SMC gets busy

SMC Networks in the last couple of weeks has introduced wired and wireless LAN products ranging from a small Fast Ethernet switch to a wireless bridge. The company even managed to sponsor a LAN-based gaming event.

Next month SMC plans to ship a switch with eight ports of 10/100M bit/sec Ethernet and one 100Base-FX port for multimode fiber. The $330 switch can send data up to 2 kilometers over the 100Base-FX connection, SMC says. The switch supports virtual LANs and priority queuing.

Also scheduled to ship next month is a wireless LAN bridge based on the IEEE 802.11g standard. The bridge connects two or more wired LANs where wiring connections might be difficult, SMC says. The $700 bridge would also be suitable for setting up temporary LANs or allowing multiple buildings to share and Internet connection. SMC already has a bridge for the 802.11b standard.

With an optional part, the bridge supports the 802.2af Power over Ethernet standard, so that the bridge can be powered through the data line.

A wireless access point is set to ship next month as well. This product supports 802.11g and b, for 54M bit/sec and 11M bit/sec transmission, respectively. The $440 access point supports Power over Ethernet.

For the growing field of home entertainment networking, SMC recently shipped a $200 “universal” wireless cable/DSL broadband router, which communicates to end devices through 802.11a, b or g.

SMC uses the LAN standards for home networking, which increasingly is taking on an entertainment function. Interestingly, this means the new product has parental controls as a feature next to network management and VPN passthrough. In addition to traditional networking functions, it communicates with SMC’s EZ-Stream Universal Wireless Multimedia Receiver to deliver content to TVs and stereos.

Lastly, SMC sponsored a LAN gaming “event” outside Quebec City, Canada. Called DreamlanSMC, the event took place last weekend, and SMC provided all of the wired and wireless networking equipment necessary. While small LAN parties are often organized among gaming friends, this one was on a larger scale, held at the Virtualis Centre.