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Blog 'wlan' » Wireless Cable Modems

I was at SCTE Cable-Tec expo which was held between June 4-7. Among the interesting things are Wireless Cable Modem Gateways which combine the cable modem with the NAT Router, LAN switch and 802.11b Access Point in one box.

3 Units were spotted are Motorola SBG1000, Toshiba PCX5000 and Samsung SCM-300W. These units are most likely to be sold in retail channels.

Now, the worst is probably happening to cable operators that does not even want to think of the add on Wireless Access Point with fears of providing free service to neighbors. It is interesting to see if the Cable operators will agree to activate these units in there networks.

Motorola SBG1000 Wireless Cable Modem Gateway

This cool unit combines the following with cable modem:

· 802.11b wireless access point

· Router with 5-port 10/100 Base-T switch

· Advanced firewall security protection

· Network Address Translation (NAT)

· VPN pass-through (IPSec, PPTP, L2TP)

· DHCP server and client

· USB interface

· Printer server that supports Windows®, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems

· Optional wired external high-gain diversity antenna

Accessory list includes Agere ORiNOCO USB and PCCard 802.11b cards. So, internally it may contain Orinoco technology for wireless connectivity.

Links: 1 2

Toshiba PCX5000 Wireless Gateway Cable Modem

Could not find a link to an image. It is not stylistic as Motorola and does not have external antennas

This is very similar to Motorola Unit Above except the the build-in switch is 4 port and there is no print server functionality. According to the second link below it also incorporates Wireless technology from Agere (ORiNOCO)

Links: 1 2

Samsung InfoRanger SCM-300W Wireless Gateway Cable Modem

Samsung's unit has the shortest feature list. But, it has external diversity antennas. The unit comes in different colors (sort of like iMac candies ;)) There is no mention of SPI so the unit is probably NAT only.

Links: 1 2

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