Here at Warcom we’re often asked for background info on Draytek such as..

“Who they are?” “What do they do?” “What makes them so great?” “How do they compare with the likes of ….?”

So here it is!

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DrayTek was established in 1997 by a group of extremely talented engineers and is now a world-leading supplier of state-of-the-art networking solutions. They have migrated from the leading provider of remote access solutions to the customized networking solutions for diverse local markets around the world. At present, DrayTek’s solutions range from enterprise-level firewalls, mission-critical VPN/VoIP facilities for SoHo, various xDSL/broadband CPE, to prospective telecommunication products that meet the market trends and go above and beyond customers’ expectations.

DrayTek success comes from the way how they build their brand. DrayTek is not only a brand name but also a commitment to quality and service.

DrayTek Building!

Quality : Every minor step from development to packaging in the entire producing procedure could affect the quality of finished products. DrayTek has 40% human resource as R&D team to ensure each single process to reach their standard in order to guarantee superior quality for customers.

Service : Customer satisfaction would be the best method to measure the performance of service. Through integration of internal R&D resources with external global channel partners, DrayTek is able to launch various networking solutions to meet different local customer’s needs in order to reach the highest customer satisfaction.

DrayTek efforts to insist on quality and service which has been rewarded by various IT evaluation institutions. In 2008, DrayTek won UK TechWorld Award based on Vigor 2820Vn wireless router’s outstanding quality. In addition,  high customer satisfaction reflects on various rewards, such as PC Pro Recommend, IT Reviews Recommend, Trusted Review Recommend and so on. Those achievements further encourage staff to stress on quality and service.

DrayTek’s global marketing strategy complied with the concept of “Thinking Globally, Acting Locally” is to meet various customers’ diversified demands of networking solutions with commitment on quality and service. Thus, high emphasize on building the long-term relationship with local channel partners scope include distributors, system integrators (SIs), value-added resellers (VARs), and retailers/wholesalers who have in-depth understanding of their regional customers as developing the global market. Through our deeply incorporating with those local partners, we create a win-win situation for both sides. For our partners, they can have customers demanded products in hand all the time provided by DrayTek. For us, we can ensure our product achieving the desire of each local market. DrayTek brand reputation among local channel partners lets a number of ISPs/Telco operators incorporate DrayTek products into their service portfolio.

As a result, DrayTek has become one of few ADSL Modem, Router, VoIP, Networking manufacturers that comes into prominence with own brand business in the world.

Gigabyte have long been known as a maker of affordable yet reliable power supplies, motherboards, chassis etc. With their 360W Variant Offering at just over $40 they really are one of the more affordable Power Supplies out there.

Recently Gigabyte have announced to back up the great quality of their goods, they have doubled the warranty period on several models, bringing your Peace of Mind to an outstanding Two Years of Warranty Cover!

For such a cheap unit, this warranty period is very rare so it’s great to see the manufacturer backing and standing by their product.

The Gigabyte Superb 550W PSU

The models that have been upgraded to the Two Year Warranty are as follows:

The 360W Unit:

360W “Gigabyte” Superb 24-Pin ATX Power Supply, 3 Molex & 3 SATA Power Connectors

The 460W Unit:

460W “Gigabyte” Superb Power Supply, Peak Power 460W, 120mm Fan, PCI-E, 4x SATA Power Connectors, RoHS ready.

The 550W Unit:

550W “Gigabyte” Superb Power Supply, Peak Power 550W, 120mm Fan, PCI-E(6+2) Conn., 4x SATA Power Connectors, RoHS.

As always, if you have any questions about the following feel free to give us a call, one of the Warcom Team will be more than happy to help you out!

Cheers,

Ashley.

Hey Guys,

Just a quick one today to let you all know I just brought a new mouse for my laptop!

I’m sure you are all pretty excited about that, so please take a minute to settle yourself before reading on…

Now buying a mouse for your laptop is not an easy task. There’s a million options out there and it’s almost impossible to find one to suit! Starting off, you’ve got wired, wireless and bluetooth, then you need to consider optical or laser tracking (or maybe the ball bearing if you’re old school), then they throw another hundred colours
and sizes at you! What a Challenge!

Unfortunately I haven’t written this blog to solve all of your mouse choosing problem, but more to outline a potential
candiate.

