A wireless router with many capabilities
Yesterday I received in the mail a new wireless router: the ASUS WL-700gE. Its main feature is the 160 GB integrated hard disk.
The router is really a small server and is replacing a Mac Mini.
Step one: installation
I have no windows computer so I was out of luck because the provided utilities are windows only. You can do everything with the web interface, anyway. The manual is completely useless and the only useful infos are the tooltips in the web interface. It has no ADSL interface so you must connect the WAN port to an ADSL modem. The installation was fast and all my devices could connect to the wireless network ( I have a Powermac G5, an iBook, a Nokia 770 tablet and an Airport Express).
Step two: using the router as a network drive
Everything works flawlessly: the integrated samba server works and allow you to mount the drive in the finder like any other network disk. For additional storage the router has a couple of USB ports on the back where external HD can be attached and a USB port on the front. A copy button allows you to quick transfer the content of an USB key on the router HD.
Step three: using the download master
The download master is a feature which allows to download files directly on the router without keeping the computer powered on for entire nights. It supports BitTorrent, http and ftp downloads and works quite well also if the options are limited. You have to login in the web interface, tell the router the path of the file and forget it. The file will be saved in the router drive.
Step four: the iTunes server
You can stream music from the server to any computer (mac o pc) running iTunes. This saves me from the hassle of syncing multiple iTunes libraries. It does not work very well: the ID3 tags of MP3 files are not preserved across the network and this makes the all thing unusable. The only metadata streamed is the album art. Everything works fine with AAC files. I hope this will be fixed with a firmware update. It appears that the iTunes server is actually a UPnP server: I can stream the files from the UPnP client for the Nokia 770, Mediastreamer (no id3 tag in MP3 files as well)
The router has many more features like: publishing on the web (with support for DYNDNS), integrated firewall, users collaboration with a message board.
But I think it is worth the price just for using as NAS.
My rating: stars
