LAN & WAN Reviews

Introduction

Hawking Dual WAN Firewall Router w/4-Port Switch
Summary	Dual Ethernet WAN SPI-based router. Inexpensive alternative to Symantec VPN 200, but without dialup/ISDN backup ports, and less sophisticated load balancing and failover.
Update	8/12/2003 - New firmware available that improves dual-WAN load balancing features. - Nexland purchased by Symantec and pro800Turbo no longer available
Pros	• Dual 10/100 WAN ports with auto-failover and load balancing • Supports 16 WAN IP addresses • High throughput
Cons	• No Web traffic logging • Poor documentation

Although the number of people with multiple broadband Internet connections is small, it must be growing enough to attract a second entrant to the market. Hawking's FR24 Dual WAN Broadband 4 Port Firewall Router is the first consumer-level router to take on Nexland's pro800Turbo (now the Symantec Firewall/VPN 200) on the dual WAN battlefield. Can a box that costs less than $100 really compete with an established product that costs almost five times (make that almost 20 times with Symantec's pricing) as much? You may be surprised at the answer!