It's an exciting time for the beloved NETGEAR WNR3500L open source router!  Our favorite piece of networking gear has been selected by SamKnows as part of its national broadband speed test measurement project in collaboration with the FCC.

The powerful WNR3500L will help deliver accurate, timely results to the FCC for those who choose to participate in the program.

More details on the initiative are detailed below in the full press release.

[SamKnows Official Site]

SAN JOSE, Calif. — June 1, 2010 — NETGEAR®, Inc. (NASDAQGM: NTGR), a worldwide provider of technologically innovative, branded networking solutions, today announced that SamKnows, an Internet technology leader in traffic sensor applications, has selected NETGEAR’s RangeMax® Wireless-N Gigabit Router with USB (WNR3500L) as part of  its national broadband speed test measurement project announced by Federal Communications Commission (FCC) Chairman Julius Genachowski (http://www.fcc.gov/headlines.html). The FCC’s goal is to collect objective data to build an accurate picture of broadband Internet performance nationwide. Consumers wishing to participate in the program can volunteer to have their broadband connections tested by the sensors during idle periods with known, safe servers. This testing method addresses the variability of results from current Internet-based self-service speed tests by eliminating or minimizing inaccuracies caused by computer processing performance as well as premise network impairments such as motor noise, microwave oven interference, low WiFi signal levels or IP traffic congestion in the LAN. 

No personal data is detected or reported such as logins and passwords, IP or MAC addresses, URLs visited, VoIP phone numbers called or data sent and received. Only the results of the performance tests are reported anonymously for aggregation and analysis by SamKnows and the FCC. In addition, people who volunteer for the project are given access to their own data so that they can track the performance of their own broadband connection.

“We welcome SamKnows as the newest applications developer to use NETGEAR Open Source Linux Routers to provide accurate and timely results to the FCC,” said Patrick Lo, Chairman & CEO of NETGEAR. “As a US-based networking company, NETGEAR commends the FCC on its Broadband Initiative.”

Alex Salter, CEO of SamKnows, added: “Service Providers worldwide across all network technologies referred us to NETGEAR for this application, and NETGEAR has an excellent reputation amongst the ISP’s we work with and polled about this project. SamKnows looks forward to working with NETGEAR and the FCC to help American internet consumers measure their broadband service.”

SamKnows has previously deployed similar sensor projects for both national governments and service providers. The principal application of the project results has been to enable ISP’s to add backbone Internet capacity in advance of network congestion to serve their customers’ growing demand as reported by SamKnows sensors.

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