Keymile access device

Our Test Pilot Guru Biju recently reviewed the Keymile Music 100 Access Device, a three-in-one box that gives you a four-port Ethernet hub, a router and a transmission system to cover your campus up to several kilometers and speeds up to 2M bit/sec.

Biju reports that the Music 100 is a very good xDSL unit for intranet or Internet network access using the copper you have in your existing campus premise. You just need two wires and you cruise along at 2M bit/sec. You can also choose the speeds/DSL rates that you want, all the way from 144K bit/sec to 2,320K bit/sec. And you can set the system up for asymmetric or symmetric data traffic.

The link setup takes just a few minutes for setting up the routing and bridging function. The command-line interface is very easy to use, since it’s similar to Cisco’s CLI. And the MSDSL – multiple rate symmetrical DSL – feature is a big plus, offering nine different transmission rates.

In terms of shortcomings, Biju says he would like to see a Web-based user interface-based management application, although the unit’s flexible management concept allows configuration, operation and monitoring from the transmission end via the xDSL interface from the LAN/PC end using TCP/IP from an RS-232 interface.

Biju adds that his objective was to extend an Ethernet LAN so that users of the remote Cisco 2950 switch could access corporate applications and servers over the Music 100 xDSL network and over the routers across the WAN. One unit connected to a Cisco 1750 router Ethernet port through the built-in 4-port hub. The other unit connected to the Cisco 2950 switch through the built-in ports hub via a UTP Ethernet crossover cable.

The Cisco 2950 connected users and various network nodes. The other unit was configured for the DSL rate of symmetric 2,048 speed and the unit was set up as a managed bridge, with IP address allocated so that the unit can be managed over the IP network.

To read Biju’s Test Pilot reviews, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?post=456

To submit your own product evaluation, go to https://www.nwfusion.com/cgi-bin/forum/gforum.cgi?forum=28;guest=345933