Advantages: Awesome Value for Money, Great Setup Utility
Disadvantages: Not the best looking object in the world!

...When you purchase an all-in-one solution for broadband in your home these days, you want something that will sit in the background, quietly providing you with fast broadband - whether wired to your desktops, wireless to your laptops or networked to a whole range of bandwidth hungry appliances. You want it to work and you want it to be reliable and of course it must be simple to set-up. The 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless Router ticks all these requirements. I originally purchased one for a client, and I was surprised at how easy the installation was, especially since they used dreaded AOL! Many manuals for routers are usually of two distinct formats: horrendously complicated jargon-spewing bohemoths aimed at network professionals with accreditation from Cisco, or are partonising pamphlets covering the "perfect" install, which we all know... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Bargain bundle with wireless card for my laptop
Disadvantages: Just an access point, no modem/hub/etc

...I use the 3Com OfficeConnect Wireless 11g Access Point in my home wireless network, and bought it as part of a bundle with a laptop wireless card - check my other reviews to see if I've got round to reviewing that too... It used the IEEE 802.11g standard (data transfer speeds of up to 54Mbps), plus is backwards compatible with IEEE 802.11b (upto 11Mbps) so works with older equipment (such as a slightly outdated laptop from a previous employer) with no problems. The included CD installed all the necessary drivers very quickly and also contains all the manuals in PDF format. Once the drivers were installed, the configuration wizard runs in a standard web browser. This involves configuring IP addresses, encryption settings, DHCP settings and other techy bits and bobs. This was pretty straightforward, although a basic knowledge... Read review

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Advantages: Firewall for the whole Network, Wireless, Your Own Site filtering options
Disadvantages: 20Mbs internet speed restriction.

...The joy of Internet, yet, Internet providers thinks that one computer per house is enough... Hence, they give you modems that allow only one computer to connect to the internet, the one with the modem attached to it. Sure, I tried Microsoft internet sharing, but that means I must keep my computer ON for the whole family to connect their computers to the web across mine... Forget that, the cost of repairing anything on my computer beats many times the cost of this router. With 54Mbs Wireless speed, and a WDS feature allowing me to extend the Wireless range with the help of another 3Com Access Point, 4 LAN ports saving me money on buying a Hub or a Switch to allow my family PC to connect to mine, I actually got myself a good deal. I later configured the wireless and added my laptop to the lot too. Within 10 minutes I... Read review

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Advantages: Simple, dual speed, small size
Disadvantages: Only 5 ports (?)

...Not much to say about this really. I bought this for a pound (!) on Ebay to connect to my router giving me 4 more ethernet ports to connect stuff to my network. That's all it does, gives you more connection; there's no firewall, DCHP, nothing, but then that's all in my router. Its 5 autosensing ports (Ethernet 10Base-T/100Base-TX - RJ-45)automatically detect the speed of the attached device to maximize network performance - with a data transfer rate of up to 100 Mbps. It really was a "plug-and-play" installation with no configuration needed, it connected straight into my network - I didn't even ned to read the manual ! The auto-sensing feature means that you can plug the "in" cable into any socket - another 3Com switch I have has a specific "in" port. It's nice and small (Weight 0.6 kg, Height 4.2 cm, depth 13.5 cm, Width 22... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: Ability to save configuration so it is easy to setup other 3COM wireless devices conneting to this one
Disadvantages: Config save only works with 3COM devices. Required firmware update to work with my Modem

...encryption is easy to set up but you need to transfer the key to your other wireless devices to get them to work. Fortunately 3Com have made this easy if you are using other 3Com devices as you can save the keys and load them in to your other 3Com devices. The web based control interface is reasonable and there is a wizard to take you through the initial set up. The rest is up to you and it really is not a gentle experience. There are Help screens to explain things but the options are not presented in the most useful order for the average home or small business which I guess is the market. In all it was easy to set up, but does require some determination to set up the security correctly. My wife, who uses it most, has not noticed any down side since she went wireless. This is the best measure of success for any network device.... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: You can access the internet from anywhere in the house (or garden)
Disadvantages: Hard to set up.

...I have been in trouble this past couple of months. I discovered Ciao, and want to spend loads of time here. My husband wants me to spend time with him, understandably. He likes watching car programmes on the television, and I don’t. The solution we came up with was a Wireless Router for my laptop. Having looked around, and found no product reviews on wireless routers, we took our chances on this. We searched around for a good price. We placed an order from ebuyer for a 3COM Office Connect ADSL Wireless 11g Firewall Router, with a 3COM Office Connect Wireless 11g PC Card. The cards on their own cost around £34 if you search the net. If ever they add the correct product to the category, I will write one on the Router itself, but for now, I get to tell you about my experience with the card. This review assumes that you already... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful

Advantages: East set up - the best PLUG & PLAY device I have ever come across - true to it's word!, Great coverage, Great protection of the wireless network
Disadvantages: Not linked to the mother computer via USB - you must have a LAN card installed

...Well, certainly a very interesting product - it incorporates an inbuilt ADSL modem with wireless access point - perfect for home use. Size: The size of this access point really shocked me - it was hardly even the size of a video cassette! On the back it has two fully adjustable antennae that can be moved depending on your selected location. All of the ports are hidden on the back of the unit, and