*A router that anyone can install. (HP's Router PR)  (Network Edition: First Looks) 
PC Magazine  March 29, 1994 v13 n6 pNE26(2)
PC Magazine  March 29, 1994 v13 n6 pNE26(2)

A router that anyone can install. (HP's Router PR)  (Network
Edition: First Looks) 

by	Blakeley, Michael

Abstract
HP's $2,995 Router PR is a good, inexpensive device for connecting
remote networks to a central site. The Router PR is extremely easy to
install but is not expandable as are competing products from Cisco
Systems, 3Com and Wellfleet Communications. Both Internet Protocol
(IP) and Internet Packet Exchange (IPX) formats are supported by the
Router PR, which can handle protocols such as NetBEUI and NetBIOS with
transparent bridging. The new compression algorithm used in this device
compresses entire packets in a wide area network (WAN) link, rather
than only on the headers of Transmission Control Protocol/Internet
Protocol (TCP/IP) packets. Sites with mixed-protocol or Novell-only
management may wish to disable this feature, as IPX packet
compression often results in performance penalties.

Full Text
The prospect of setting up a router in a remote office can strike terror
in the heart of the staunchest network administrator. That need no
longer be the case, thanks to HP's latest low-end router, the Router PR.
The Router PR offers everything that is important to remote-office
connectivity: plug-and-play setup, solid internetworking features
including a new compression technique, interoperability with the
market-leading Wellfleet routers, and a low price.

HP designed the Router PR with one purpose in mind: to link remote
offices with a central site easily and affordably. At a list price of
$2,995, the Router PR is definitely affordable. It is also so easy to set
up that you should not have to send technicians to install it. With its
small size and solid construction, you could even ship it to your remote
office.

The Router PR competes with Cisco's 2000 and 2500, Wellfleet's Access
Feeder Node, and 3Com's NETBuilder boundary routers. Of these, only the
2500 costs as little as the Router PR, and none are as easy to install.
The 2500 offers more features, such as optional Token-Ring and ISDN
ports, but it is considerably more complicated to set up. However, the
other routers are all expandable, where the Router PR is available in a
single hardware configuration: with a WAN port, an Ethernet port, and a
console port.

What really sets the Router PR apart is ease of installation. There isn't
even a power switch: The Router PR goes to work as soon as it is
connected to AC power, an Ethernet LAN, and a WAN link. In its default
software configuration, the Router PR is unique in that it automatically
senses a connection on the WAN port and comes to life as a transparent
bridge between the Ethernet LAN and the WAN. No other router we know
of gets you up and running so quickly.

You can adjust the software configuration from an SNMP console or
connect a terminal, a PC running terminal-emulation software, or a
modem (for dial-in terminal connections) to the back of the router in a
few minutes. HP provides an excellent menu-based
configuration-software utility with which you can assign IP and IPX
addresses and activate other features such as compression, bridging,
and SNMP manageability. We configured the router for the ZD Labs WAN
test-bed in less than half an hour.

The Router PR supports both IP and IPX and provides transparent bridging
to handle nonroutable protocols such as NetBIOS and NetBEUI. The Cisco
2500 supports these as well as DECnet and AppleTalk. The Router PR can
be managed via SNMP and, like most routers, supports the MIB II
subgroups. Unlike most routers, the Router PR supplies an interface
compatible not only with HP OpenView for Unix or SunOS (which HP
recommends), but also with Wellfleet's Site Manager, Version 5.x. The
current release of HP OpenView for Windows does not support router
management, so you still need an expensive management package to
manage this inexpensive router properly.

Perhaps the most highly touted feature of the Router PR is its new
compression algorithm. Unlike routers that perform compression only on
the headers of TCP packets, the Router PR can compress entire packets
moving across the WAN link. This compression operates only over WAN
links running Wellfleet's proprietary point-to-point protocol, its
serial-link protocol for inter-WAN communications (not the same as the
Point-to-Point Protocol). However, our testing indicates that most
Novell-only or mixed-protocol sites may want to turn off the
compression in order to avoid the performance degradation associated
with compressing IPX packets.

According to file-transfer tests conducted by ZD Labs, the Router PR
delivers good throughput using both the IP and the IPX protocols without
compression. With compression, however, IPX's packet size, which is
smaller than that of IP, causes problems for the compression engine
because there is less redundant data--which is what compression
techniques try to eliminate--in each packet. Since there isn't much to
compress, and the router still spends time trying to compress each IPX
packet, the aggregate throughput drops by about 10 percent. On the plus
side, IP performance improves by 5 percent with compression.

Nevertheless, the HP's performance was nothing to sneeze at. It ran neck
and neck with the Cisco 2500, another brand-new offering in the
remote-access market.

When all routers are this simple to set up, you'll be able to forget other
concerns and just look for the best price. For now, though,
Hewlett-Packard has done an excellent job of building an affordable
router that's easy to live with. The features are solid, and the
performance is good. We recommend you take the time to turn off the
compression, but performance for remote sites is often less important
than the cost--in both dollars and man power--of installation.

List price: HP Router PR, $2,995. Hewlett-Packard Co., 8000 Foothills
Blvd., Roseville, CA 95747-6588; 916-786-8000.


Type:	Hardware Review
	Evaluation

Company:	Hewlett-Packard Co.

Product:	HP Router PR (Bridge/router)

Topic:	Evaluation
	Routers (Connector)

Record#	15 047 207

COPYRIGHT Ziff-Davis Publishing Company 1994