RAM | Reseller Advocate Magazine: Issue 52

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by William Van Winkle

Routers/Access Points

A year ago, we were all fired up on the concept of storage routers, consumer-class routers with USB ports into which you could plug an external hard drive, configure a few browser-based options, and suddenly have yourself a basic NAS repository and FTP server. Here at RAM, we have a NETGEAR WGT634U running with a 40GB Apricorn USB drive dangling from it that serves this exact function.

Today, though, you don't hear about storage routers. The WGT634U is essentially retired. A unit such as D-Link's DI-724U now advertises its USB port as being for print server functionality. D-Link is famous for loading its routers with every consumer-class feature possible, and this one now even includes QoS management, but for storage functionality you'd have to step backwards in the product line to the DI-624S. Why? Because D-Link now sells network storage adapters, enclosures, and NAS devices. NETGEAR sells its SC101 storage enclosure. Storage is an increasingly big play in the networking world, and it seems vendors realized at last that they were unnecessarily giving away a massive chunk of revenue to the USB drive vendors. True enough, there's more profit for resellers in offering NAS technologies than USB drives, but for customers who know of storage routers, you'll want to emphasize the additional functionality of NAS. And if your NAS products don't have additional functionality and/or performance, well, you may want to reexamine your line card.

In the low-end space, though, finding extra functionality in the router space keeps getting harder, but it can be done. Practically every wireless router on the market now includes SPI firewall protection and a four-port 10/100 switch, but Linksys' WCG200 adds a DOCSIS 2.0 cable modem, turning the router into a one-box solution gateway. As mentioned above, there are plenty of turbo and turbo plus MIMO options available. However, sometimes you need to drop the wireless functionality in order to get more variety. D-Link's DI-LB604, for example, is a wired-only, four-port 10/100 router with dual WAN ports for connecting to two different Internet providers. This provides more bandwidth to be shared across the network as well as redundancy in case one provider goes down.

D-Link's DI-700 series of wired routers all now incorporate print server functionality. The company's deservedly famous series of gaming routers feature higher gain antennas, packet prioritization (with QoS slanted toward gaming), and a four-port Gigabit Ethernet switch. Gigabit ports are still something of a premium differentiator in this space, but the window of opportunity is starting to close, so press it while you can.

Hotel-hopping professionals may find travel routers a persuasive prospect. The Linksys WT54GT and D-Link DWL-G730AP are two excellent examples in this category. Both let users plug into any 10/100 LAN jack and instantly create a wireless access cloud without adding more than a few ounces of bulk to the notebook carrying case. Some travel routers feature an additional 10/100 port, some don't. Either way, such products can quickly pay for themselves both in comfort (who wants to sit at a desk after a tough day on the road show circuit when you can recline in bed?) and convenience. After all, normally, two users in a room would have a difficult time being on VoIP calls simultaneously, and VoIP is definitely what you want in a hotel environment. Moreover, if you do find yourself a VoIP-loving mobile professional, consider throwing a ZyXEL P-2000W Wi-Fi VoIP handset into your next sale. Phone setup can be tricky, but your customer will love being able to make high-quality global calls at VoIP rates from a handset little larger than a cellular bar phone.

ZyXEL's HomeSafe routers may be a particularly strong draw to home-based buyers that are sharing the network with younger family members. The units incorporate all of the features you'd expect in a mainstream router but then incorporates several administrator (meaning parent) options. These include Web content filtering by category, application blocking (divisible by weekday/weekend), and daily access allowances within a certain time range. User registration is required to activate the content filtering, but there are no subscription charges tied to the service.

"The most successful products here are going to be the ones that incorporate parental monitoring," says ABI's Mike Wolf. "There's no reason why, with some of the better ARM and MIPS processors and the cost of flash going down, you can't put all of that into a router. In the home market, the more boxes you have, the less demand there will be. On the business side, it's different, but I think you're going to see more demand for simplicity even in SMBs as time goes on."

