A Guide to Technology,
Products, and Deployment
|
Internet @ppliance Industry Report: A Guide to Technology, Products, and Deployment |
|
|
Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router
Remote Access router provides very-high speed digital access to corporate networks or the Internet using Digital Subscriber Line technology.
Price:
Contact:
Reviewed: |
The Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router provides an early glimpse at high-speed digital access we all hope lies in our future. This appliance provides very-high speed access for small business Internet, branch office, and high-end residential access using emerging Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) technology. Digital Subscriber Line technology transfers data over your existing copper phone lines at up to ten times faster than analog modems or ISDN. The really nice feature of DSL is that it is always-on, dedicated Internet access. No dialing in or out. You're always-connected, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week. |
The good news is that DSL service offers the same kind of full-time,
online service large corporations have, at a fraction of the cost. The
catch is that your office or residence must lie within serving distance
of a provider that uses compatible DSL access equipment, typically
located in a telephone company's central office. We believe service
providers will offer some form of DSL in most metropolitan areas
within the next 12-18 months. The Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router is
one of the first remote access products to meet the needs of this new market.
What's inside?
The 2200 can be used as an SDSL router and/or bridge, and
has most of the same features found in analog modems and ISDN remote
access routers. It supports IP with static or dynamic routing, Novell
IPX, all the most common bridging protocols, and packet filtering
firewall features for both IP routing and bridging. The 2200 comes
with four built-in Ethernet 10-BaseT ports, and can support up to
eight individual wide-area network connections or virtual circuits.
Setting up the Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router
The initial configuration process for the Efficient Networks 2200 SDSL Router makes it about
as easy to manage as most ISDN routers were before the fine-tuning of
wizards. To set up a typical four PC network, you first attach your
computers to the Ethernet ports on the back of the Efficient Networks 2200 SDSL Router. Next, you
reconfigure your PCs to dynamically obtain their IP addresses from
the router. You restart all your PCs and the 2200, and then run the
Windows-based configuration application, shown below. (Efficient Networks
will offer browser-based management in the future to eliminate
platform dependencies.) Using the configuration application,
specify a login ID, password, select IP routing or bridging,
and identify the encapsulation method or link protocol supported
by your network service provider. If required by your service
provider or network administrator, you may have to enter
additional IP addressing and authentication parameters for Internet access.
| In our scenario, we selected IP routing and PPP link protocol, so we only needed to enter Internet Account information. In this configuration, our Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL router automatically assigns IP addresses to PCs on our local Ethernet. Network Address Translation (NAT) allows these PCs to concurrently share a single public IP address. Efficient Networks refers to this feature as "masquerading". |
Click on this image to view a larger one |
Click on this image to view a larger one |
The Configuration Manager has a series of menus for making changes to its system settings, including passwords, IP addresses, and other network settings. You can configure protocol, routing options and management options from here as well. |
Once you've configured the router, you can monitor the health and status of your SDSL connection using the WAN Port Monitor utility. This convenient tool shows whether DSL service is working, and displays traffic rates and activity on your DSL connection. It also reports errors using text messages.
Addressing and Firewall Features
The 2200 can automatically assign addresses to PCs attached
to the local Ethernet LAN using the Dynamic Host Configuration
Protocol (DHCP) or the older Boot Protocol (BootP). This feature
simplifies network configuration for non-technical PC users, and
allows network administrators to centrally administer IP network
configuration in large organizations. Further control over addressing
features can be obtained if needed by connecting to the router via
Telnet and using various command line parameters. The QuickStart
for DSL software assigns a private range
of IP addresses to the router by default: Efficient Networks refers to this as masquerading. The
more traditional or Classic NAT application is also available. When
you choose this latter option, the 2200 performs host IP remapping:
one public IP address is translated into exactly one private address
(i.e., the public address is not shared). Use this form of NAT, for
example, when you want to allow access to certain PCs on your LAN
but do not wish to renumber every host with a public IP address.
You can also use your own public or private addresses and disable
NAT via one of many methods: during QuickStart, from the Configuration
Manager, through scripts, or from the command line interface.
When IP routing is enabled, the Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router automatically provides default
packet filters to prevent IP spoofing (an attack by an outsider who
ses one of your inside addresses as his own source address in an
effort to gain access to PCs on your LAN). When either form of
address translation is used, the router effectively intercepts
and discards incoming requests to all host services on the LAN.
Access to services on the LAN such as email can be specifically
allowed while still protecting other private LAN services. When
bridging is enabled, the 2200 provides more extensive packet
filtering capabilities based on pattern-matching. Using the
command line interface, advanced users or network administrators
can program the Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router to accept or deny packets based on addressing
information, protocol, or data content. In the next release, Efficient Networks
plans to expand IP filtering features and add firewall logging to
identify whether and how often your filtering rules have been violated.
These features may be sufficient to satisfy the security needs for
some users. Consumers with more stringent security needs, for example, small
businesses and branch offices that want to run their own public web servers,
should consider using a firewall appliance or Efficient Networks's planned firewall
option to further protect their systems from attacks by intruders. In the
future, corporate network administrators will be able additionally enhance
security by having employees use the L2TP tunneling and encryption options
available on the 2200. Or they may choose to integrate SDSL-connected LANs
into an existing VPN solution by having end users run client software on
their individual PCs when they communicate with servers at a corporate LAN.
Other notable features
The Efficient Networks 2200 series of routers can be managed via SNMP
consoles. Enterprise configurations, IPX routing and bridging
will require extra information, and you may need to use the
Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router's command-line interface. These configurations require
more knowledge of networking than we'd expect from a non-technical user,
and neither the Quick Start for DSL nor the Configuration Manager
are as helpful in the enterprise access scenarios as are the wizards
for many of today's ISDN routers. This is what we'd expect for a
service that's relatively new not only for end users but also for
experienced network administrators.
DSL providers and enterprises are still tinkering to find the most
appropriate and secure deployment scenarios for their organizations,
and there are unfortunately too many "standard" ways to deploy ATM
technology. This combination makes it more difficult to hide
unfamiliar concepts like "encapsulation" from a novice user in a
setup wizard. While the printed and on-line documentation provides
thorough, detailed explanation for the experienced administrator,
pamphlet-level overview supplements will be needed for the
residential market. For the next year or so, we expect that
service providers will preconfigure DSL access routers and
bridges on behalf of their end users. The typical end user
will simply connect cables and power up a "ready to use" box.
| Final Word
The Efficient Networks™ 2200 SDSL Router provides very high speed Internet access for small and home businesses, branch offices, teleworkers, and residential power users. The choice of Symmetric DSL is especially attractive to consumers who require constant-on Internet presence, such as teleworking or hosting a public web server. |
Copyright © 2000 Core Competence, Inc. and David Strom, Inc.
No part of this report may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means,
electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage
or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
All Rights Reserved