In a relative calm before the proverbial storm of new products and general Macworld madness, we took a few moments on Monday to sit down with Stephen J. Dix, SVP & General Manager, and Karen Richardson, Marketing Communications Manager, to learn about whatis new from the folks as Asanté. Founded in 1988, Asanté has been a player in the Mac market for nearly 16 years, creating products that will let you network your Mac to just about anything.

To that end, we discussed two recently announced products that should be of interest to Mac (and even PC) users who would like to utilize the latest in Mac networking technology. The first is the FriendlyNET AeroLAN-XG, an 802.11g CardBus adapter for those Mac users who would like to upgrade to the faster wireless standard, but are unable to use an AirPort Extreme card. It has a suggested retail price of US$99, the same as Appleis AirPort Extreme card. Although it sticks out the side of your portable, it does have power and link lights to let you know what is going on. It also claims to have a high-gain 15.5 dBm antenna design, which should offer better range than Appleis built-in offerings. Stay tuned for a review of this product to get the lowdown.

AL5402-XG 802.11g CardBus Adapter

The other product is the FriendlyNET GX5-424W 24 + 4 Smart Gigabit Ethernet Switch. With many Mac models now supporting gigabit speeds, it makes sense to look towards a switch that can support slower speeds, such as 10/100 Mbps, but to leave room for also attaching higher-speed devices. The GX5-424W has 24 10/100 ports, and a total of 4 gigabit ports, 2 for copper cable and 2 for fiber, since gigabit can run over either medium. This device supports advanced features, such as web configuration (no proprietary software or cable required) Virtual LAN (VLAN) support, and Quality of Service (QoS) to help prioritize and manage network traffic flow. Some of these features are found in higher-end units, but are included in the GX5-424W, which sports a retail price of only US$399.

Stay tuned as we get some of the products into The Mac Observer Labs and put them through their paces.