Linksys Releases Draft-N For SMBs

Written by Adam Gosling

Tuesday, 30 January 2007

Two new access points and a Cardbus adapter take Draft-N Linksys gear out of the home and into the office, adding features such as Gigabit ports and beefed up security to make the devices more attractive to small business operators. The products promise the opportunity to run SMB wireless networks at better than 100Mbps speeds and with better range than standards-based 802.11g products, by adding features such as PoE, Intrusion Prevention and stronger encryption and authentication over the existing residential equipment sold by Linksys, the company hopes these new devices based on the emerging 802.11n specifications will bridge a gap between consumer devices and enterprise equipment. "We wanted to offer wireless solutions that small businesses could use, set up and afford with the features they need to help run their business effectively," said Graeme Reardon, regional director for Linksys Australia and New Zealand. "Many of today's small businesses purchase consumer products that may not provide all the features they need or enterprise products which may be too expensive or difficult to use and install. We've taken a very direct approach to servicing the small business with products that were designed specifically for them." There are three products in the new Small Business Series line-up:Wireless-N Access Point (WAP4400N), Wireless-N Gigabit Security Router with VPN (WRVS4400N) and Wireless-N CardBus Adapter (WPC4400N). The new small business products offer features that are not found in the currently shipping wireless-N products for home users: 4 x 10/100/1000 Gigabit Ports (Router) or 1 x 10/100/1000 Gigabit Port (AP) Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) (Router only) 802.1x client authentication Power Over Ethernet (PoE) (AP Only) Roaming (AP only) Wireless Multimedia Support (WMM) IPSec VPN Support (Router only) WPA-PSK/ENT and WPA2-PSK2/ENT Security Supported Linksys developed - Wireless Security Monitor (AP and PC Card only) Linksys products are designed to support all security encryption standards including WEP, WPA and WPA2. The WRVS4400N router has incorporated advanced firewall and Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) features, that can complement anti-virus software on PCs, to help secure the network from external threats including worms, trojan horses, Denial of Service (DoS) attacks and viruses. The IP Sec VPN tunnels provide mobile workers with a secure and easy to use way to stay connected. In addition, the VPN "gateway to gateway" IPSec tunnels helps facilitate branch office connectivity through encrypted virtual links. Linksys also has incorporated an internally developed Wireless Client Monitoring application on the PC Card and Access Point. This application provides rouge AP and client detection on the network so small businesses are alerted when unauthorised clients or access points show up on their network. The AP and PC Cards also work as wireless monitoring probes to help increase client coverage and enable seamless roaming from AP to AP. This client utility could also replace expensive management servers, providing reports on channel usage SSIDs in use and activity logs. Two additional key pieces of the 802.11n Draft Specification are the requirements that products provide both mixed mode operation and backward compatibility with 802.11g and 802.11b. Mixed mode operation designates that, unlike previous proprietary networking technologies, 802.11n networks must maintain optimum speeds when operating with legacy products. Backward compatibility helps to enable existing standards-based wireless products to work at their optimum performance levels for that environment. The WAP4400N (RRP A$359.95), WRVS4400N (RRP A$479.95) and the WPC4400N (RRP A$249.95) are available immediately. www.linksys.com.au Related news items Qualcomm Acquires Airgo -04/12/2006 HP Will Also Offer Draft n Notebooks -09/11/2006 Lenovo To Put Draft-802.11n In Notebooks -08/11/2006 NETGEAR First With Draft-n In ADSL2+ Modem -11/09/2006 Pre-N WLAN Sales Grind To A Halt -06/09/2006 Newer news items D-Link Routers To Make Sharing Easy -24/04/2007 Easy VoIP System For Mobile Makers -16/03/2007 Draft N Inches Forward -14/03/2007 Agere Sells Wireless Patents -02/03/2007 Atheros Reaches 100 Million Chip Landmark -27/02/2007 Older news items Symbol Builds A Bridge Between RFID and WLAN -07/12/2006 WLAN Win For CSIRO -15/11/2006 aql Offers Brits Free WoVLAN From Mobiles -05/09/2006 New Atheros Silicon To Lower Pre-N Cost -30/08/2006 The End Of Open WLAN Standards -16/08/2006 Tag This Now: