Networking specialist Netgear announced the release of two access points, the Dual Band 802.11ac Wireless Access Point (WAC120) and the Dual Band High Powered 802.11n Weatherproof Outdoor Access Point (WAC120), as well as updated products including two firewalls and a ReadyNAS line bolstered by new processors.
The WAC120 AP is designed for smaller companies that only need one or two access points to easily deploy that latest and fasted wireless networking protocol to their users, while the outdoor WN930 supports two use cases.
When used in the directional mode, the AP can used to connect a remote building through bridging technology, making a high-speed connection over the air when running a cable or fiber connection is not possible.
Used in the omnidirectional mode, the AP can provide wide area WiFi coverage in an outdoor area such as parks, courtyards, hotel pools and gardens.
The internal directional antenna of the WND930 enables it to operate as a point-to-point mesh link between remote locations, or it can operate in access point mode with an external antenna option for 360-degree coverage.
The AP comes with wall mounting and pole mounting kits and has an IP-67 industrial grade enclosure with an embedded heater that enables it to operate in temperatures below freezing.
A faster processor with hardware acceleration powers the ProSafe FVS318G VPN Firewall, which also boasts a built-in eight-port Gigabit switch to help simplify local area network (LAN) connectivity.
The ProSage Dual WAN Gigabit Firewall with SSL and IPsec VPN including DoS protection, SPI, URL keyword filtering, logging, reporting, and real-time alerts, along with 4 Gigabit LAN ports and dual Gigabit WAN ports.
“There are two main types of companies that would benefit from our new firewalls. The first type of company would be a smaller company at single site locations that needs secure remote access by remote employees, either telecommuters or traveling employees,” Peter Newton, director of product management for business products at Netgear, told eWeek. “The secure IPSec VPN tunnels the firewalls provide enable secure site-to-site connections and the clientless SSL VPN tunnels make it convenient for traveling employees to connect safely back to headquarters.”
Netwon said other type of company would be a larger company with many branch locations or even kiosks.
“We have several retail chains as customers who deploy these firewalls to provide security links back to headquarters from the smaller remote sites,” he explained.
When it comes to wireless network implementation Newton said the most common mistake he sees with wireless implementation is poor panning, explaining companies underestimate their coverage needs and it results in a poor wireless experience.
“WiFi is becoming more important for businesses, both for internal uses and as something that guests and customers expect when at a business location. For internal uses, employees are bringing more portable computing into their offices, both tablets and smartphones,” Newton said. “Most tablets do not have cell phone connectivity and rely on WiFi to connect to the Internet and company resources. Smartphones are also used to access company information and WiFi networks can significantly reduce the costs of such access. For guests and customers that are coming to a business, they now expect to have Internet access, whether it is to connect back to their company network or just to look at Facebook.”