We first opened the 2Wire box, shipped direct from 2Wire, it looked like some sort of alien spacecraft had landed in our lab! The 2Wire 1000CW and it's Cable modem sister product the 100 series look like they are straight off the production line on Mars. They look wild, but it's not looks that count, it's all about what's under the hood, and this baby has it all.


2Wire, a fairly new (a few years old) startup based in San Jose, California has strong roots in the videoconferencing and teleconferencing industry. 2Wire was founded by Brian Hinman, also founder of the popular PictureTel corporation, and this could explain the excellent performance of the unit, as well as the installation and usability. 2Wire products can now be found on the shelves in CompUSA, and they recently announced deals with Earthlink and with SBC to provide the 2Wire products to their broadband customers. This means that the ISP will now be servicing home networks, and allowing customers to get full use from the integrated technologies of their 2Wire routers. For the ISP's, it offers them the opportunity to sell more value added services to their customers, and for the customers, it gives them more flexibility for running and supporting a home LAN.

We were very impressed with the 2Wire 1000CW install, and it's ease of use. Unfortunately, our ISP was a new kid in town, and for some unknown reason, the 2Wire device would not authenticate or connect to the Internet. We worked with 2Wire support and our ISP, and still nothing. The local setup was simple, and our LAN PC's could get an IP and communicate with the 1000CW, but the DSL modem would not connect with the ISP's DSLAM. We worked with 2Wire support, and they provided a few things to try, and even made a custom build of their software to help diagnose the DSL errors. Nothing worked, and eventually we gave up trying, and waited patiently. A few months went by, and we were recently notified that our ISP changed to a new DSLAM, so we fired up the 2Wire 1000CW and to our surprise, it connected and we were up and running in minutes with the rest of our PC's.

The integrated DHCP server keeps track of all the 2Wire clients using any one of the connections. Our main Windows 98 PC was connected via the USB port, one laptop connected via the 802.11b Wireless, and 2 Linux PC's connected via an uplink into a 7 port 10/100 Ethernet switch. You can also use the HomePNA jack on the back to network any other PC's or devices that use HomePNA (Home Phoneline Networking - see http://www.homepna.com)














The 2Wire Homeportal 1000Cw main status screen is super
simple, and allows you to see all clients connected to the 2Wire device.

The 2Wire 1000CW has a single RJ-45 LAN port for a direct connection to a PC, or to uplink into a switch or hub to connect additional PC's via Ethernet. This was the only major drawback to this unit. We are used to the lower priced competition like Linksys, Dlink, Maxgate and SMC all integrating a minimum of a 4 port 10/100 switch in most units. We think for the price, maybe a few more ports available for Ethernet PC's would be a nice addition. One thing we found interesting was the additional "hidden" ports when you take the unit apart. We took the unit apart to see how it was built and discovered one extra RJ-45 Ethernet port, 2 hidden RJ-11 ports, and 2 USB hub ports, which would allow adding USB perhiperals such as an external modem for backup, etc. We didn't try using an ports other than the RJ-45 Ethernet port, it was not active. We suggest you do not take your unit apart, we just noticed the ports because this is a good thing, it means that the unit can be expanded easily.

The 1000CW is not a small design, it's rather large compared to other routers of its kind, even with no integrated switch. It measures approx. 12" high, 2.5" wide, and about 10" in length. There are heat slots on the top, making it run very cool. On the front, the router has 3 lights, one power, a broadband link/logon light, and one home network status light. On the rear of the 1000CW, you will find a single RJ-45 Ethernet port, one DSL, one RJ-11 Line port, as well as the USB and power ports. The RJ-45 Ethernet port on the rear does have LED's for the LAN link/activity.The power adapter is larger than what's used with most routers, switches, and other devices in this class, but seems better built and has a good connection to the unit itself. The box also includes a CD with the setup and docs, a RJ-45 cable, 2 RJ-11 phone cables, one A-B USB cable, one phoneline Y splitter, as well as a quick setup guide and a wireless connection guide.

