1. Wireless Internet Boundary Devices

Do-it-all boxes that interconnect broadband cable or DSL Internet links with small LANs using wired and wireless technologies are an interesting proposition. Missouri-based Draytek’s Vigor 2930n offers a long list of features and functions including dual-WAN support (with load balancing or failover), 802.11n wireless, a 4-port 10/100 Ethernet switch, DHCP services, lots of VPN features, a capable, feature-rich firewall and traffic shaping, plus quality-of-service controls to manage traffic flowing through this box.

Although the details involved are almost overwhelming, this is typical for SOHO networking gear (see online specifications for a longer rundown). The 2930n handles aggregate throughput up to 70 Mb/s for native IP traffic, or up to 40 Mb/s for IPSec VPNs. It also works with most VPN protocols (PPTP, IPSec, L2TP and L2TP over IPSec), and supports serious hardware-based encryption (AES/DES/3DES) and authentication (MD5 and SHA-1).

Our tests didn’t stress aggregate throughput handling, though we did observe performance better than what 802.11 g offers.