One good example of such simplification might be the NETGEAR WG102. This seemingly basic access point is from the company's ProSafe line, which is aimed at SMB clients, not consumers. The difference is in the robustness of the feature set. The 802.11g antenna, for example, is a hardier 5 dBi design, not the usual consumer 2 dBi, and is detachable for upgrading to even stronger reception. 802.11i security is standard. The cosmetics follow the old boxy, blue NETGEAR pattern, not the flashier, silver, curvaceous consumer ID. Bridging and repeater WDS modes are supported, NETGEAR provides a three-year warranty, and the AP is powered via PoE. The unit may cost around $150 at dealer level, but corporate buyers will find the unit's reliability and flexibility worth the price of admission.

Taking a significant jump up the SMB ladder, you'll be hard pressed to find a more feature-rich, extensible solution than Cisco's Integrated Services Router lineup. The ISR models emphasize four key areas of integrated services: security, voice, wireless, and availability. For security, ISRs depend chiefly on a robust firewall implementation backed by Cisco's IOS software, which is upgradeable as newer implementations emerge. The firewall supports both IPv4 and IPv6.

Cisco ISR voice functionality has a wide range of options depending on the model, but the thing to note is that resellers can control this functionality via open chip and slot ports within the router. Enabling advanced voice features is often just a matter of installing the appropriate DSP chip. This negates an easy out of the box experience but builds in plenty of opportunity for resellers to configure deployments for dozens of concurrent telephony sessions, CallManager call routing, support for future video apps, and so on.

Far more than being just another access point, ISR models can allow for modular upgradeability of the core 802.11 radio, feature PoE and/or power supply redundancy, utilize dual antennas, service public hotspots, and even serve as push-to-talk (LMR) gateways, both for IP and cellular phones.

Not least of all, ISRs are dedicated to customer up-time, and Cisco assures this through measures ranging from bandwidth management to hot-swappable power supplies to multiple WAN port failover. While definitely enterprise-class technology, Cisco aims the ISR family at agencies, organizations, and branch offices with 250 or fewer employees.

"The integrated services router is a key part of a business network foundation," says Cisco's Lauren Ventura, senior director of commercial marketing, "because it allows you to streamline connectivity into a single platform for voice, for data, for video. The idea of integrated communications is the main thrust of that launch. At the same time, an SMB needs intelligent services where you can drive QoS based on the user requirements as well as security. So embedded security in all the devices and ease of use of management. The reason a VAR or system integrator would care about these services is faster time to implement with automated scripts, provisioning tools, and those kinds of things, which add up to better margin."

As you might expect, with the added cost and complexity of a solution such as Cisco's ISR come far more client benefits. For instance, an ISR could easily facilitate the linking of a customer support query from Asia with a service rep in Europe who could then immediately dispatch a part from Mexico, all with complete visibility to the client and no long distance fees. The feedback a company gets through an ISR can lead to identification of supply chain disruptions. Fewer resources need be spent on procurement. Outsourcing becomes faster and more transparent to client management. Forecasting and planning improve, and customer demands are more easily translated into real-time data. Naturally, no 200-page product manual is going to get you fluent in all the subtleties of such deployments, so anticipate becoming deeply involved in Cisco's training and certification programs if you want to reap the benefits of this truly optimal channel play.

Adapters

While a discussion of adapters may seem anticlimactic after the heady worlds of switches and routers, you should be careful to look for value-add opportunities here, as well. Not every notebook is best off with a Centrino 2200BG NIC and integrated 10/100. Not every desktop should stop at integrated Gigabit, even if it does sit on the PCI Express bus rather than the considerably slower PCI bus.

Sure, such NICs will account for most of the adapters you sell, but there are other places to make some small but high-margin scores. Consider NETGEAR's GA511 Gigabit PC Card.

Obviously, you're not going to get PCIe throughput out of a 32-bit CardBus slot, but it's a definite step up from integrated 10/100. Users won't derive much benefit from the GA511 in airports or probably even hotels. Rather, one great market for this card is outside company reps who regularly perform large backup dumps at the central office. As mentioned earlier, multi-gigabyte 10/100 backups take a long, arduous time, and the half-hours saved here and there may well pay for the card's amply affordable $50 price.

