Introduction

Nexland has been one of the leading manufacturers of Internet connection sharing devices for years. Our first router review in 1999 was the ISB2LAN, a revolutionary piece of hardware for its time. Numerous companies have followed and developed similar broadband routers, each with its own advantages and faults. I'm glad to introduce Nexland's new line of products, with updated functionality, improved specifications and additional features that definitely put the company on the bleeding edge of the Internet Sharing market once again.

The ISB-SOHO, as well as most other routers in this category is a NAT (Network Address Translation) solution, acting as a server to your internal LAN (Local Area Network), providing internal IP addresses in the 192.168 range, as well as Internet access, with a great deal of flexibility. Nexland's new ISB line of products includes Pro series routers as well, with SNMP, Multi-session IPSec/PPTP tunnels, console connection, configuration backup and other advanced features. However, for the average home user the ISB-SOHO we review here will more than adequate and a great buy for its price.

Package Contents

• The ISB-SOHO Cable/DSL Router
• Printed Manual
• Quick Start Guide
• CD with Manual, Browser and Utilities
• Power Adapter (9v DC 1000mA)
• 1 straight-through CAT5 Network Cable ( 6.5 Ft )

The unit is packed with both Quick Start and a detailed printed manual. The Quick Start Guide will be enough for most users familiar with LAN setup, and the detailed manual will explain all the features of the browser menus, detailed specs and everything you might ever want to know about the unit. The router itself has WAN and LAN LEDs on top for quick diagnostics at a glance, as well as per port LEDs for each of the 4 LAN posrt on the back.

Specs

Installation

The ISB-SOHO installation is as nearly plug-and-play, a fairly versed LAN user should be able to setup the unit with only the Quick Start Guide. The browser interface makes it easy to setup even for the network-inexperienced, there are step-by-step instructions in the user's manual that document each step in the process of setting up the router, as well as screen shots of the browser interface. One new useful feature for the average user is the browser's help menus for each page.

The manual includes easy to understand diagrams for setting up the router with either a PPPoE, DHCP or static accounts, depending on the type of service you have you might need some additional information about your account. Other than that, it's as simple as connecting the Cable/DSL line to the ISB-SOHO, your PCs to the LAN ports of the unit, then setting up a PC as a DHCP client (the ISB-SOHO is configured to act as a DHCP server by default). Note that you might need to reset your Cable/DSL modem for the ISB-SOHO to get an IP address. Once everything is connected, you can access the router's management interface by simply pointing your browser to 192.168.0.1.  For accounts with a static IP, you might have to enter the DNS/IP/Gateway/Network Mask, and for PPPoE you might need your username and password, depending on the type of service.

Generally, the ISB-SOHO is very flexible and should work with nearly any type of Ethernet based Broadband Internet connection. The Browser Interface can be tailored to your specific needs, by configuring the unit's MAC address, host and domain name,  even Static Routing Table, in addition to the dynamic RIP2 Support. The unit includes support for Multisession PPPoE as well.

Following are some screenshots of the Comprehensive Web-based Management Interface (click thumbnails to see larger images):

1. Main Setup

2. Static IP and DNS

3. Status

4. LAN IP and DHCP

6. Advanced PPPoE

7. Dynamic DNS

8. Routing

15. Expert Level

Key Features

Nexland's ISB product line has a comprehensive list of features not found in competing products, so if you're a gadget-freak as the author of this article you'll appreciate the extensive capabilities and the long list of configuration options the browser interface provides.

Networking

The ISB-SOHO includes a 4-port full-duplex switch, capable of 200MBps throughput on all 4 LAN ports. The WAN interface is capable of 8MBps bi-directional throughput, which is more than enough for current residential broadband connections, and much higher than competing products.

Security

The unit passed all our security tests with flying colors, effectively guarding your LAN from any intrusion by default. Even more importantly, it enables you to configure per-port special applications, custom Virtual servers and Access Filters for different Groups of PCs. All this is vital for effectively tailoring a larger LAN with various needs.

Here are a few more related screenshots from ISB-SOHO's Browser Interface:

9. Host IP and Group

10. Access Filters

11. Special Applications

12. Virtual Servers

13. Custom Virtual Servers

14. Exposed Host (DMZ)

Some other Notable Features of the unit include:

• Browser-configurable MAC address, host and domain names - those features make it compatible with virtually any ISP. Even if your provider has your service bound to the hardware MAC address of the Ethernet card (NIC) in your PC, you simply need to plug-in the number in the unit's browser interface.
• Configurable MTU - you can even control packet size !
• IP-range based external access.
• DMZ - One exposed host, with two-way unlimited access
• VPN Pass through - Single Session IPSec & L2TP (multi-session in the Pro Line), Multi-Session PPTP

Conclusion

The ISB-SOHO is a mature product, reflecting Nexland's long history in the market of Internet Sharing devices, with a full set of user-configurable options that should suit even the most demanding Home/SOHO user. Although you can only buy the ISB line of products at Nexland, they're all competitively priced.

The Good:

• User-configurable MAC address, hostname and domain
• Multi-session PPPoE support
• Static Routing
• Custom Virtual Servers
• Multi-Session PPTP
• High throughput on the WAN Port
• High Reliability
• Overall very comprehensive set of features.
• Downloadable Firmware upgrades
• Competitively priced
• Excellent Tech. Support

The Bad:

• Single-session IPSec Only ( Multi-Session available in the Pro-Series)
• Primitive logging - only logs for availability of the WAN interface provided, no logging of attempted intrusions, errors, email alerts provided.
• nslookup unavailable on LAN PCs, even when a PC is set as a DMZ Host ? Note: Firmware v1 Rel. 1J fixes the issue partly, hostnames seem to resolve however only after returning an error:
  *** Can't find server name for address 192.168.0.1: Non-existent domain
  *** Default servers are not available

Wish list / Suggestions:

• More extensive Browser Help menus with examples.
• Adding basic networking tools for troubleshooting to the interface, such as traceroute/ping ?
• More extensive Dynamic DNS support, with help/examples for popular services, such as DHS.org, TZO, etc.
• Default MTU to 1500 rather than 1472 for DHCP, default renew DHCP lease at some interval, rather than 0.
• Additional information on Status screen, when was DHCP lease obtained, how many hours until renew ?
• For authentication, enable custom username, rather than admin (for security reasons)
• Firmware upgrades directly using the browser interface ? Non-destructive firmware updates, way to keep or backup the current configuration.
• Telnet management

The router gets almost perfect score in all our tests, with a few minor shortcomings that should be easily corrected in future firmware upgrades, keep in mind the one we tested is a pre-production unit with a first-generation firmware/interface. I'd say the guys at Nexland did a great job compared to Linksys and other routers' manufacturers that took over a year to fix their firmware to a point where it's fairly usable.

Overall, the ISB-SOHO is a great product for its price and Home/SOHO target audience, offering a comprehensive set of features not available in competing routers. Combined with the company's history in this market I'd say Nexland's  new ISB line of products raises the standards for Internet sharing devices and offers a great value to users.

Rating
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