3G router gets a GUI makeover

NexAira has revamped its 3G wireless routers with a new GUI designed to radically simplify installation and management for SMB and SOHO users.

Dubbed NexWare I3 GUI, the new firmware load is being offered first with the company’s NexConnect SOHO and Business Class wireless routers. The products offer Ethernet and WLAN connections to clients and make use of 3G cellular connections on the back end (sometimes in conjunction with a wired broadband connection).

Cellular price-performance today is such that a growing number of SMB customers are relying on it either as backup, as a disaster recovery connection, or in some cases, as their primary WAN connection, according to NexAira executives. “It’s rare that your 3G service goes down for more than an hour,” says NexAira President and CEO Mark Sampson. “But if your DSL goes out, you may wait for days to get it fixed.”

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NexAira has revamped its 3G wireless routers with a new GUI designed to radically simplify installation and management for SMB and SOHO users.

Dubbed NexWare I3 GUI, the new firmware load is being offered first with the company’s NexConnect SOHO and Business Class wireless routers. The products offer Ethernet and WLAN connections to clients and make use of 3G cellular connections on the back end (sometimes in conjunction with a wired broadband connection).

Cellular price-performance today is such that a growing number of SMB customers are relying on it either as backup, as a disaster recovery connection, or in some cases, as their primary WAN connection, according to NexAira executives. “It’s rare that your 3G service goes down for more than an hour,” says NexAira President and CEO Mark Sampson. “But if your DSL goes out, you may wait for days to get it fixed.”

A recent Gartner study found that four leading 3G networks actually run slower than users expect. 

Besides offering the icon-based GUI, the NexWare code also uses a proprietary bandwidth tuning algorithm to optimize throughput, especially on the uplink. The software also supports features such as Virtual Router Redundancy Protocol and VPN IPSec pass-through and termination.

The cellular routers are targeted at a variety of SMB customers, such as a small chain of sandwich shops, or at the carriers and service providers who focus on them. Almost by definition, such end users lack full-time IT and networking staff.

In most cases the routers are self-configuring and self-activating. Part of the setup includes installing a Google or Vista “gadget” on the user’s PC, which connects to the router to create a clear, simple summary of key status elements, such as upload/download performance, IP address, and so on.

The setup wizard walks the user through a set of decisions about the initial installation. Clicking on the NexWare gadget, activates the GUI residing on the router. It displays a panel with the status window at left, and five rows of color-coded icons to the right, each row a grouping of router functions. “Every router function is on [that] one page,” Sampson says.

The top row is “basic settings,” the next “toolbox” down through more complex functions such as “security settings” and “forwarding rules.”

The goal for the new interface, says Sampson, is to make deploying such premises equipment as simple and failsafe as possible, as well as helping end users to quickly master what they need to know in order to manage and troubleshoot them.

“Consumers only care about two things [in consumer electronics]: speed and how easy it is to use,” says Sampson.

Telular is another supplier of 3G routers. 

Read more about wireless & mobile in Network World's Wireless & Mobile section.