5. Wireless

After I had explored all of the wired network options, I moved on to the wireless capabilities. The device has the ability to act as either a client to a wireless network or as an access point (see Figure 9).

Figure 9: Wireless setup

Both modes have support for either WPA or 128-bit WEP security, but not WPA-2. When I set the device up as an access point, I could connect to it wirelessly and it worked fine, but a number of options you'd normally see in an inexpensive consumer access point were missing. For example, there was no way to set up up a DHCP server, a firewall, MAC filters, etc.

I also tried the device out as a wireless client. In client mode, the device connects wirelessly to an access point on your LAN. To assist in the connection, a "site survey" capability exists, which scans your area and gives you a list of available access points to join. Well, that's what it is intended to do, but in my case it found none of the three access points that I can normally see. As a result, I had to manually enter the SSID of my access point, followed by my encryption information. Once I had this info entered, the G600 was able to connect to my access point and I could access it wirelessly.

As I experimented with using the unit as a client, I scratched my head a bit to figure out the utility of this mode. Even disregarding the decrease in speed you'd see using a wireless network drive, I couldn't see a whole lot of need for locating a NAS device far away from my access point and other network equipment, where it could be directly plugged in; perhaps other people have different needs. Maybe if the loud fan gets to be too aggravating, putting the device out in the garage wouldn't be a bad idea...