3Com OfficeConnect Dual 56K LAN Modem - router

Author's product rating:   

Speed
Reliability
Ease of Installation
Ease of use
Value For Money

Advantages:	Fast shared internet access
Disadvantages:	See op

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

3Com Office connect Dual 56K LAN Modem (3Com Part No. 3C888)

This little box does virtually everything that can be done with a modem / phone line system shared over an ethernet network, but configuration options could be more flexible and there are too many flaws still to be ironed out.

~Why would anyone want one?~

Anyone who has read my Ciao opinion on Telewest’s SurfUnlimited will know that I have a 24/7 dial up account for just £10 per month. With a home network (LAN) and 2 other internet addicts wanting to share the internet I needed some way to allow us all to surf simultaneously.

Having tried several software solutions (my favourite, incidentally, being Comsocks for www.linkbyte.com for ease of installation and use, with the widest compatibility) I decided that I really needed a hardware router. The problem of using a PC as a router, even a dedicated standalone one, is that they tend to be unreliable. They have to remain switched on 24/7 but are prone to crashing, and if you want to use the machine for anything else then the risk of crashing increases. In addition you will need either 2 monitors/keyboards/mice (and space to put them) or a KVM switch – all of which is a bit pricey and heavy on administration. I did try some Linux routers running on a spare PC but they are all pretty complex – suffice to say that none of them worked for me. So the decision was for a hardware router.

I was in PC World one day and I saw the 3Com dual Lan Modem at a bargain price – so I bought it. You might not think that £199 inc VAT is a bargain price, but considering that it includes 2 quality modems and a router/DHCP/firewall etc etc I think that this is not bad – if it does the job.

3Com have helpfully given this device a name which describes what it does – it contains two independent 56K modems and attaches to your LAN. There is a 4 port 10Mb/s ethernet hub built in, together with analog pass through ports for the telephone lines.

~Out of the box experience~

First impressions are very good indeed. The Lan Modem is a beige box 23 x 18 x 5cm
(WxDxH). It is well built and solid. All connectors are to the rear (including for power supply from the ubiquitous transformer block) and there are LED’s on the front for power, network activity and for each modem’s activity (4 LEDs per modem).

My only gripe here is that the box is fashionably curved at the top and sides. This might help it look nice but it is not very practical – apart from another 3Com Officeconnect device, you cannot stack anything on top of it, and you cannot stand it on edge.

There is a very good set up on the accompanying CD which install optional management software. The CD can also be used to set up all client PC’s on the network but you can do it all manually in a very short time anyway if you know what you are doing. The Lan Modem includes a DHCP server to assign IP addresses to lan clients which makes set up painless.

~Internet sharing~

Set up is a piece of cake. If you have set up the Lan in the first place, then this will take no more than a few minutes. 3Com say you can do it in 15 mins – this is probably about right.

Configuration of the Lan Modem is through a web browser interface – you simply type in the address of the LanModem (192.168.1.1 is the default) and then, subject to a password, access the set up screens. You fill in details of your ISP telephone number and account, and let the Lan Modem connect for you.

There is a multitude of configurations –

- dial on demand or keep the connection alive permanently (yes please!),
- combine 2 phone lines together to double internet speed (for the cost of 2 phone calls),
- determine which phone line is to be used for what type of calls
- set a phone line for incoming calls only
- view system and modem statistic
- set passwords and dial in access
- set static IP addresses on the network (eg I have a network printer which needs a static IP address)
- allow or deny an client PC internet access (useful when controlling a teenager’s web access!)

There are some configurations irritatingly absent however. For example you can only have 2 phone numbers per ISP – the modem cycles through these, with the result that if they are both busy then you will not get connected and have to reconfigure the modem to give it further alternatives. For the 24/7 ISP user this can be a bit of a problem. Another example is that you can, it seems, only set the first telephone line to be the default internet access line.

The connection that you get is fast – much better than my old internal modem. This is as you would expect from a 3Com / USR modem. It helps to know what sort of modems your ISP is using and to try to dial into those most compatible with your own modem (see my Surfunlimited op).

As it works over the Lan, internet access is operating system independent (as long as you have TCP/IP, which is just about a given). You can connect a Mac or a Linux box over the Lan and all can access the internet at the same time.

~Modem Sharing~

This works with Windows PCs only. Sharing software must be installed and run on each client PC – this emulates a modem on that PC and creates a “virtual fax/modem.” The software wanting to access the modem is fooled into thinking that the client PC has a modem attached, and dials out using the virtual modem over the Lan through the Lan Modem.

I have used this to connect the second phone line to AOL (v6) and to other ISPs and it works absolutely perfectly.

Using it for sending and receiving faxes is another matter however. The supplied software (BVRP Phonetools) does not work correctly – incoming faxes are distorted and outgoing faxes repeatedly give transmission errors at the recipient’s machine.

In addition, the virtual fax/modem is not a VOICE modem – so you cannot use it as a telephone answering machine etc. This is quite a drawback to anyone wanting a fully integrated telephony system.

~Remote Access~

This allows a remote user (subject to security checks) to dial into your system to access your home network. You could use this to transfer data to/from your home and office machines or whilst out on the road to access resoiurces on the Lan. You can dial in on one phone line whilst the other is being used for the internet or for sending / receiving faxes.

I have tested this and it seems to work okay. I confess that I do not yet need this functionality and so I have not tested it fully. The security seems adequate, but I cannot help but worry about these sort of things.

~Problems~

There are however, as with all things PC, some significant flaws with the Lan Modem.

Firstly, there is only one telephone jack adapter supplied. Yes, this is a DUAL modem device – there are two modem cables – but you have to buy another adapter to connect to a BT socket. I checked with 3Com tech support – apparently they deliberately only ship one adapter. How dumb is that?

Secondly the pass through telephone sockets do not seem to work properly –you cannot connect the modem to the phone socket and then put an ordinary phone/fax etc on the other end of the line by passing it through the lan modem. Tech support are baffled.

Thirdly the fax software Again, tech support are baffled.

Fourthly it is not always stable – I have several occasions where the Lan Modem’s internal server has crashed. This occurs most often when using P2P software (eg Bearshare and other Gnutella clones). Fortunatley this does not seem to prevent internet access from the Lan – it just means that you cannot access or configure the Lan Modem settings without rebooting it (which means physically unplugging it). Guess what – tech support are baffled by this one aswell.

~Conclusions~

Shared internet access works very well for most of the time. If this is all you need it for, then it works just fine – but it is probably far more than you need for this alone. For example do you need a DUAL modem device? If you do not need dual line or fax sharing / dial in services then there are cheaper and better solutions ( eg the SMC Barricade).
3Com have aimed for something altogether more useful in the business SOHO field. It is a good concept but fails in execution – there are just too many flaws. If it is going to be flawed / unreliable then it destroys the whole point of buying it.

~Things they could have done better~

1. Ship it with two phone socket adapters
2. Make the fax software work / make the pass through ports work / make it more stable.
3. Add a reset switch – preferably on the front of the unit
4. Make it a 100/10 Ethernet SWITCH rather than a 10 HUB
5. Provide an RJ45 WAN port for future ADSL / Cable modem use
6. Allow voice use of the modems – some sort of VOIP software
7. Make the box square
8. Build in a logging facility to monitor throughput speed, sites visited, access attempts…
9. Build in a filtering system
10. Put a rocket up tech support
11. Put another rocket up tech support