Ovislink Air Live WMU-9000VPN

The Air Live WMU-9000VPN is a four-port router and 11g Wi-fi access point, with four USB2 ports, in a case the size of a slim paperback. It has so many features, you feel there must be a snag. There are a few, but this is an interesting and useful product.

It supports virtual private networking allowing you secure remote access, and has a built-in firewall and content filter; a mail watch feature flashes an LED signal if you get messages from specified sources. You can control and prioritise bandwidth used by local IP addresses.

The versatility stems mostly from those USB ports. Plug in a webcam and you have a surveillance server, with a motion sensor that will send you a picture of intruders. Make sure you download the manual from the OvisLink website to check out recommended models, as it wouldn't work with two we tried.

The same goes for printers, which need to support TCP/IP (RAW) printing, although you look safe with products less than two years old. We plugged in a Canon i250, which OvisLink listed as doubtful, and had no problems.

The advantage of printing through Airlive is that you can do so regardless of which computers are online. Remote PCs can use the printer too, given permission, creating another way to send messages and documents.

You can also plug in USB hard drives or flash drives, creating an FTP server that can make files available remotely. Locally, you can drag-and-drop files to and from it, but it is not quite the same as a network drive that can be accessed from file menus.

The Linux operating system is near transparent and the browser-based control interface is well designed; the Taiwanese-English documentation is too, but the occasional ambiguity and omission could cause problems.

Contact: OvisLink
www.ovislink.com

The Air Live WMU-9000VPN is sold in UK by Cablelines 0115 949 1010
www.cablelines.com

Specifications:

• 4-port router & 11b/g access point with 4 USB2 ports
• MIPS 170MHz Brecis 2006 processor
• 8MB Flash
• 32MB SD-Ram
• Built-in FTP, video, print & file servers, bandwidth manager