Logitech V470 Bluetooth Mouse

The Logitech V470 is an awesome little Bluetooth mouse made by Logitech, who claim to be (and quite possibly are) the best mouse manufacturor in the world. First off, Bluetooth. The best thing about the Bluetooth is no wires and no wireless adapter, just make sure your laptop has Bluetooth built in and away you go. This mouse is ultra-portable (quite small), has laser tracking and is available in 3 different colours (Blue, Black and White). It has a 4-way scroll wheel and your standard left and right buttons, so there’s nothing too intimidating if your dad decides to give it a go!

Just thought I’d put that out there for everyone.

See it here.

Free Shipping on this mouse if you’ve read this blog!

Cheers

Not much really needs to be said about this, all the info is on the flyer!

It should be a fantastic day.

Warrcom Glamour Photography Workshop

Places are limited, so we need all payments in by this Wednesday to confirm the event.

Any questions, fire away!

Warcom has always had a massive range of great quality products to choose from, and now our range just got bigger!

We have just added a large amount of the latest products to hit the Australian shores, and with our very competitive pricing we highly recommend checking out our online store for the best deals!

Our Computer Hardware section has just had a complete revamp to make it easier than ever to sort through and find what you need, all with detailed stock levels and product information.

If you are after one of the new LED Widescreen Computer Monitors or the best monitors for Office work or Gaming, we can point you in the right direction.

With top brands available including Samsung, BenQ, LG and AOC you can easily find a monitor that suits your needs and budget.

You also can not forget the products that Warcom really specialize in, Networking Equipment!

Offering the biggest range and best pricing on ADSL2+ Modems, Gigabit Switches and VoIP Equipment just to name a few we are the best place for all your networking needs.

Warcom: Computer Hardware!

The Warcom Difference

We not only have one of the biggest product ranges and best prices, we also offer something that other stores can fail to deliver. Quality Customer Service.

If you ever have a question about any products in our range or how long it will take to get to you, Warcom have a comprehensive Knowledge Base available, plus a Rapid Response Email Service (service@warcom.com.au) and a dedicated Telephone Customer Support Team reachable every Monday to Friday between 10am to 6pm AEST on 1300 WARCOM (927 266, cost of local call from landlines, mobiles extra)

Come over and pay Warcom a visit, you will not be disappointed.

Well its been just under a month since I purchased my very own Brother MFC-7340 Laser Multi-Function Center, and its about time I wrote the review on the unit.

The Affordable MFC-7340

When I got the unit home it was extremely well packaged and came with everything I needed to get started apart from the USB Cable.  It did include the Power Cable, Phone Cable, Phone Adapter, a printed manual and CD with Drivers and OCR Software (software which reads the text from a scan, and converts it to a editable document).

The unit took a couple of minutes to get out of all the packaging, remove the protective tape and insert the toner/drum, after that was all ready to be plugged in and powered on.

Powering on was seamless, it booted up in around 20 seconds and was able to set up my Inital Preferences easily using the built in screen, with the simple questions of Location (which already defaulted to Australia) and Date and Time.

Once that was done, the system was ready to be used instantly for copying and faxing without any further setup.  The three modes all have lit up buttons, so you can easily see which mode is active, and has an informative 2 line display to adjust settings.

Installing the software was also a breeze, after a few simple prompts when you put in the CD, the software is all automatically installed and ready to go in around 5 minutes.

Printing

This printer is one of the better lasers I have used, with the printouts all being extremely clear, and usually having this first page out in around 7 seconds, with a page roughly every 2 to 3 seconds after that.

If the printer is in sleep mode (you can set how long before it goes to Sleep) it usually is around 13 seconds before first page out.  It is also one of the quieter printers I have used, using it in a Small Office, I could easily talk on the phone still without it causing too much background noise, the printer being in the middle of the room.

I also have found the Single Media Tray useful, with it allowing me to easily print on letterheads or envelopes.  The only downside is it is a bit hard to load the media at times.

Scanning

You can either use the computer software to start the scan process, or use the controls directly on the printer.  Speed is great with the Automatic Document Feeder set on Standard Quality Black and White, with a page being scanned roughly every 8 seconds.

Colour quality could be a little better however the results experienced are perfectly adequate for general office scanning where exact colours are not important.

