Included with the Barricade 4-port broadband router is everything that you need to hook 2 computers with network cards in them to the Internet. In the box, one can find 2 CAT5 Ethernet cables, each about 15' long, which should be fine for most people, a quick-start pamphlet, a CD with the full manual and print server drivers and a detached AC to DC converter box that only takes up one power outlet on my power bar.

The actual Barricade router has 1 Ethernet port at the back for connecting your cable modem or ADSL modem, a parallel port for connecting your parallel printer into the built-in print server and even a serial port for connecting an external analog modem. I really like the addition of the serial port as it shows that SMC has taken into consideration of those people who aren't lucky enough to subscribe to a high-speed connection. Of course, the usefulness of this feature is questionable as a 56K connection on only one computer is slow enough; sharing it with multiple computers will make it unbearable for the majority of the population. The 4-ports for the built-in 10/100Mbps switch are located at the front of the device and some tiny LED's (too tiny, in my opinion) are at the top of it. Unfortunately, I'm not a fan of having the Ethernet ports at the front and the rest of the ports at the back because, after plugging everything in, you're limited to either towing your Ethernet cables across your desk or having to place the router on a corner of your desk. In my mind, it would have been much better if the ports were all at the back, which means that you can just hang all your cables off the back side of your desk and all the LED's at the front.

The quick installation pamphlet was quite brief in explaining everything that's needed to set everything up, but it did its job: in about 10 mins, I had everything plugged in and ready to go. The included manual on the CD goes more in-depth about the different features and helps you troubleshoot if you run into problems.

I do not have a parallel printer, as all mine are USB, so I was unable to try out the print server feature. Fortunately, from reading through the manual (there are no instructions on how to set this up in the quick-start guide), it seems like quite an easy task of setting things up for the printer.

On to: Powering Up...