Asus WL-500G Deluxe

This Ethernet and wireless 802.11g/b router, although it has no modem, is superbly fitted out for the home. It even comes with a web cam.

This Ethernet and wireless 802.11g/b router, although it has no modem -- which would be the marriage of hardware to the max -- is superbly fitted out for the home. It even comes with a damn web cam.

Although not as configurable as a custom Linux gateway box, it does come close while retaining the ease-of-use element. It has a four-port switch and two USB ports. These USB ports can be used to host a printer and even the aforementioned web cam. Sporting the ability to take a snap shot and email you the image whenever movement is detected, this is an easy way to fill the inbox if you have pets.

Inside there's a bunch of features including a configurable firewall with DoS protection, DHCP, NAT and port forwarding, among others. Aside from the networking goodies, something usefully different is the ability to plug in an external USB storage medium and have the router share it as a resource via FTP. As expected, in order to write to the drive, the file system must be in FAT32 form -- or NTFS if you only want it to be read-only. This makes it great for use as a quick central data deposit.

Where there's data movement, there's no true security -- one of the first rules of networking. But just to blow any such form of ideological thinking out of the water, there's a reset button on the back with the default username, password and local IP address written on the base. Definitely one for the home.

Its plastic build gives it a cheap feel, but nonetheless, whether used as wired or wireless, this is a solid, feature-packed, yet easy to use gateway for the home environment.