The drive is available via UPnP once the initial router configuration has taken place. The hard drive has a pre-defined file structure for downloads, music, photos, videos, web files, ASUS utilities and automated USB copies. Based on a minimalist Linux build, the onboard OS is embedded into the firmware and takes over the full capacity of the hard drive.Īt a basic level, the router functions as an UPnP NAS device. The box comes packaged with the unit itself, wireless antenna, three power cables for different power connections, software CD and the manual.Īpart from the highly impressive hardware feature set, the main attraction with the WL-700gE is its in-built operating system. Needless to say, this will void your warranty. This will erase everything on the drive, and you're still limited to IDE drives, but it's still a straightforward process. The operating system is embedded into the firmware, so replacing the drive with a larger one and then reflashing the firmware will prepare and initialise the drive. Upgrading the drive is actually fairly simple. The drive isn't physically secured to the case any further, so it slides out quite easily. Once off, the drive itself is revealed, and it's a 164GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200rpm IDE drive. "Power" turns on the system and mounts the hard drive, while "Copy" will transfer data from a connected USB storage device (like a hard drive or flash drive) to the internal hard drive. There are two buttons on the front - Power and Copy. The LED status indicates what activity is occurring - no LED means no connection, steady LED shows connection, and flashing LED means activity. The front panel features all the power/activity LED's for the unit, hard drive, LAN/WAN and wireless LAN ports. With the pre-installed hard drive, it weighs in at a mere 1.4kg. With the option for vertical mounting, it can be positioned to take up hardly any desk space at all. At these dimensions, it's just a bit bulkier than a standard USB enclosure for a 3.5" hard drive. The WL-700gE is quite a compact little unit, at just 24.1cm wide x 16.1cm deep x 4.5cm high, when laying flat on its rubber feet. With a USB drive connected, it supports RAID levels 0 and 1 (striping and mirroring) - all from a router! There are also three USB 2.0 ports for hard drive expansion, printer connection or data copy from a USB flash drive. The unit comes with a 160GB IDE drive pre-installed. Wireless communication can be secured with 64/128 WEP, TKIP, AES, WPA or WPA-PSK encryption, and authentication is handled by MAC address and MAC filtering, or 802.1x. This makes the WL-700gE at least as secure as any other wireless router/gateway on the home market. Both firewalls are NAT and SPI-capable (Network Address Translation and Stateful Packet Inspection). Two firewalls work to protect both the wired and wireless networks. Wireless connectivity is via the external dipole antenna and internal inverted-F PCB antenna, operating on the 2.4 - 2.5GHz wireless spectrum, and supporting both 802.11b and 802.11g protocols (up to 11Mbps and 54Mbps respectively). Local connectivity is via the integrated 10/100 ethernet 4-port switch. ![]() The WL-700gE features a standard RJ-45 10/100 ethernet port for the WAN connection with auto crossover function. Read on and make awe-inspired gasping noises at all the appropriate places. The ASUS WL-700gE is more like a combination of a wireless router/gateway and a thin client system, and the feature-set is rich, rich, rich. The truth is a lot more involved and complex. Officially it's a wireless router (because it's got to be called something, but that's like calling Arnold Schwarzenegger "that guy with all the muscles". Putting all other MFDD's to shame is the ASUS WL-700gE. ![]() Feel free to use this label but remember to send me the patent money. So, I shall stop referring to the irritatingly as "devices" and label them MFDD's - Multi-Function Digital Devices. They excel in cramming loads of features into a compact system, and are versatile, flexible and quite powerful. These "devices" offer far more than any single specialist product. Networked hard drives with USB printer sharing are what exactly? NAS? Print server? Or just a "device"? The reason for the parentheses is that it's difficult to know how to label these gadgets, because they don't fit easily into any pre-defined categories. There's a rapidly-expanding section of the home electronics market which revolves around "devices".
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