The one thing I like about the scanner on this machine is the ADF feeder and cover for the flatbed scanner are designed so the tray does not slam closed if you let it go, it stays up allowing you to position your document with both hands.

The software allows you to save the finished files in many formats, including standard still pictures or even a PDF, where every scan in that set is combined into one PDF file.

Fax

I personally have not been able to try out the Fax functionality of this printer, other than seeing how it reacts with scanned documents.  If you scan the documents using the ADF it will automatically cycle though all the pages then start the fax call.

If you need to scan using the flatbed scanner, it will ask after you scan the first page if there are more pages to scan, or to start the Fax call.

Once you start the fax call the inbuilt speaker is extremely clear and lets you know easily if the fax is going as it should be.

You also have the option to make the Fax automatically print out a Transmission Report or not after every fax.

Conclusion

For the price I find this a great value Multifunction System.  The performance is great and consistent, the toner refills are not expensive and does hold 250 sheets of A4 Paper, so only needs to be refilled occasionally.

The unit feels sturdy and well built, and think it would last through consistent office use.  I would not recommend it if going to be used to print on special media such as envelopes on a regular basis, it only holding one envelope at a time and being slightly hard to load would cause delays in a busy office.

The one other thing I would gripe about is that the display is not back lit, meaning you have to use it in a well lit room to see the screen clearly.

You can buy the Brother Laser MFC-7340 here: http://www.warcom.com.au/shop/flypage/Printers/Brother-Printers/6468

Introducing . . . . . .The Hottips charging system, the Mother of all phone chargers!

This little product is fantastic. It will charge pretty much any mobile phone including the iPhone and iPod and it can use a variety of different sources to do it

To start with, it is a folding wall charger, so it plugs directly into the wall socket and when not in use the prongs fold neatly away. Secondly it’s a car charger, which plugs directly into the charging socket in your car and also conveniently folds up for better storage.

Hottips All-in-one Charger

Thirdly the Hottips charging system comes with a detachable USB cord to charge from your PC or MAC and fourthly it has a 9V battery connection for emergencies to transfer power to your mobile device for when you are in those very remote areas. (this is awesome if you are going out into the wilderness or typically somewhere where there is no power whatsoever)

Connectivity is unsurpassed and it is basically what the Hottips charging system is all about, whether you have a Motorola, Blackberry, Samsung, Nokia, LG or an iPhone/iPod it will suit you. There are individual connections for each device, and you just simply choose which one you need at the time. In this day and age when we all have two or more mobile phones and devices this can be really handy because the Hottips system will connect with all of them.

Compact, action packed, extremely versatile and space saving are features we can use to describe the Hottips charging system. Whether you need a replacement for a charger you have lost or broken or you would like to do away with multiples and just have the one easy to use charger, then this is the product for you.

DrayTek Vigor 2710VN Review - Buy From Warcom!

1. It supports ADSL/2/2+ so no matter what type of service you have the 2710Vn will know how to get the most from it.
2. Four LAN ports to plug in 4 different PC’s and really open up that network connectivity, great for a home network or the small office.
3. Firewall and security features second to none, blocking and preventing against all kinds of attacks from the Internet. Whether you’re a total newcomer or a seasoned professional the firewall features will impress.
4. USB port enabling you to insert a 3G USB dongle to give you wireless in those remote ADSL areas and also to prevent against fall over and give you uninterrupted service in the occasion that the ADSL connection goes down.
5. The USB Port can alternatively be used for printer support enabling most USB printers to become a network printer and everyone on the network will be able to access it.
6. Save money with VoIP. The FXS port will let you connect your existing telephone handset and make calls over the internet saving you tons of cash on those lengthy phone calls
7. N Wireless is the latest in wireless speed and technology. It will transmit seamlessly your high-speed broadband connection throughout your entire house, faster, clearer and stronger than ever before. Great for all your wireless devices, everything from your mobile phone to PC’s and gaming consoles.
8. VPN Facilities, the 2710Vn has the capability to set up a Virtual Private Network giving the users of your choice remote data Access. It has two VPN tunnels meaning that at anytime you can have two additional PC’s dialing in remotely to connect to the network, sharing files, music, movies, logging into databases, the list goes on. This can be a network set up between offices, states or even countries, the distance knows no boundaries.
9. Antenna Upgrades, coming with three 2dBi Antennas is great for in and around the house, but if we want to get some more distance covered we can do an easy and simple upgrade to 5dBi or even 7dBi antennas giving you much more range and coverage.
10. Really easy to use and setup, the 2710Vn is ready to rock straight out of the box. Pre-programmed to automatically recognize most of your settings all you need to do is put in your username and password and you’re online.
11. Reliability and ultimate dependability are what Draytek is all about with an extremely low failure rate this is the modem you want in you home or business.
12. Style and Design and embody this truly tidy piece of kit from Draytek. It is a great looking unit and fits right at home with your Mac or PC. Fantastic for the home or office and with all the features mentioned above the 2710Vn is a modem router that totally stands out from the crowd.