On the wireless front, Intel's new Napa platform introduces the world to officially sanctioned dual-band 802.11 with two SKUs, the 3945ABG and the 2915ABG.

"The key points of the new 3945ABG part are that it's MiniCard format, which is about 30% smaller, so it'll be in smaller systems," says Intel WNG program manager Jeff Darst. "It also supports QoS for Voice-over-IP, which is a big aspect of the Napa platform."

Interestingly, VoIP optimizations exist in the 3945ABG but not the 2915ABG, which uses an older version of Intel's PROset software based on Cisco Compatible Extensions v3 rather than the newer v4. The other thing to note is that the 2915ABG uses the older miniPCI card format, just like the 2200BG. This makes the 2915ABG your key upgrade opportunity. Because only new Napa notebooks feature a motherboard-mounted MC slot, virtually every 3945ABG you sell will be going out with a new Centrino notebook—good sale, but not terribly creative on the NIC side.

What you want to do is go to clients and offer to upgrade their first- and second-generation Centrino units to Napa-class, tri-mode wireless networking. They'll get all of the new power-saving innovations in Napa wireless, such as dynamic power output adjustment based on ambient temperature with 802.11a, and better universal connectivity.

Our favorite gadget of the week is without question ZyXEL's AG-225H. This little gem, only a bit larger than most USB flash drives, starts out by being a formidable hotspot finder. We've tried a few hotspot finders, and most are unsatisfying. ZyXEL, however, smartly shows the detected SSID, channel, security state (WPA, WEP, or open), signal strength, number of signals detected, and wireless mode (802.11 A, B, or G) all in one view. Nice! The Li-Ion-powered AG-225H's other personality is that of a USB 2.0 tri-mode client adapter, outfitted with 256-bit WEP and WPA2 security, that can also turn the host PC into an access point. In our own testing, the device was able to reach through multiple walls up to about 60 feet, which is sufficient for most SOHO and small office needs. Road warriors, war drivers, and resellers wanting to perform informal site surveys without the bulk of a notebook in hand, will find ZyXEL's tiny client ($75 street) an inspiring bargain in most any environment.

Networking Niches

So far, we've primarily discussed opportunities in basic infrastructure. However, plenty of related items that don't veer so far away from the backbone as to be considered add-on peripherals are worth examining. Chief among these may be security devices, commonly called Internet Security Appliances.

Take D-Link's new DI-103 SecureSpot. Integrating technology from Sophos and Bsecure, the SecureSpot is a pass-through box that sits between the broadband modem and the router. By tying into a consistently updated subscription service, the SecureSpot offers up to four users on the LAN a host of services: parental filtering, pop-up blocking, antivirus, anti-spam, and anti-spyware. The DI-103 lists for $100, renews annually for $80, and can add on additional seats for $20 each. The primary audience is consumers who don't want to hassle with configuring and repurchasing multiple software security titles and small businesses that don't want to burden client PCs with the extra overhead and potential instabilities of hard drive-based security apps.

An increasing number of vendors are building these features into their routers, though. ZyXEL's ZyWALL 5 is something of a hybrid aimed at the SOHO/workgroup market, offering smart switch traffic management, 802.11g with WPA, VPN handling (on-board, not pass-through), dual WAN failover ports, logged firewalling, and content filtering. ZyXEL doesn't pursue a subscription model, which is why there's no antivirus or anti-spyware support, but the VPN functionality on top of the other core LAN group features justify this sub-$500 unit for a wide range of users, especially telecommuters.

"One of the trends we see emerging in the small business marketplace is the multi-services devices, the integrated routers that combine Ethernet switching, routing, firewall services, those kinds of things," notes Steve Hansen, senior analyst with In-Stat. "In a survey we did, we found that over 80% of respondents favored those types of devices for small businesses and branch offices over single-use types of devices."

If you have a client that has adopted VoIP, gaming, or a similar application set in need of QoS but he doesn't want to upgrade his infrastructure, consider an add-on QoS product such as Hawking Tech's HBB1 Broadband Booster. Again this is a pass-through device positioned between the modem and router. Hawking advertises that the HBB1 can boost Internet application performance by up to 400%, but such gains require an exceptionally specific set of circumstances. In general, users will see noticeable improvement in situations such as making VoIP calls while performing large downloads on a constricted connection. The HBB1 is best employed in multi-user LANs where continuous streaming apps are in regular use.

