D-Link Rolls Out Gateway for SMBs

D-Link Systems Inc. announced Tuesday that it has begun shipping a line of gateway products designed for small and medium businesses.

The D-Link Airspot Gateway DSA-3100 combines a firewall, router and SMTP server, and is designed for small businesses like coffee shops, suburban airports and hotels, according to Anna-Marie Claassen, a spokeswoman for the company.

“The hot spot area is booming,” Claassen said. “This gives small and medium businesses a convenient all-in-one package for these services.”

Each DSA-3100, which sells for $599, can monitor up to 50 concurrent accounts, and stores records for up to 150 users. The gateway also supports POP3, RADIUS and LDAP external authentication for larger-scale Airspot networks.

The gateway contains three 10/100 Ethernet ports for connecting the authentication and private LANs. A firewall separates both LANs, Claassen said, allowing a D-Link customer to use the same network as his users.

Although the gateway is being marketed as a wired/unwired gateway, the DSA-3100 lacks a built-in wireless access point, but can be connected to other D-Link products to enable wireless functionality. Future products will contain the wireless capability, she said.

The D-Link Airspot Gateway provides a standard management interface, allowing the companys customers to configure the gateway to enable key management features and audit features, including the time connected and how much bandwidth is used. An administrator can also limit user access to specific MAC addresses or block the user from visiting specific URLs.

Beginning in the fourth quarter, D-Link will provide a ticket printer to preapprove a user with a custom username and password, together with a specified amount of time he or she can connect to the network. Pricing on the printer has not been determined yet, Claassen said.

D-Link will provide one year of 24/7 in-house customer service with the DSA-3100 gateway, Claassen said.

(Editors note: This story has been modified since its original posting to correct a typo in the pricing of the DSA-3100.)