Linksys


Linksys
Type Network hardware manufacturing
Founded 1988
Founder Victor Tsao
Headquarters Irvine, California, United States
Key people President: Ned Hooper
Products Network hardware for home and small businesses
Owner Cisco Systems
Employees 700+ (as of March 2007)
Website www.linksys.com
A 802.11b wireless Linksys router with a wired 4-port switch.
A 802.11b wireless Linksys router with a wired 4-port switch.
A Linksys befsr41 DSL router with a wired 4-port switch.
A Linksys befsr41 DSL router with a wired 4-port switch.

Linksys, founded in 1988 and acquired by Cisco Systems in 2003[1], is the leader in sales of home and small office network products. Linksys also manufactures broadband and wireless routers, consumer and small business grade ethernet switching, VoIP equipment, wireless internet video camera, AV products, network storage systems, and other products.

Contents

WRT54G

Main article: Linksys WRT54G series

Perhaps the most notable product produced by Linksys was the WRT54G.

Consumer level routers consist of a processor and operating system, with most features implemented as software code with dedicated physical hardware kept to a minimum to save manufacturing costs. Consumer routers, however, have been known to be unreliable due to their dependence on software to provide features. Software-based routers not equipped with a fast processor can be slow to direct network traffic. The WRT54G was notable for having a fast processor but the firmware was imperfect and lacked high-end features.

Linksys decided to base the firmware upon the Linux operating system to reduce costs. Columbia Law School Professor Eben Moglen pointed out in 2002 that, due to the Linux-based nature of the firmware, Cisco was legally obligated to release the source code to the routers under the terms of the GNU General Public License or GPL. Cisco eventually acknowledged its obligation, released the code, and revealed the secrets of how the software code interfaced with the hardware.

This subsequently spawned an open source community dedicated to modding Linksys router firmware. Amateur programmers quickly learned how to add $600 features to $60 routers. This changed the dynamics of the router market as consumers' expectations of stability and features increased.

Linksys and other vendors then had to respond, since open source firmware is now freely available for licensing and customization, which would enable new router vendors to enter the market without the traditional barrier of having to develop the firmware code. The best consumer routers are now arguably comparable to what were formerly high-end routers.

The WRT54G and WRT54GS series of wireless routers were later changed to use a VxWorks kernel, which reduced the memory requirement for the box. Version 3 of the WRT54GS had 8 MB of flash, version 4 had 4 MB, and version 5 only 2 MB. The reduced flash capacity limits feature rich open source firmware from being added to standard Linksys routers. Linksys has continued production of a Linux-powered version labeled the WRT54GL, but it is not promoted as one of its flagship products.

A reaction to this is the open wireless hardware movement, including OpenPattern,[2] [3] and the Open Flexible Router device.

More recently Linksys released the WRT54GL router which, like the original WRT54G, is based on Linux and therefore easier to upgrade with third party firmware. Although this practice is still not directly supported by Linksys it is an acknowledgment that enthusiasts are still interested in "tweaking" and redefining the multitude of uses of their routers.

The WRT54GS is a newer model of the WRT54G, which looks quite different; the WTR54GS (note the transposition of the second and third letters) is a "travel router" with an integral power supply, suitable for setting up an ad-hoc wireless network in a hotel room.

The WRT54G2 is a latest model of the WRT54G series. It features a new industrial design and sleek new profile which looks very different from all previous models in this line.

The WRT110 is a RangePlus router incorporating MIMO technology for extended range and is much faster than G when connected to Wireless-N.

WUSB54G series

Linksys WUSB54G series uses Ralink RT2500 chipsets.[4]

Linksys WUSB54GC is the Linksys Compact Wireless-G USB Adapter, that can be set up in everything.[5]

Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) series

The Linksys wireless-N router lineup begins with the WRT160N which features a 4-port 10/100 switch. The claimed improvements are three times the range and nine times the speed over a standard wireless-G router.

The next step up is the WRT310N, which features a with a 4-port 10/100/1000 switch. The claimed improvements are four times the range and twelve times the speed over a standard wireless-G router.

