07/05/08

We have never tested any Hardware based Internet Sharing solutions, so we thought we would give the Umax UGate Plus a test drive. The Umax Ugate is a Cable/xDSL router that is designed to protect your local LAN with NAT and Port Filtering capabilities, as well as to share your Internet connection with the other PC's on your LAN.

When the unit arrived, we were amazed at how small the Ugate Plus was, approximately 6" x 4" unit a little larger than a pack of cigarettes. The unit has 2 10BaseT ports, one for a LAN connection (Your Internal Private LAN), and one port for the WAN Connection (Typically your Cable or DSL modem, or you can plug it into a hub for a local LAN T1 connection)

(Click Image to Enlarge) The Ugate has 2
sets of activity lights for each 10BaseT port

The Ugate has 2 sets of activity lights for each 10BaseT port, which is a nice feature since they can be seen in horizontal or vertical position. The unit is powered by a 9Volt AC Adapter, and also has some dip switches in the back for restoring a lost password.

We plugged the Umax in and it was super easy to set up. There was a great manual included with screenshots of the setup and administration screens. The Umax Administrative interface is available through a Java Enabled browser, and is password protected for security.

The browser interface is simple and easy to configure, and within 5 minutes I was sharing a single IP with 5 Computers on my local LAN. The Ugate-Plus is configured by default at IP address 192.168.0.1, which is a standard range of IP addresses set aside for Internal use. In order to get into the interface, you need to set a local PC to that range, and then use your
(Click Image to Enlarge) In order to administer the Ugate, you
need to use your browser and connect to the Ugate's IP address.
The setup screen shown above is the first screen you will see

browser to connect to the Ugate-Plus. After I connected to the Ugate-Plus and configured it, I set the default IP range to 10.1.1.X, since I prefer the 10.X.X.X private numbering versus the 192.168 range. I find it easier to remember, but everyone has their preferences, and the Umax can work with either range of IP addresses. The device is capable of sharing a single IP address with 250 computers.

The unit is totally packed with features, including extensive port mapping and port filtering, as well as group access, and it even has an Email sharing function that allows 50 total users to share up to 4 POP3 Email accounts. This is great if you want to save money on mail accounts, and yet, still be able to give up to 50 users each a unique Email address.

(Click Image to Enlarge)
The integrated DHCP server and client allow the Umax
Ugate to share just about any Cable, DSL or T1 connection.

The Ugate-Plus also has a setting called "Exposed Computer", allowing the exposed PC unlimited inbound and outbound traffic, without any port filtering. Although this can only be used on one server on the LAN, it is handy for testing purposes until you configure your security and servers properly. The virtual LAN settings inside the Ugate-Plus are very handy, and I was able to run an SMTP and Web Server on one of the internal PC's without any hassle. We simply set both SMTP and WWW ports to the internal PC at IP address 10.X.X.X and it worked. As simple as can be.

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