Another small opening for resellers are out-of-the-box hotspots, such as SMC's SMCWHSG44-G EliteConnect Wireless Hotspot Gateway. If you've ever used a public hotspot, you know the drill here. Users detect the gateway, arrive at a walled garden landing page, and log in with a pre-approved code for Internet access.

"The product has some unique features like up to four LAN ports configured," says SMC's Tony Stramandinoli, "so you could get a DSL line, a cable line, and use the second connection for redundancy, or you could duplex the two connections to increase the Internet speed. And you can do that on up to four LAN ports. It also comes with a thermal printer, so when the customer comes to the cash register and wants to buy, say, one hour of Internet service, there's a little keypad where you hit one hour, hit Enter, and it prints out a username and password and opens up the register. It really is an all-in-one solution where you can immediately start charging for Internet service in any small business."

Hotspot units such as these may not be mega-sellers in urban U.S. settings, but in less populated areas, Internet cafes and the like are still very popular, and new businesses need easy to administer solutions such as this to draw in clientele and boost revenue.

From here, just let your imagination be your guide. Some accounts could benefit from inter-building wireless communications, and D-Link and SMC in particular excel in their amplified antenna product lines. Got a customer with a network admin itching to do his own maintenance? Why not tack on a Belkin F4F314 LAN cable tester in your next sale? The opportunities for little sales that add up to incremental revenue over time are bigger than you'd think.

Plug In

We've touched on a lot of high-value technologies and features here, but the danger some integrators face is getting too wrapped up in the details. If you get it into your head that Gigabit switching and PoE are the essential routes to ROI success, you may miss a lot of of sales based on adding to clients' existing LAN deployments rather than replacing them. If a $500 electrician visit proves more cost-effective than a $2,000 PoE overhaul, then you're missing the big picture.

Networks are a means to an end, and we all need to keep these end objectives firmly in mind when starting the sales process. For example, many resellers have given up on the consumer/SOHO segment because of competition with retail and e-tail. However, you can still capture a chunk of this market by pursuing teleworker installations through employers, not by targeting the end-user directly. Not only will you be more likely to bring home a higher-margin hardware sale, but employers are more likely to agree to service contracts for maintenance.

"There are two top issues for networked businesses," says Cisco's Lauren Ventura. "One is that they've got to be more operationally efficient. With that comes better, faster connectivity to employees and better connectivity to customer data so they can respond more in real-time irregardless of the way that information is delivered. This idea of ubiquitous access no matter where you're at needs to be as transparent as possible. The overall operating environment needs to be more productive so they can drive costs down.

"The second issue has a lot of connotations with how resellers are serving customers. It has a lot to do with how they differentiate themselves in the marketplace. The business communications solution that really exemplifies this is delivering more features to employees that are serving customers. So when a customer calls, we can do a screen pop on the phone so that the customer service agent has that call routed to them with all of the client data associated with the call so they can answer perfectly. Voice is a very big driver here, not only in carrying voice with data but in providing better service to customers. A VAR can be trained to be a one-stop shop to deliver all of these services over the network, and they have enablement programs backing them so they can deliver the highest quality and look like it's fulfillment from the manufacturer itself."

Perhaps more than in any other field within computing, training and certification is essential for any reseller seeking success in networking. Start with the resources offered by your hardware vendor partners, and when those are exhausted move on to respected industry programs, such as those offered by CompTIA and Microsoft. The amount of education you and your staff get will likely determine the size of business your services are able to accommodate.

No matter what segment of networking you choose to pursue, the opportunities for growth are tremendous. Enterprise technologies continue to permeate and improve small business options and capabilities. The need for reseller assistance at the low-end continues to climb as home networks become more complex, bandwidth needs climb, and interference issues multiply. At those points and all others in between, creativity in solving customer LAN needs will pay generous dividends. If you could only pick one area in which to concentrate your business growth in 2006, none would offer more potential than networking.

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