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A router's features are at least as important as its performance, often far more so. To get a sense of what these routers do beyond filtering, we asked participating vendors to complete a features questionnaire for the boxes we tested and any other models the vendors offer enterprise customers (vendors' answers are included as part of our online Buyer's Guide chart).

In considering features, one caveat applies: The features here are those vendors supplied. We did not verify via testing that all features actually are supported.

Here's a quick rundown of key router features:

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A router's features are at least as important as its performance, often far more so. To get a sense of what these routers do beyond filtering, we asked participating vendors to complete a features questionnaire for the boxes we tested and any other models the vendors offer enterprise customers (vendors' answers are included as part of our online Buyer's Guide chart).

In considering features, one caveat applies: The features here are those vendors supplied. We did not verify via testing that all features actually are supported.

Here's a quick rundown of key router features:

Interface support: Corporations with numerous branch offices probably have numerous WAN access technologies, including T-1, E-1, T-3, ISDN and dial-up modems. On the LAN side, all routers support various flavors of Ethernet. ImageStream and Riverstone offer Gigabit Ethernet as an option (as does Cisco in other models not tested for this review). However, given the speed mismatch with most of the serial interfaces listed here, Gigabit Ethernet support is important mainly for LAN-to-LAN routing. ImageStream also supports 802.11b wireless interfaces.

Unicast routing: Because Border Gateway Protocol and Open Shortest Path First support were requirements to be in this test, all vendors support it. The key differences in protocol support cover IPX, used by Novell NetWare, and supported only by Cisco; and intermediate system-to-intermediate system, a routing protocol used mainly by ISPs and supported by all vendors except Tasman.

Multicast routing: All vendors support at least some form of multicast routing. Lucent supports only the older distance vector multicast routing protocol, while all other vendors support protocol-independent multicast in either its dense- or sparse-mode variations (or both).

Packet filtering: While source or destination IP address are the most common filter criteria, most routers support numerous other options. In the IP header, all routers support filtering by protocol number or type-of-service (TOS) field contents. All except Tasman's support filtering on Differentiated Services Code Point, another quality-of-service mechanism that is a superset of the TOS field. All routers except Tasman's also filter on Layer 2 criteria such as Ethernet media access control addresses and virtual LAN IDs. All routers also filter on Layer 4 criteria such as TCP/User Datagram Protocol port numbers and flag settings.

IPv6 support: Cisco and ImageStream support IPv6 forwarding. ImageStream also says it supports IPv6 routing, but the company did not specify which v6 routing protocols it uses.

Route redistribution: Redistribution - the ability to learn routes via one protocol and then re-advertise them using another - is a must-have in routing. All vendors support this feature. Note that route distribution is not the same as route leaking, in which all learned routes are shared in one common table.

SNMP support: Management Information Base (MIB) II has been around for more than 12 years, so it's no surprise that all vendors support it. All vendors except Tasman also support SNMPv3, which provides strong authentication and encryption of management traffic - features missing from earlier versions of SNMP.