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Went to SSP Golden yesterday, and I came across this gem, hidden in a pile of surplus NEC WiFi equipment aimed only for the Japanese market.

This little gem is in effect two-ports WiFi hub/switch. The package comes with the device itself (about 4” x 3” x 1”), a power supply, a small stand, an ethernet cable and three pages of explanatory notes. The configuration screens of the device are all in Japanese, but setting up is reasonable straightforward if you know what you are doing. I am not entirely sure that the three pages of notes could get a dummy type person going thou.

One uses a browser on a computer connected to one of the two ethernet ports to set it up, so there is no need for any oddball drivers, and it is compatible with virtually any computer platform. Each device could serve up to two computers, and possibly more if one hangs another hub/switch to it. It doesn’t do routing, so the number of computers connected to it goes towards the total number of computers on your subnet. It doesn’t do PPPoE, nor DHCP, nor Firewall. But it is cheap and small, and compatible with anything running off Ethernet.

However, in my case Murphy striked. The device responded to a few pings, and then dozed off. A week’s guarantee, so I am taking it back for a swap. Fingers crossed that they have a whole lemon batch.

Update (23:07): The device appeared to be working at the shop. As I didn’t spend too much time doing troubeshooting and assume that the unit was busted pretty early on, I supposed it was my fault, thank the guy who tested it for me, and left with the same unit.

Back home and started playing with it again. The link was going up and down. I plugged it into my Linux server and started a long ping session. The link was going up and down every 30 seconds or so for no particular reasons. I think I definitely have a lemon on my hand. It’s going back again tomorrow.

Update (13/5 18:12): When I got to the shop in SSP Golden, the same guy who does technical support was helping another customer. He was extremely helpful, and went out of his way to setup his customer’s computer. I had to wait a bit but that was okay. I told him the problem w/ my AP, his hooked it up, tested it again and the device freezed after 4 minutes, and he exchanged it for me immediately. I took that opportunity to compliment his service.

While he was helping me, I bought up the topic of the NEC Warpstar Aterm card they are selling for HK$99. He confirmed that it was a clone of the original Lucent/Orinoco/Melco/Buffalo. I bought one, plugged it into my TiBook and was spooking some neighbourhood WiFi networks with KisMAC in no time. The good thing about KisMAC is that it listens to WiFi traffic passively, while tools like NetStumbler does active scanning.

Update (14/3/2005): I have put the Brief Setup Guide in Chinese online.

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