Hi Josh?

On Fri, 2004-01-30 at 13:24, Josh McCormack wrote:
> Hilton Travis wrote:
> 
> > Hi Josh,
> > 
> > On Fri, 2004-01-30 at 00:10, joshmccormack at travelersdiary dot com wrote:
> > 
> >>Here's a commercial product those who are interested in making an all but
> >>firewall box could evaluate and compare to: Linksys EFG120 
> >>(http://www.linksys.com/products/product.asp?grid=35&prid=555)
> >>    $850
> >>    NAS 120GB drive, space for another
> >>    DHCP
> >>    Printserver (including used as Internet print server substitute for fax?)
> >>    backup
> >>    ftp server with password protection
> > 
> > 
> > This box is far from an all-but-firewall box.  Can you authenticate to
> > it?  Does it provide an ntp server?  Does it act as a web cache?  Does
> > it have a RADIUS Server for PPTP and WPA authentication?  Does it, does
> > it, does it?
> 
> uh... simmer.

Simmer?  What for?  I'm about as chilled out as anyone can get.

What I was saying is that aside from the number of things I listed that
this device fails to have, there are quite a number more things it
lacks.  Therefore, as I originally said, it is far from the
"all-but-firewall" you purport it to be.  That's all.

> > Aside from it being, basically, purely a NAS box with no other
> > functionality, it is also a Linksys product - and any of us who have
> > used anything from Linksys in the past knows that their gear isn't up to
> > home-user standards, let alone business use standards.
> 
> Evaluate what it has, compare it, offer better things to compare to, 
> etc. I don't care if you like it.

My liking it or not has little to do with the fact that this is far, far
from an "all-but-firewall" box for a small LAN.  It fails to fulfill
many, many needs.  It is basically just a NAS box, and nothing more.

That aside, I have found Linksys gear to be wholly unreliable.  And I
know a large number of others who have had the same experience.  I'd
never consider anything from them for a business environment, and have
actually told clients that I will support the rest of their network, but
not any Linkxyx (and a few other brands) equipment they have.

> If it helps those interested to see what's out there, at what price, 
> great. If it helps define everything that should be in a device (like 
> you started listing), great.

Exactly why I listed some of the number of things that this box is
missing - to make it clear that, at whatever price, this box is still
lacking a lot of "all-but-firewall" features.

-- 

Regards,

Hilton Travis                   Email: Hilton at QuarkAV dot com
Manager, Quark AudioVisual      Phone: +61-(0)7-3343-3889
         Quark Computers        Phone: +61-(0)419-792-394
(Brisbane, Australia)            http://www.QuarkAV.com/

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