Gigabyte 802.11g VPN Wireless Router
by Brian Ng on August 21, 2004 12:05 AM EST- Posted in
- Networking
Packaging and Design
The GN-BR404W comes packaged with the router itself, AC power adapter, user guide, a cross-over and straight-through CAT5 Ethernet cable, and cradle that doubles as a wall mount.The design of the BR404W is simple and for the most part, user friendly. Yellow LEDs correspond to each of the four LAN ports, WAN, wireless WAN, and power. It would have been nice if there were different colored LEDs to correspond to connection speeds and the yellow LEDs be a little brighter. There is no power button to power cycle the router to prevent accidental power cycling of the router. A pin hole button is available to set the router to factory defaults.
One downside to standing up the router is the layout of the Ethernet ports. We had the router tip over on several occasions when the LAN ports were connected. The design of the router differs from some of the other VPN routers in that there is no antenna. This seems especially odd since the GN-BR404W and GN-B49G have exactly the same physical housing. Looking at the picture below, you can even see the circular molding where the antenna would go.
Click to enlarge.
However, looking at the router carefully reveals a tab that one can slide off. After doing this, we see why there was no antenna in the router. The router uses Gigabyte's own GN-WMAG wireless LAN card for its wireless communications.
Click to enlarge.
Here is a closer look at the wireless card itself.
Click to enlarge.
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Wesleyrpg - Sunday, August 22, 2004 - link
kris, i sent the email to brian, but for some reason it bounced on your email address? is it still kris@anandtech.com? if it is different could you please update your contact info on the 'contact us' part of the website.thanks heaps
Adam
KristopherKubicki - Saturday, August 21, 2004 - link
Wesleyrpg, send an email to brian and CC me, i will make sure ASUS sends us one.Kristopher
Wesleyrpg - Saturday, August 21, 2004 - link
great review and a nice router, however i currently have my eye on the Asus WL-500g, which looks kinda interesting because it has a usb port on the back on the router which can be used with webcams and USB harddrives and then can be used as a server.Do you guys at anandtech have any plans on reviewing the WL-500g, as i respect your opinions on all things hardware and would love to know what you guys think of it.
Wesleyrpg - Saturday, August 21, 2004 - link
schmoe - Saturday, August 21, 2004 - link
I believe its a router from the configuration screens and the title of the article. The wireless clients will have their own subnet with their own range of IP addresses which can be connected to your current (I'm assuming) wired router. For example the clients on the wireless router may be assigned IP addresses in the range of 192.168.1.1 to 192.168.1.255 and the current wired router may assign IP addresses 192.168.10.1 to 192.168.10.255.The wireless router may then be connected to your wired router with the wireless router's uplink port. Then all traffic to external IP addresses will be routed over that port, which will then be routed to the wired router's uplink port (since its an external IP address).
So yes you can have the wireless clients communicate to the Internet. You will have some issues with communicating from the clients connected to your current router to the wireless router. These issues may be solved by configuring the wireless router to accept file sharing traffic, relaxing the firewall rules for clients in the IP range of the wired router. Also you may configure the wireless clients to be part of the DMZ. Each router has its own settings, so results may vary.
Vincent - Saturday, August 21, 2004 - link
Does this device work as an access point only? If I already have a router on my network, can I use this device to share my internet connection to wireless clients?tauseeefgt - Tuesday, February 24, 2015 - link
yes the purpose of vpn to function as remote users from home or office can be done by all kind of vpn tools now its all upto users which tool they choose for access. vpnranks offering many vpn providers details that users can find here.HannahParker - Thursday, June 25, 2020 - link
The Internet can be a great place to study, shop, play computer games and chat with friends. Unfortunately, there are also cybercriminals, identity theft and others who may try to harm you online. In order to be safe on the Internet, it is important https://topspyingapps.com/spyzie-review/ that you and your children are aware of the dangers.Sara adams - Thursday, February 18, 2021 - link
Thanks for this info. It was almost everything I was wondering. Esp. like the option to purchase one already setup. My question is: if the source of my internet is a cellular system, as a hotspot with an ethernet out option, can I still do this? Can I have my Netgear nighthawk mobile access point then use an ethernet cable to the router that is set up w/ VPN, then all my devices access the router for the internet? The main reason is to simulate a specific location for the traffic. I have got some nice information about hiding your IP from this article https://macinfo.us/3-ways-hide-ip-using-macbook-ip... Thanks