Barricade has quite a few bells and whistles for the price and would probably be great in a small office or home environment for web/email use, but outside of that, I can't recommend it.

I am sticking with my Linux firewall and the SMC get's to sit in a drawer and that's about all it's good for.