Menu Options: System Setup

The Operation Mode submenu allows choosing from three operation modes of the WL-500G Deluxe:

• Home Gateway: NAT is permited; the WAN port is employed using PPPoE or DHCP client or static IP address. UPnP and DDNS are supported. This mode is intended for home users and allows several wireless clients and the computers attached to the LAN ports to share an Internet connection.
• Router: NAT is disabled; setting up static and dynamic routing protocols permitted, the WAN port is assigned a static IP address. This mode is intended for integration into an office network
• Access Point: NAT is disabled; the WAN port works as a fifth LAN port

The other submenus ?Change Password, Firmware Upgrade, Setting Management, Factory Default ?are intended for changing the password for accessing the WL-500G Deluxe, updating the firmware, saving/restoring current settings in/from a file, and resetting the current settings to their factory defaults.

Menu Options: Status & Log

The Status submenu offers information about the current status of the WAN and LAN interfaces and the printer. You can free or update the current IP address of the WAN interface if the type of the WAN connection is selected as Automatic IP. The current print task may be cancelled.

The Wireless page displays information about the wireless clients connected to the router. From here you can permit or prohibit wireless communication. The DHCP Leases page shows info about the clients that lease their IP addresses from the DHCP server. The Port Forwarding and Routing Table pages contain information about the port forwarding rules (set up according to the Port Trigger table using Virtual Server, Virtual DMZ and UPnP) and the routing rules (static or dynamic, updated by the RIP). The System Log page displays the last 1024 system events.

Finishing this description of the router?s control software, we want to complain about the menu structure: it would be more logical to organize the settings hierarchically rather than linearly. That is, it would be easier to set the protocols and utilities up depending on a planned mode of operation of the WL-500G Deluxe rather than to search for a necessary setting through the entire the menu. The Quick Setup utility (an analog of Windows?Wizards) helps but slightly to do that.

The software is distributed under the GNU license; the source is freely available for download from the ASUS website and is already being ?perfected?by the community (visit this site, for example). However, be careful if you use unofficial software for the router since you risk losing the manufacturer?s warranty at the least. On the other hand, you may get some gains from it.