2. Other routers

In addition to the flurry of VPN router announcements, there were still plenty of other router-related announcements and sneak-peaks...

Linksys showed the BEFVP41W, which adds a "wireless ready" PC card slot to their price-busting BEFVP41. No pricing or availability was given.

NETGEAR tipped me to their FM114P, which should be coming out in late June. It will be an 80211.b SPI based firewall router with print server.

ZyXEL was showing the A316, which is basically their 4-port 802.11b Prestige 316 router, with the 802.11b capability embedded into it, instead of added via a plug-in PC card.

D-Link said their DI-814VP would be out sometime in the next three months. It will add 802.11b wireless capability to the just-announced DI-804V VPN router.

Although selling networking products directly to consumers is nice, even nicer is letting broadband service providers (BSP's) do it. To that end, I saw a few cable/DSL modem "combo" products that were being pitched to and/or in trials with the major BSPs like Cox, Time-Warner, etc.:

ZyXEL had their Prestige 946, which combines a DOCSIS cable modem with a router and 802.11b Access point. They were also working on an ADSL version.

Linksys displayed the BEFDSR41W (4 port router with built-in ADSL modem and wireless-ready slot), and BEFCMU41W (4 port router with built-in DOCSIS Cable Modem, wireless-ready slot, and HPNA 2.0 and USB ports). These will be sold through BSPs only, if and when they make it through trials.

SMC showed the SMC8012CM (802.11b 3 port router with DOCSIS cable modem)

Finally, D-Link was also showing products in this category, but I forgot to write down the info!

Of almost as much interest, however, were the products that were not at the show. Go to the next section to see what I didn't see...