Who knew networking could be so exciting? Competition in the SMB market is so hot that vendors have started grabbing more and more features from enterprise to improve the value of their routers and switches rather than compete on price.
D-Link in particular is pursuing the bigger SMBs and mid-market companies in the wireless space. Witness the launch last month of its DSR-1000N wireless N router, which comes with dual Gigabit Ethernet WAN ports, dual-band 802.11 a/b/g/n, operates on 2.4 or 5GHz bands and green features that reduce wireless power automatically during off-peak hours.
The standout attraction is its ability to create virtual private network (VPN) connections. The DSR-1000N supports up to 70 simultaneous VPN tunnels using protocols such as IP Security (IPSec), Point-to-Point (PPTP) and Layer 2 (L2TP). It can also manage 20 Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) VPN tunnels.
Maurice Famularo, marketing director, D-Link Australia and New Zealand says there are planned firmware enhancements to support a USB-connected 3G Internet service.
It is quite a feat to find a router that provides load balancing and automatic failover and more for a retail price of $610. Gartner's Bjarne Munch says D-Link latest appears to be a low-cost version of a Cisco integrated services router and is a "more powerful proposition for a branch office edge router than typical comparable products from vendors such as Netgear".
Amazingly, there is room for still more vendors. Ruckus has had a low profile in Australia until its recent signing with Avnet. The company has sold its wireless routers directly through telcos in many countries and is now looking at the SMB market.
The wireless-only vendor is best known for its patented "smart antenna" technology which is less prone to interference and better at delivering high bandwidth. Its Zone Director series is easy to manage and automates a number of functions.
A full review from CRNTech on page 59 notes that Ruckus is well suited to resource-strained resellers or IT departments in smaller or midsize enterprises.
And with the proliferation of smartphones and tablets, SMBs are slowly adding wireless extensions to their Ethernet networks.
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