A robust hardworking class of modem/router, the Billion BiPAC 7401VGP is a good all rounder for any home or SOHO user. A vast feature set offering VoIP, G Wireless, Firewall Security, Quality management systems and IPTV application support gives it quite a high specification covering all the essential bases yet it still manages to maintain an affordable price.

Upon first glance any modem setup can seem confusing, but the 7401VGP comes with connection wizard software and an Auto Scan ADSL feature making it a breeze to get going. It is simply the case that you open the box, plug It in, fire it up, put in your username and password and the modem will pretty much do the rest.

Whether you have ADSL2 or 2+ connections the 7401VGP will work with either, and it is even backward compatible with ADSL making it versatile no matter what speed your service is.

It is G wireless ready to go so straight out of the box it gives you a wireless Internet connection throughout your whole house. No need for wires, or messy cabling, making connecting in the room of your choice so much easier. Password security can be set via WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) and WPA2 so this will leave you feeling safe and secure as it eliminates the threat of other people being able to connect to your wireless service.

When it comes to cost saving its hard beat the fact that you can make unbelievably economic phone calls taking advantage of the VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) services. You do this by simply connecting your existing telephone handset to the FXS port, at the same time it still has a free FXO port to enable you to make calls via fixed line as well, and it does all of this whilst still sharing a high speed Internet connection.

Billion 7401VGP R3 Review

There are four LAN (Local Area Network) ports on the back enabling you to connect four different computer terminals directly into the modem, giving you greater options for networking, particularly with the home office setup, this is additional to the wireless services and connectivity already being broadcast.

Firewall security options with DoS (Denial of Service) prevention and the SPI (Security Parameter Index) provide hard and determined results blocking even the most intrusive of hackers giving your home or home office a secure network environment, and with traffic prioritization and bandwidth management via QoS  (Quality of Service) management systems you can look forward to a smooth and responsive connection to the internet.

The 7401VGP is quite future-proof and supports IPTV (Internet Protocol Television), a technology in which a digital television service can be delivered over the Internet. As we move forward into the future the boundaries of IPTV are limitless and we are only just really touching on the services that are going to be available to us.

Compact, reliable, and loaded with features the 7401VGP packs quite a punch giving you everything you could possibly need to facilitate and manage your home or SOHO broadband.

Greetings Geek-Lings!

I posted a run down on our famous DrayTek 2820VN yesterday at Overclockers, so I figured I’d replicate here for your reading pleasure.

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1. The unit supports ADSL1/2/2+.
2. It has a 3G fall over featured (via usb) so if you internet goes down, you plug in a 3G/NextG usb dongle and keep your interwebs up!
3. It supports VoIP, so you can save loads on phone calls to family friends, and people overseas.
4. The firewall features are fantastic for both newbies, and seasoned professionals in the security game.
5. The VPN features are outstanding, possibly the best VPN of all the units in this price range. (We sell hundreds of these units to HP staff, as they login remotely via VPN to their work).
6. Gigabit ethernet port – so run this out into a gigabit switch and you’re off and running!
7. Reliability on draytek units is second to none, their failure rates are extremely low.
8. It has built in wireless .N support. Great for wireless all around the house, and to your gaming consoles.
9. You can use the USB port as a NAS port.
10. And last but by no means least, it has a secondary WAN port. So you can connect another ADSL modem, or cable modem, or any form of connection really to this port, and setup a triple fail over redundant connection. (Including the USB port obviously)

DrayTek Vigor 2820VN