Hang on to your hats. Although this 3Com OfficeConnect ADSL Router is aimed at the small office market, it could very well prove to be the ideal home networking product for home users who have broadband.

Most of us who use broadband at home have ADSL, although some use a cable modem. The bulk of those ADSL users have a USB modem that plugs directly into a single PC, which reduces your home networking options considerably, and at the same time the USB modem probably scrambles your other USB devices.

The 3Com OfficeConnect ADSL Router (model number 3CRWE754G72-A) replaces your ADSL modem and does much, much more besides. On the back is an RJ11 port for your ADSL phone line, four switched RJ45 10/100Mbps Ethernet ports, a socket for the power adapter and a pair of aerials for the wireless router.

Turn the router on, connect it to your PC and to the ADSL line and you're ready to configure the router using your browser. Once you've connected to your ISP successfully you can configure the 802.11g wireless networking part of the router, using 256-bit WPA and 128-bit WEP security to make sure that you only share your ADSL connection with those who you choose, rather than every man and his dog.

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In addition the router has an integrated firewall, so you should be able to keep attacks outside of your network and at the very least the event logging feature should allow you to work out what has happened after the event.

Strictly speaking, 802.11g w-fi only has to run at 22Mb/second, compared to the 11Mb/second of 802.11b, however this router runs at the industry standard of 54Mb/second for maximum data transfer speed, with the ability to drop the connection speed as necessary to ensure a stable connection.

If you intend to make use of the wireless access feature you may want to mount the router vertically on a wall using the two screw mounting holes, instead of placing it horizontally on its four rubber feet.

So, now you've got your main workstation connected to ADSL, and you have three free switched Ethernet ports for other PCs, plus an 802.11g wireless access point for notebooks or fancy media streaming devices. That's plenty for most home users, although you may need to plug in an additional switch for small office/home office use to allow more workers to plug in over Ethernet.

The construction of this small, compact unit is typical of 3Com's usual high quality. It is built on a steel chassis with a moulded plastic cover and when you pop the cover off the components are laid bare. In particular the 802.11g mini-PCI card catches your eye, and the construction suggests that it may be possible to upgrade the wireless feature when the next part of the 802.11 wireless standard alphabet soup is available.

At £100 plus VAT this is a relatively expensive home networking product, however it costs far less than an ADSL modem, four-port switch and 802.11g access point would individually, and this single box solution is also neat and tidy. If it had Bluetooth and a USB print server then it would have every feature that we could possibly want, but no doubt the price would get rather scary. As it stands this is a fine router that does everything that you could reasonably ask.

This isn't quite the perfect home and SOHO networking product, but it comes very close indeed. It is relatively expensive, but this is a high quality router that replaces your ADSL modem and adds all the features you need to share ADSL around the home or office, and we're thoroughly impressed by it.