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All the home user needs for wired and wireless networking?

It's not the cheapest all-in-one home networking box, but with ADSL modem, 10/100 Ethernet switch and a wireless LAN 802.11b access point, Zyxel's new Prestige 650H may nonetheless find some customers at £200 plus VAT.

The launch of the router in the UK comes from Electronic Frontier Ltd (EFL).

The Prestige 650HW is an ADSL router with an integrated 4-port 10/100 Mbps switch, capable of providing connection speeds of up to 8Mbps - if your ADSL line will run that fast.

It also incorporates an 802.11b Wireless LAN Access Point, but (slightly mysteriously) doesn't come with the faster 802.11a option - at least, not yet.

Prestige 650HW is immediately available from local, mail-order and web-based resellers.

As an ADSL router, the Prestige 650HW incorporates the latest version of ZyXEL's ZyNOS operating system. This provides faster processing and performance by means of latest generation MIPS processor, support of Universal Plug and Play (uPnP) and Multi-NAT for flexible sharing of public network blocks. It also has a built-in Dynamic DNS Client, allowing users to operate servers on their network over a low-cost Dynamic ADSL connection.

Incorporating ZyXEL's own PPPoA (Point-to-Point Protocol over ADSL) it enables service providers and users to make use of existing PPP/PAP/CHAP based authentication and accounting infrastructure. It also supports PPPoE (Point-to-Point Protocol over Ethernet) in readiness for BT's implementation of this in the UK.

The multimedia-aware NAT (Network Address Translation) feature allows an unlimited number of users to access the Internet with a single ISP account. It also supports multimedia applications such as NetMeeting, CUSeeMe, IRC, RealPlayer and ICQ.