Used for small offices, Pivotals StarGazer 1800 ISDN router provides most of the
routing features you might need and has Voice-over-IP (VoIP) and virtual private
networking (VPN) functionality. By using Pivotals StarVoice VoIP capability, small
offices can save money by placing calls over the Internet. When using a VPN, packets are
encrypted so that they can pass through the Internet or other networks securely. All of
these features can be monitored and managed using Pivotals Web-based graphical user
interface.
INSTALLATION
When comparing the advanced beta version of StarGazer 1800 that we tested to
other SOHO routers we have seen, the entire installation and initial configuration process
was relatively easy. The main reasons for this luxury were StarGazer 1800s built-in
DHCP server, and its customizable Web-based interface. The fact that the administrator
does not need to manually assign static IP addresses and can use the interface efficiently
is a tribute to the simplicity of the product. There is an option to connect to a command
line interface for additional configuration control, but with a few exceptions, there
should be little need to do so since the Web interface is very powerful.
Setting up the router is a simple matter of connecting the power supply from the router
to an outlet, an ISDN cable from the router to an ISDN wall jack, and a 10Base-T Ethernet
cable from your PC to one of the ports in the built-in hub. It should be noted that the
first port of the four-port hub could be used as an uplink, which is a crossover port, or
as a regular port, if you do not need to connect your built-in hub to another hub. There
is a switch at the bottom of the router that lets you pick which mode you want to use.
Once TCP/IP is installed and the proper settings are established, you can type the
proper URL (IP address) into your Web browser, and Pivotals Web interface will open.
For your initial configuration, all that you need to do is enter the default password,
check the Basic Internet Access box on the customization screen of the Web-based interface
(see Figure 1), and enter a few of the main ISDN settings. These are the ISDN switch type,
the first and second ISDN directory phone numbers, the remote phone number given to you by
your ISP, and the ISP account name and password. The switch type can be autodetected, as
can the SPID numbers.
DOCUMENTATION
Out of the box, Pivotals documentation consists of a general quick-start
guide as well as a sheet detailing how to use the VoIP capability. We also received a
command line interface reference manual, but the main user guide for the StarGazer 1800
can be found on the CD-ROM. Even though any part of the user guide can be printed or can
be navigated exclusively on the CD-ROM, we think a hard copy should be included for this
particular product so users can reference the entire guide without accessing it through a
computer, or having to print out the whole document.
Overall, the documentation is straightforward and very helpful and would be even more
so with the inclusion of an index for the user guide. There are many areas where the
documentation gave us step-by-step, diagrammed procedures on how to set up or configure
certain aspects of the router. These are the most useful sections of the documentation,
but since StarGazer 1800 is currently a beta that periodically goes through some minor
developmental changes, the documentation is sometimes not entirely correct. Although we
had little problem using the documentation, we could tell at times where minor changes
were made in the Web interface that had not entirely been changed yet in the
documentation.
The help files are commendable and can be accessed easily. When pressing the F1 key,
the help file appears, but this could be slightly improved if the help was context
sensitive to display the topic that is currently selected on the screen.
FEATURES
The following is a short list of the major features of Pivotals StarGazer
1800 router:
- ISDN BRI with bandwidth on demand;
- IP/IPX routing and spoofing, bridging;
- Web-based graphical interface Simple Malfunction Access configuRation Tool
(SMART);
- Built-in, four-port, 10Base-T hub with the possibility of an uplink as port 1;
- Built-in DHCP server;
- Three analog phone/fax ports;
- Automatic ISDN switch and SPID detection;
- Security includes VPNs with DES encryption, packet filtering, PPP PAP/CHAP,
callback, and configurable time-of-day Internet access control; and
- VoIP with G.723.1 voice
compression.
OPERATIONAL TESTING
To test the VoIP and VPN capabilities of the StarGazer 1800 router, we needed two
routers on two different LANs. To do this, we connected each router to a Windows 98 PC and
had each of them connected to the Internet via an ISDN BRI connection. Of course, we
required an ISP which supports an ISDN BRI connection that can be allocated with
StarGazers bandwidth-on-demand feature. We decided to borrow Pivotals ISP to
connect (they gave us their account and password). Once we had the correct remote phone
number to use, we had no problem bringing up the ISDN connection on one of the routers.
