The NETGEAR WNR3500L router is the first in the industry to openly encourage customers that purchase the network device to choose between the standard router firmware and several open source alternatives. NETGEAR has come to recognize that there exists a sizable segment of customers in the market place who purchase commodity router equipment for the purpose of transforming them into devices rivalling high-end  network devices. Instead of opposing these practices, NETGEAR has elected to openly support and encourage them through the MyOpenRouter.com venue.

Consumer grade network routers have come a long way in the past several years with more powerful embedded processors, on-board larger flash and physical memory. When these network routers are coupled with the advanced capabilities offered by open source distributions including DD-WRT, OpenWRT and Tomato, the equipment begin to rival the advanced capabilities of high-end devices costing thousands of dollars. Therein lies the attraction – cost. The ability to purchase an inexpensive commodity device and add to it software that includes capabilities often found on equipment costing thousands of dollars.

The process of replacing the manufacturer's firmware with an alternative has also become almost trivial and only requires minimal technical skill. What started out as an enthusiast practice for personal use is more and more becoming a practice for business purposes. There are now many small to medium sized business that make use of commodity network equipment and they are now frequently replacing the operating firmware on the equipment to gain further technical functionality from the equipment then originally intended by the manufacturer. With businesses looking to use this equipment for more advanced capabilities and the equipment starting to play a more significant role, comes the need to manage and monitor the commodity network equipment.

Enterprise Management for SOHO Businesses using NETGEAR WNR3500L

The firmware provided by NETGEAR, OpenWRT, DD-WRT and Tomato all contemplate that the customer will manage each piece of network equipment individually.

Whether a customer has purchased a single router or multiple units, the ability to remotely manage and monitor the equipment has utility. Moreover, the ability to manage and monitor all computer and network equipment with one management tool is ideal. 

Small to medium sized businesses have a need for affordable technology, simple administration and management tools on a budget. As the amount of equipment, Netgear or otherwise, in use by a customer increases, the benefit to manage and monitor the equipment's operational health also grows exponentially. The keys to successfully implement a management technology is that the technology should be relatively simple to activate, easy to operate and save time/money by its usage. 

Introduction to Versiera

Versiera is an Internet technology for management and monitoring of computer and network equipment from the smallest SOHO networks to enterprise class data centres. Versiera rivals the best enterprise management systems costing hundreds of thousands of dollars and has now become available to Netgear router equipment running the DD-WRT or the OpenWRT firmware replacements. The Versiera Management Console offers a centralized place to manage, visualize, monitor and document technology for small to medium sized businesses. Furthermore, Versiera SaaS is free to use over the Internet for anyone.

One unique features of Versiera architecture enables Internet Service Providers, systems management organizations and consultants to broaden their management services without having director access to customer technology or data and is accomplished without having to build dedicated management interconnects to end customers. Also getting started take no more than 5 minutes to register, download and install a Versiera agent on the equipment to be managed.

Continue on to see what Versiera can do for you and your business.

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