The Linksys 610N is the company's flagship wireless router. It features a 4-port 10/100/1000 switch, broadcasts simultaneous dual (2.4 and 5 GHz) wireless bands, and a USB 2.0 storage link to accommodate an external hard drive. This model series is optimized for streaming multimedia contents and is the recognized leader in both performance and price among all other premier models in the industry.

Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA)

All new Linksys wireless routers are now shipped with the Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA), which is a video based application to assist PC and Mac users to setup, monitors, and repair their network. Note: The Latest version for Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA)is version 3.02

NSLU2

The NSLU2 (sometimes called the Slug) is a network attached storage device. It has a 266MHz IXP420 processor with 8MB of flash memory and 32MB of SDRam on the PCB. Externally it has two USB ports to allow external hard/flash drives or a USB modem to be attached and a 100MBs RS-232 ethernet port. There are multiple open source projects based at www.nslu2-linux.org designed to expand the cababilities of the NSLU2 allowing it to perform many different tasks such as: Music server, Webserver, BitTorrent Client, Weather monitor (through the use of a USB attached Weather station)and many many more uses. This is possible through the many pakages that can be installed on top of the base linux (OS) system. [6]

Acquisition of Sipura Technologies

The parent company Cisco Systems acquired VoIP maker Sipura Technologies and made it part of its Linksys division on April 26, 2005.

SPA Series VoIP Products

With the Sipura acquisition Linksys got into the VoIP business. Sipura products are well tested and feature rich ranging from VoIP PBX to ATA and phones, all the products are SIP v2 compatible but they do have some quirks when Linksys decides to defer from the protocol on some features (ex WMI, Voice Messages).

SPA Series Phones

The SPA series is basically the original Sipura series SIP compatible phones.

SPA Series Products

Phones PBX ATA ITG
SPA901 SPA9000 SPA2002-ER SPA400
SPA921/941 PAP2 SPA3102
SPA922/942 SPA8000
SPA962

Environmentally Conscious

Linksys products are packaged with recycled and biodegradable materials with ink that are made from soy and vegetables. They also use lower power consumption ENERGYSTAR certified adapters.

Criticism

While many Linksys home products fully support Mac OS X and Windows Vista, many business models are only available through an IE/ActiveX web interface [7]. On these ActiveX dependent products, some advertisements and documentation make no mention of the operating system or browser requirements, leaving consumers to find out, after their purchase, that their Mac OS X, Linux and Unix systems are unable to configure the devices. An example of this are the SRW business series switches, where the official documentation[8] simply states, "Internet Explorer version 5.5 or above is recommended.", on page 42.

Notable offenders:

  • The SRWXXXX line of managed Gigabit switches, for example SRW2008 and SRW2024

Linksys however does provide legacy interfaces to configure the devices, but only minimum functionality are accessible directly through the menu driven interface. Users may exit the menu and enter a Cisco IOS kind of CLI mode, exposing all configuration options by Serial console, Telnet and SSH[9].

Some devices like WAP54G [1] unexpectedly prevent accessing the web interface with the documented username and password. However the username change (admin -> empty line) looks more like an innocent bug than an attempt to make the device not configurable under Linux.

Although unsubstantiated, Linksys may have responded to consumer's complaints by stating the following paraphrased positions:[citation needed]:

  • These devices are not suitable for enterprise level functionality.
  • Firmware upgrades are being developed, but do not yet have release dates.
  • There is small demand for devices that can be configured by non-windows systems.

See also

External links

References

  1. ^ Cisco acquires Linksys for 500M, Clint Boulton, March 20, 2003
  2. ^ Holistic ICT for EcoLiving » Open Hardware Router
  3. ^ OpenHardware - wiki.freifunk.net
  4. ^ Ralink chipsets based wireless devices
  5. ^ Marc Abramowitz » Setting up a Linksys WUSB54GC WLAN adapter in Ubuntu
  6. ^ NSLU2-Linux
  7. ^ SRW2024 Datasheet in PDF
  8. ^ SRW2024 Datasheet in PDF
  9. ^ "["http://www.crc.id.au/real-console-on-linksys-srw2024-switch/" "Real console on Linksys SRW2024 switch"]".
xxx

! __







Why are we here?
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License
This page is cache of Wikipedia. History