The 2Wire Firewall configuration is super easy, and requires no reboot

The 2Wire 1000CW install puts a "2wire Monitor" program on your system. It appeared to us that 2Wire urges you to install and use this application to monitor the local area network, but we didn't see a need for it. This application simply monitors your router for connection problems, and offers some simple links to the Homeportal for management, and configuration, as well as ways to change your computer name and share files and printers. If you are an advanced user, we urge you to remove this utility, and use the web browser based management instead. Once you have everything working on one PC, simply use the DHCP function on your PC, Mac or Linux machines, and plug them in to Ethernet, HomePNA, or configure the wireless, and you will be up and running. No need for the 2Wire monitor program unless you are a beginner, and need help with configuration on file sharing, and other items, but the monitor program is NOT required after the initial install.

The 2Wire management screen has a simple interface, and is quite easy to use

The 2Wire 1000CW has a great feature set and a super firewall for anyone interested in sharing their DSL connection. The super easy setup and the management and firewall tools are the best we have seen. The inclusion of HomePNA 1.0 and 2.0 along with Wireless is a first for consumers, and this unit is truly a residential gateway. A few things we really want to see on the wireless side are MAC based controls, since wireless security is a rising concern. Overall, 2Wire is leading the pack with presidential gateway innovation, and we hope others follow this progress towards an all-in-one router/gateway/wireless that is fast, stable, and most important of all; easy for the average consumer to use.

- Easy setup using any Windows 95/98/NT/2000 or Mac OS 8.5 or Higher
- DSL Modem works with most DSL including G.LITE, PPPoE & PPPoA
- USB, Ethernet, 802.11b Wireless, and HomePNA connections
- 2Wire Key allows for simple install and configure for each consumer
- Fast routing speeds, rock solid stability, cool design
- NAT and PAT port mapping features are best in class
- Supports all clients, Windows, Mac, Linux
- Excellent Documentation included, Printed and CD versions
- Allows multiple PPTP connections outside of the firewall
- Super easy firewall, super simple for even the average consumer

Overall Rating: 5 out of 5 Stars - The 2Wire 1000CW has it all, performance, reliability, ease of use (best we have seen) and excellent wireless performance as well.
Pros: USB, Ethernet, HomePNA, and 802.11b Wireless connections, all in one unit. Fast, platform independent, super easy setup and firewall management, flawless reliability - the only router of it's kind that has it all in one router, and support H.323 incoming calls in Netmeeting to any PC, and also uses SPI (Stateful Packet Inspection) to prevent against DOS/Denial of Service attacks.

Cons: We had to look hard to find something we didn't like about this router. Initial setup requires Windows or Mac, we would like to see a browser only setup. We also didn't like that there were no link/activity lights on the front for the DSL modem. We noticed the PPPoA authentication took about 40 seconds longer than our Cayman Systems 3220-HW and our Sumitomo TE/4 DSL modem/routers. A few others features we wish for would be an integrated print server/printer port, a serial port for dialup modem/isdn backup, and maybe an option to add an external antenna to the wireless Lucent/Agere mini-PCI adapter in the unit.

2Wire HomePortal 1500CW DSL Modem/Router
Current Street Price: $599.99 ($299 for the 100CW - No DSL modem)

2Wire Inc.
1704 Automation Parkway
San Jose, CA 95131
USA
Phone: (408)-428-9500
http://www.2wire.com
Available now direct from 2Wire or via selected ISP's like Earthlink and SBC

* The 2Wire devices support PPPoA, a authentication method that you don't see all that much, but for some DSL providers, this is all they offer. This happens to the the case for us in our lab.

* The Homeportal 100W is the sister product of the 1000CW. The 100W is everything that the 1000CW has, except the DSL modem. If you already have a DSL modem, or a Cable Modem and want the same functionality, reliability and performance, get yourself a 100W, available at CompUSA or CDW.com, or direct from 2Wire.