ZyXEL ZyAIR G-4100
Dave Mitchell
|
Oct 16, 2006 4:30 PM
|
Zyxel | http://www.zyxel.com.au
RRP: $688 (time of review)
Performance: 
Features & Design:
Value for money: 
Overall Rating:
User Rating: No user ratings.
|
A simple wireless hotspot kit well suited to small businesses that want to offer an easy, billed Internet access service.
Small businesses looking to provide billed hotspot wireless services are poorly served. Few manufacturers offer any simple, low-cost solutions with none being available in Australia. Now ZyXEL leads the way, with the G-4100 providing a complete hotspot package in a single box.
The G-4100 access point (AP) delivers the standard Fast Ethernet mix of four switched LAN ports and a single WAN port. You need to consider installing this behind an existing firewall, as although it offers NAT it doesn’t have an SPI firewall.
The ZyXEL AP is a solid lump of plastic with a large blue backlit dome that pulses whenever wireless activity is detected. Make sure you upgrade to the latest firmware, as our AP had an older version and the unit kept rebooting whenever a LAN port was used until we updated it.
The printer provided in the kit uses standard thermal till rolls. Three buttons are provided on the front panel, which can be linked to different billing options, and the PS/2 port accepts an optional keypad if you want more choices. Installation is aided by a wizard that steps through setting up billing and authentication. For the latter, you can use the AP’s internal subscriber database, which has room for 512 entries, or employ primary and secondary external RADIUS servers. For billing you simply select a currency and assign time periods in hours and minutes to your airtime units. Different values can be assigned to each of the printer’s buttons, and the resultant ticket has a pre-defined username and password, the wireless SSID, the amount of time the customer has bought and the date by which the account must be used before being deactivated.
When users try to access the Internet, they’ll be redirected to the AP’s standard login screen or to another URL of your choosing, and this process can use HTTPS if encryption is required. The standard login screen can incorporate
a walled garden where up to 32 URLs can be visited without the user logging in. Authentication is applied equally to LAN and WAN users, and the former can be allowed unrestricted access by including their IP address in a pass-through table. All access between LAN and WLAN users is blocked, and we could see no way of changing this. Once logged on, users can have a small window displayed on their system with a countdown timer. Account controls are good, as you can list all those created and see whether they’re active, plus the time remaining on them. Along with the full gamut of wireless security measures, the AP offers Web access controls, although all you do here is create a blacklist of URLs.
ZyXEL’s ZyAIR G-4100 works well, though some more Internet security options would be welcome. However, if you want to add wireless to a cafe, restaurant, hotel foyer or any other small business, it should pay for itself quickly.