However, we could not bring up the ISDN connection of the second router, even though we
were using the correct configuration settings. On a call to Pivotals technical
support, we found out that the ISDN connection attempted to transmit the data, but it was
never received on the ISP end. Luckily, Pivotal had heard about this problem with some of
their U interface ISDN BRI routers and was in the last stages of creating a patch file for
it. Literally, a few hours later, they finished the patch and we received the file,
updated the router firmware, and tested to see whether or not this solved the problem. It
did. However, it should be noted that when we rebooted that router, we had to reinstall
the firmware in order for the ISDN connection to work again. But this should not present a
problem once this file is permanently set in the gold release of the product.
Using the VoIP capability (StarVoice) was almost effortless. All we did was connect our
phones to the analog ports of the routers, made sure that we checked the Internet Access
with Advanced Configuration option on the customization screen of the Web-based interface,
set up a speed-dial entry, and placed the call. The biggest problem we had was finding the
remote IP address of the other router. We had to view the IP routing table of each router
to find out its IP address. For static IP addresses, this doesnt present too much of
a problem because once you know the address of that particular router, it will always be
the same. However, we were using DHCP, so every time we connected to the ISP, we had to
find out what new address the ISP assigned. Obviously, this could become a pain to do
every time you want to make a VoIP call. Once we were connected, the VoIP call was clear
for the most part, even when we made another VoIP call to Pivotals office (a
Connecticut-to-California call). As expected, there was a bit of delay from the time one
of us spoke to when the other one on the call actually heard the words, but the delay was
tolerable.
Creating an office-to-office VPN connection was also surprisingly easy. All we needed
to do was make sure that the Internet access and the remote site options were checked on
the customization screen of the Web-based interface and fill out some forms, including the
VPN tunnel configuration and connection profile configuration screens (see Figure 4). With
the help of the users guide, filling out these forms presented little difficulty.
However, we must note that since we were configuring two routers at the same time, the
router we werent working on timed out, so we had to keep logging back in to continue
the configuration process. This became a bit annoying for us, and there was no way to
configure the StarGazer 1800 router so that it would timeout at a slower rate.
When we finished configuring the routers for our VPN and applied the configuration
successfully, we tested the VPN functionality. First, we pinged the local routers IP
address, assigned via the ISP, and then pinged the remote router. Obviously, the router we
pinged over the Internet transmitted slower than the other. The slower transmission was a
result of that router sending encrypted data across the Internet.
After that little exercise, we shared the C drives on the PCs, and were able to view
files from both computers. Before we established a VPN connection, each PC was on its own
LAN. When the VPN was established, both computer names were listed in the network
neighborhood, so the PCs were now on the same LAN via the VPN connection across the
Internet. We even opened a 300 KB file from the remote PC. It took about two minutes using
one 64 Kbps connection, but it did open. If you want, you can also bond two B channels for
a throughput of 128 Kbps.
ROOM FOR IMPROVEMENT
There are a few improvements that we would recommend for when the StarGazer 1800
router becomes available on the market (which should be by the time this review is in
print, in late August). First, the front light indicators are usually bright enough to be
noticed, but in certain room atmospheres, the lights become dull. It would be nice to be
able to see the light indicators in any room setting.
Second, we would like to be able to set the number of minutes before a StarGazer 1800
router times out. This way, we would not have to keep logging in if that particular router
remains inactive for a short time. Third, for VoIP calls, users should not need to know
the IP address of the router they are calling. Utilizing ActiveDirectory, LDAP, a
gatekeeper, a ULS server, or other databases to keep track of IP address assignment would
alleviate this requirement. This would make the configuration process for VoIP even easier
than it already is. Users can just call the speed dial number and be relatively sure that
the call will go through.
Our final suggestions involve security. A more advanced packet filtering method
a basic firewall using stateful inspection, would also serve a SOHO environment well. For
more information on this, see our review of the Ascend SecureConnect Manager and Client
Preview with Pipeline Family of Routers in the June issue of Internet Telephony. Also,
another detailed screen on Pivotals Web-based interface that shows the encrypted
data passing through the Internet would be helpful when an administrator monitors a VPN
connection, and adding IPSec encryption would have value as well.
CONCLUSION
We bestow our Editors Choice Award to Pivotals StarGazer 1800 router
for a number of reasons. The main reason is that the VoIP and VPN capabilities are quite
impressive, especially because configuring them is so simple. Also, the Web-based
interface is intuitive and easy to use, taking much of the frustration out of configuring
and managing a router in a SOHO environment. |