Ongoing concerns about the security of wireless networks and an increasing demand to be able to connect remotely to office and home networks has forced many people to look for a reasonably priced VPN solution. Virtual Private Networks use the Internet to establish a secure link between an external PC and a local network.

We review the SSG 5, a UTM security appliance from Juniper Networks.

Cheap plans, good hardware and excellent results in our speed tests make 3 a deserving winner, in our group test against Telstra Bigpond, Optus, Vodafone, Virgin and Unwired.

Telstra says it now has more than 300,000 ADSL subscribers and is on target to reach a million by 2005. The problem with home ADSL is that unlike cable, Telstra doesn’t make it easy to network even though it requires an Ethernet connection. Interestingly, the Ethernet requirement for broadband Internet connectivity is also helping to drive the rising popularity of home networks.

Mobile phones are experiencing their second major evolution. Its not one of form factor, but of functionality.

The DIR-855 is among the fastest wireless routers in our tests and would be particularly attractive to all-Windows networks.

A free modem and competitive pricing around the 5GB mark make Vodafone worth a look – but other networks are cheaper per GB

Excellent speed, both wired and wireless, but this comes at a hefty price.

Even at a glance, the Linksys WRV54G looks to be more than just an 802.11g/b wireless access point. It acts as an Ethernet switch connecting up to four wired devices, making this a good bridging choice between wired and unwired networks. It's also a router capable of hooking up to a DSL modem, which is useful for basic connection sharing.

Belkin’s N1 Vision is an eye catching wireless modem router that combines a sleek design profile with big speeds.

Netgear's Wireless Digital Music Player, the MP101 is one of the easiest music streamers we've reviewed, but for rich multimedia support you should look further a field especially if you're keen on streaming video to your equipment.

The fastest test results, but the most expensive data packages make BigPond a fall-back only for those with no coverage from other providers

Wireless networking at 10/100 speeds, with range to match.

Readily finding wireless hotspots, usable public wireless hotspots, can be a pain when you've got to power your laptop to see if any are available in the immediate vicinity. Enter the Kensington Wi-Fi Finder, a hand held hotspot detector.

The form of DSL offered by BigPond is ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), meaning that the upload speed is lower than the download speed.

Fast, well built and superbly featured - our business laptop of choice.

A tried-and-tested backup system that can easily cope with changing network environments.

McAfee puts out its VirusScan 2004 in two versions - boxed or downloaded and managed from the internet. Whatever way you do it, the installation is simplicity itself with no difficult questions to answer or confusing choices to make.

Devices that attach storage to the network aren't new, but until now they've been either very expensive or limited in ability. But this little marvel from Asus changes all that. The WL-HDD can put a hard disk on the network with no drivers or client software required, and it can do this wirelessly via 802.11g.

At first glance, not much appears to have changed from version 3. A closer look, however, reveals that the engine in version 4 has been tweaked and optimised towards a more powerfully specified product.