Linksys

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Linksys
Type Private
Founded 1988
Founder(s) Victor Tsao and Janie Tsao
Headquarters Irvine, California, United States
Key people President: Ned Hooper
Products Network hardware for home and small businesses
Employees 700+ (as of March 2007)
Parent Cisco Systems
Website www.linksysbycisco.com
A 802.11b wireless Linksys 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 a major[citation needed] provider 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. Since 2008, all Linksys products sold are now packaged as "Linksys by Cisco".

Contents

[edit] History

Linksys was founded in 1988 in a garage in Irvine, California. The founders, Janie and Victor Tsao, were immigrants from Taiwan who held second jobs as consultants specializing in pairing American technology vendors with manufacturers in Taiwan.[2] The company's first products were printer sharers that connected multiple PCs to printers. From this it expanded into Ethernet hubs, network cards, and cords. By 1994, it had grown to 55 employees with annual revenues of $6.5 million.[2]

The company received a major boost in 1995, when Microsoft released Windows 95 with built-in networking functions that expanded the market for its products. Linksys established its first U.S. retail channels with Fry's Electronics (1995) and Best Buy (1996).[3] In 1999, the company announced the first Fast Ethernet PCMCIA Card for notebook PCs. In 2000, it introduced the first 8-port router with SNMP and QoS, and in 2001 it shipped its millionth cable/DSL router.[3] By 2003, when the company was acquired by Cisco, it had 305 employees and revenues of more than $500 million.[2]

Since acquiring Linksys, Cisco has continued to invest to expand the company's product line. In April 2005, Cisco Systems acquired VoIP maker Sipura Technology and made it part of its Linksys division.[4] For a time, VoIP products based on Sipura technology were offered under the Linksys Voice System brand. (They are now sold by Cisco as part of the Linksys Business Series.[5]) In July 2008, Cisco acquired Seattle-based Pure Networks, a vendor of home networking-management software. Pure Networks had previously provided the tools and software infrastructure used create the Linksys Easy Link Advisor.[6] Pure Networks was integrated into Linksys, with employees remaining in Seattle and continuing to work on making it easier for users to set up and manage home networks.

[edit] Products and services

[edit] Partial list of hardware products

[edit] Routers

  • WRT54G is notable for having firmware based on the Linux operating system. Subsequently, a relatively large open-source community dedicated to modifying Linksys router firmware developed, with the 54G model being the commonly modded component.[citation needed] Since version 5, flash memory is reduced from 4MB to 2MB, and Intel's VxWorks was used instead of Linux. The original Linux model with 4MB is now available as WRT54GL.
  • WRT54G2 Router is an easy-to-set-up router that enables the user to use their internet connection without running wires. It contains a firewall that protects the user from some unwanted hackers that may try to take access to the network.[7] This router support the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless standards.
  • Wireless-N (draft 802.11n) series producs.
    • 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 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.

[edit] Modems

  • WAG200G is an all-in-one solution for connecting your home to the Internet. It has a 211MHz AR7 MIPS32 CPU with 4 MB of flash memory and 16MB of DRam on the PCB. The WAG200G measures 5.5 X 5.5 X 1.25 inches (W x H x D) and weighs 0.77 pounds. The WAG200G all-in-one device functions as a high speed ADSL2+ Modem, a Wireless G Access Point, router and 4-port Ethernet switch. The built-in wireless Access Point function complies with the specifications of the 802.11g standard, which offers transfer speeds of up to 54 Mbit/s. It is also backwards compatible with 802.11b devices at speeds of 11 Mbit/s. The Access Point can support the connection of up to 32 wireless devices. It also offers 4 built-in 10/100 RJ-45 ports to connect Ethernet-enabled computers, print servers and other devices

[edit] USB Wireless

  • WUSB54G series of USB wireless adapters use the Ralink RT2500 chipset.[8] They support the 802.11b and 802.11g wireless network standards, and have Open Source drivers available for Linux.[9]

[edit] Powerline Network Adapter

Using existing power outlets with the home to transmit digital contents throughout the house.

[edit] Wireless Home Audio

The Wireless Home Audio system allows users to access and play digital music from different rooms in the home. The components of this system include the Director, the Player, the Controller, the optional iPod Docking Station, and the optional wired Stereo Speaker Kit. These components are designed to work with the optional speakers or with the existing audio system in the home. The music files are streamed through the home's wireless network to each Player located throughout the home.

[edit] Network Attatched Storage

  • NSLU2
    Main article: NSLU2
    The NSLU2 is a network attached storage device with 8 MB of flash memory, 32MB of SDRAM, a 100Mb Ethernet port, and two USB ports. The NSLU2 was discontinued in 2008, but is still in demand because of the numerous enhancements developed by open-source community projects.

[edit] Media Hub

The Media Hub 300 and 400 series is a network attached storage device that allows the user to share digital video, photos, and music across the network. Once the media hub is connected to the network, it will search for media content residing within the network. Through the intelligent user interface, you can easily organize and share your contents. The Media Hub capacity options are 500GB or 1 TB, with an extra bay to add another drive.

[edit] VoIP

  • Linksys PAP2 (and PAP2T) is an analog telephony adapter (commonly referred to as ATA), which allows for the connection of one or two “normal” telephones to a VoIP provider using the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) protocol.
  • SPA3102 is a gateway router with both a FXO & FXS port.

[edit] Partial list of software products

  • 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 Windows and Mac OS users to setup, monitor, and repair their network.

Note: The Latest version for Linksys EasyLink Advisor (LELA) is version 3.02

  • Network Magic - Network Magic is a suite of software tools that allows users to easily connect and manage devices, applications, and services on their home networks. Network Magic 5.0 was the first product to be released by Cisco as a result of its acquisition of Pure Networks.[10]

[edit] IPv6 support

  • Linksys don't seem to provide any support for IPv6, neither for their previous products, nor for their latest products like WRT610N.

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Cisco acquires Linksys for 500M, Clint Boulton, March 20, 2003
  2. ^ a b c "Entrepreneurs of the Year". Inc.com. January 2004. http://www.inc.com/magazine/20040101/linksys.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. 
  3. ^ a b "About Us". Linksys by Cisco. http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/aboutus. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. 
  4. ^ "Cisco Systems to Acquire Sipura Technology". Cisco Systems. April 26, 2005. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2005/corp_042605.html?CMP=ILC-001. Retrieved on 2009-03-08. 
  5. ^ "Cisco Small Business IP Phones (Linksys Business Series)". http://www.cisco.com/en/US/products/ps10033/index.html. 
  6. ^ "Cisco Announces Definitive Agreement to Acquire Pure Networks". Cisco press release. 2008-07-23. http://newsroom.cisco.com/dlls/2008/corp_072308.html. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. 
  7. ^ Wireless-G Broadband Router
  8. ^ "Ralink chipsets based wireless devices". rapla.net. 08 Jul 2007. http://ralink.rapla.net/. Retrieved on 2009-01-04. 
  9. ^ Marc Abramowitz (2007-02-20). "Setting up a Linksys WUSB54GC WLAN adapter in Ubuntu". http://marc-abramowitz.com/archives//setting-up-a-linksys-wusb54gc-wlan-adapter-in-ubuntu/. Retrieved on 2009-01-04. 
  10. ^ "Cisco simplifies home networking with Network Magic 5.0". Cisco press release. http://www.linksysbycisco.com/US/en/pressreleases?year=2008#. Retrieved on 2009-03-10. 

[edit] External links

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