Anthony Caruana24 July 2008, 8:00 AM
How does SMC try to stand out from the crowded router marketplace? With a great all-round router that includes scanner sharing.
They say that good things come in small packages - SMC's Mini Wireless Barricade G Router-SMCWBR11-G definitely supports that theory. While not the most feature rich unit we've ever seen it beats almost every other router we've ever seen in one department - size. The Mini Wireless Barricade G is about the size of a cigarette box with a short antenna poking out the back.
Powering the up the Mini Wireless Barricade G for the first time revealed another fist - it can be powered directly from the USB port of a computer. If you're in a small office where powerpoints are at a premium you can use the supplied lead to deliver juice to the Mini Router.
There are two Ethernet ports on the Mini Wireless Barricade G - one for the incoming internet connection and another for a computer. We used the LAN port to configure the router. Establishing a PPoE connection and then setting the 802.11b/g Wi-Fi up took a few moments with plain English descriptions for most of the features supplied alongside each of the input boxes in the Setup Wizard.
As you'd expect from a 10/100 and 802.11b/g router, performance was unspectacular but that's not what this router is about. Wireless range was about 15 metres before the fist bar of signal disappeared on our Toshiba Portege R500 and MacBook Pro test systems. Another 8 metres saw signal drop to just one bar. However, in a small office or hotel room it would pass the "good enough" test.
Another useful application of the Mini Wireless Barricade G is that it can be configured as a wireless bridge, by using its WDS support, making it handy as a cheap way to extend your wireless LAN. Furthermore, it can support two WLANs running simultaneously, each with its own security settings. That's a feature we've only seen on the far more expensive Belkin N1 Vision.
We were intrigued when working through all the Mini Wireless Barricade G 's settings to see that it had support for QoS. However, the support is quite rudimentary with the ability to limit either all upload or download traffic through the router. It's not possible to manage traffic for specific TCP ports or IP addresses. Still, if you need to run an open hotpsot, in a restaurant or cafe for example, you could intentionally throttle traffic to keep the leeches at bay.
Despite its small size, the Mini Wireless Barricade G handled everything we threw at it. It was stable with no traffic dropouts and the firmware was easy to configure. It would be easy to pick on its obvious shortcomings such as a lack of 802.11n support but this isn't a router that's designed for power-hungry network animals. We see it being used by travelling execs wanting to use hotel room internet wirelessly or folks who need to set up a quick and dirty WLAN without having to cart around a bagful of networking paraphernalia.
If you're looking for a feature-rich network beast the Mini Wireless Barricade G isn't for you. However, if you're looking for a portable LAN solution that doesn't cost the earth and just works then SMC's Mini Wireless Barricade G might just fit the bill.