Damn, what a waste of an afternoon and now, evening.

The story starts with the desire for a Logitech MX900 Bluetooth mouse to use with my new Apple notebook. I go to a local store which has the product listed on its site and generally carries a huge stock in store. Apparently they don't carry the MX900 except through the website. So I drive to another store down the road from there (since I'm already out). They too had it listed on their site (and they don't do mailorder). Out of stock - though it doesn't seem they even had the shelf space for it. Call another place and they don't have it in stock.

At the first store I did buy a couple of things. I bought a small portable flash media reader and a USB 2.0 HD enclosure for 2.5" drives. On my way home I decided to pass by a large chain store because it was along the way - jjust to see if they carried the MX900. They didn't.

But they had a nice USR 802.11g router (model 8054) which would come out to CAD$50 affter tax. I wanted a new one anyway, if only for an improvement to the management UI of my older 11b model. The range on the new one was also supposed to be better.

First the USB enclosure.... Worked well plugged into my desktop PC. Fast. plugged it into my Mac notebook and it didn't work. Check each USB port. I was semi-upset but thought I might get it working with its double USB connnection (for more power) - but I needed an extension to do that whichi I didn't have on me - my two USB ports are on either side of the notebook.

The thing that got me REALLY upset was trying out m right-side USB port afterwards.... It was now dead. Dead dead. A little sniffing brought me a faint, but identifiable "burnt" smell. ARRRGH. I verified the Firewire port next to it was still working. This means I'll have to drop this brannd new computer off for repair.

Now on to configuring the new router... The new interface looked very nice. I thought to myself that it was a fine improvement with some very nice added features. Until I started to use it. Every time a single setting is made, like adding a MAC address for a client machine, you have to hit an APPLY button. This resets the router and forces you to manually hit a "back" button to reload the config page. VERY frustrating when there are a few things you have to change/add, each requiring an APPLY.

First thing I noticed was that for access control the only choices I had were to globally allow or disallow my entire MAC laddress list. This was already alarming because the old router allowed more versatility by keeping wired and wireless settings separate, allowing more than on/off setting for each, and then also allowing you to apply those rules on a per-MAC client basis. This was no good. I could not set this up to block all wireless clients except the ones I add, but let all wired clients through. Bad.

One nice thing was now being able to name the clients - this way one can actually identify what machine each MAC address belongs to. But then there was another HUGE missing feature. You can't assign any fixed IPs! WTF!? That just won't do.

So regardless of how good the bits inside this product (USR 8054) are, the software completely stinks and was oobviously put together by a monkey. I'd say it was all just a marketing decision, but you really have to see how bad the help files are and how scattered some of the setup options seem to be.

Now... I need recommendations for a good wireless router. Must have:

802.11b/g
at least 3 ethernet ports (not including the WAN connnection)
support for direct connection to Cable/DSL modems (obviously )
good wireless range and through-put
well thought out management interface with:
MAC-level access control with ability to treat wireless and wired clients independently
Ability to give each client a descriptive name
Ability to assign a fixed internal IP address to any client (id'd by MAC addr)
Custom Port forwarding for TCP and UDP, with defaults already in place for common ports
External IP filtering (inbound and outbound)

I'd like to avoid going over US$100 (final price) if possible.

So, I didn't get the primary thing I wanted, the mouse. but I managed to damage my new $2000 notebook and waste my entire evening with this POS USR router. Now I have to waste more time returning both the router and that USB enclosure. Gonna stick to firewire for the Mac, so I'll make sure I get a nice unit with dual connections this time.

Thanks.
Bruno