SMC2804WBR Barricade g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router

by SMC

Product Details

Product Manual [5.69mb PDF]

• Item Weight: 1.5 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 3.4 pounds
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S.
• ASIN: B00009APTT
• Item model number: SMC2804WBR
• Average Customer Review: 3.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #144,649 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Date first available at Amazon.com: April 21, 2003

Product Description

The Barricade g 2.4GHz 54Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router (SMC2804WBR) is the perfect networking solution for any home and business user that is looking for a simple, all-in-one network product. This platform independent multi-functional router combines a 4-port 10/100 Mbps dual-speed switch with Automatic MDI-MDIX feature, a high speed 54Mbps wireless access point, two detachable antennas, Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall security, network management, and Virtual Private Network (VPN) passthrough support into one convenient device. The new Barricade g offers a high data rate that is up to 5 times faster than the widely used 802.11b wireless LAN and is backward compatible with existing 802.11b network devices. The high performance Barricade g Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router offers an integrated Stateful Packet Inspection (SPI) firewall. This firewall provides protection against hacker invasions, such as Denial of Service (DoS) attacks by analyzing individual data packets, as they pass through the Barricade g, to ensure that only authorized packets are allowed access to the network.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars SMC2804WBR -- works great, costs little, January 23, 2004

By 

Mac Coder (Tulsa, OK USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: SMC2804WBR Barricade g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router (Personal Computers)

I have been using the 2804WBR for several months now, and it has worked flawlessly. The difference in throughput between it and our 802.11b base stations is quite obvious.
Some observations on the other reviews of this product:

1. Current product does not appear to have any unresolved bugs, and should new firmware be released, the firmware upgrade process is extremely easy, requiring only a web browser.

2. The statement that the 2804 "cannot act as an access point" is simply incorrect. If you do not connect anything to the WAN port on the 2804, all it can do is act as an access point, and unremarkably, that's all it does. Mine is doing just that -- we have two other 802.11b routers on our network, one of which is our internet gateway and the other (an original Apple Airport base station) is acting as an AP.

Note that if you are going to use the 2804 as an access point, you probably want to turn off its DHCP server, because you probably already have another one operating.

One of the unheralded features of the 2804 (and all recent SMC routers) is that the router does not have to be rebooted for configuration changes to take effect -- you just press a button on the appropriate configuration page, and the change is saved and active. This means that in a multi-user environment you don't trash other users' connectivity when making configuration changes. Very cool, and fairly rare in consumer-grade routers.

All configuration is via web-browser, with separate "easy" and "pro" configuration systems. The 2804 configures and operates flawlessly with Macs as well as PCs, and presumably Linux boxes also.

The 2804 also has removable antennas, making it possible to add an external antenna without breaking out a soldering iron or cracking the case.

I would recommend the 2804 to anyone who needs its capabilities -- it is economical, simple to configure, and yet offers sophisticated capabilities if you want to delve into the settings a little.

The only criticism that I have of the unit is that it does not directly support dyndns.org -- but since that can be handled by a free client daemon on your computer, that is of little consequence.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Not intuitive, but very reliable, October 7, 2003

By 

Craig E. Poley "deionychus" (Colorado, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SMC2804WBR Barricade g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router (Personal Computers)

This router isn't going to be a 'piece of cake' for a typical home user, but for someone with at least a basic understanding about networking principles, it has some great features.

First note, update the firmware; there was a WEP bug that was fixed in a release after what came on the CD... if you use WEP at all, you need the update.

As a router, it can't be configured as a true access point; it always needs to 'route' from the LAN (wireless) segment of the network to the WAN (your remaining network). And the IP address configuration on the LAN side is limited... Personally, I use 10.x.x.x internal addresses on our network and we use a B mask. The SMC is hardcoded with a C mask, so if you need access to a different B address, as I did, this can cause an issue. The good news is that the 192.168.2.x addresses that the router 'likes' to use, are routed to the 10.x segment without an issue (but it meant some name resolution issues, etc. that were worked through).

As far as the product goes, though, I'm very happy with the power of the unit--we have great signal strength everywhere on the property. Also some of the 'firewalling' features, which is where intrusion detection settings, MAC access lists, etc. live, are just great for such an inexpensive unit.

Since we've had it set up, we have never touched it again (except to dust it from time to time) and have never had an issue with it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Almost Flawless, July 2, 2003

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: SMC2804WBR Barricade g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cable/DSL Broadband Router (Personal Computers)

I recently purchased this router for a wireless network. It has worked flawlessly, the only thing that stopped me from giving it 5 stars was the 3-Click setup hung at the end and I had to reboot. But it had done all the setup. However, I did not buy this product for that reason. I read the normal setup info in the manual BEFORE I purchased the unit and I recommend that method for most users because it is very accurate and simple. I work in this business and this product is about as good as it gets short of Cisco. I went to some site that try to hack into my network/PC and the BARRICADE made my network look invisible to current hacker attack schemes. I had been using BlackIce for the past several years and this is a step better. The web interface is very easy to use and understand. Be sure to understand advanced settings before making changes. I also updated the firmware and found it work perfectly. I have a new Dell box on order to try out the wireless aspect and will modify this post with that experience soon.