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Without VLANs, you list devices are not allowed to access the internet. On Linksys, it's called Access Policy.
http://www.linksys.com/ph/supp...

Netgear probably has the same capability.

That was a trip, seeing how people inside the reality distortion field view history.

Apple had a big printer business because they created Postscript - a way to scale fonts to arbitrary size. This is the one thing you got right. Only worked with laser printers though, not the dot matrix printers which were common in those days. (This isn't strictly true, but getting Postscript to work with a dot matrix printer like I had to to print banners was a PITA. You had to hack it so the computer did the font processing and printed the page as a graphic - took nearly 3 days to print a few dozen banners for an exibition). They dropped the printer line when Windows gained scalable fonts and printers adapted by adding a CPU and memory capable of rendering these scalable fonts in the printer. Before then, you had to buy a printer which was specifically capable of this. Otherwise you were stuck with the fonts which came with the printer (with some of the better printers having optional font cartridges you could plug in to expand the font library).

Kodak was making digital cameras in conjunction with Canon and Nikon years before Apple made one. Kodak's digital sensors (with a HDD for storage) strapped onto existing SLR bodies. After that it was just like shooting film. Can't get any easier than that. Casio was the first company to make the digital camera "easier" in the sense we know today - they added a LCD to the back so you could preview and view the pictures you'd just taken. Apple copied them (by Apple's standards of claiming anyone who came out with an obvious idea afterwards was copying).

Ethernet predates Appletalk, heck it pre-dates the Macintosh (1984) which introduced Appletalk.

ADB was a serial standard with a theoretical max speed of 125 kbps, though in real-world use it was limited to about 10-15 kbps. To get faster speeds back in those days, you had to resort to multiple wires carrying signals in parallel. That's why we had those massive Centronics parallel ports, and IDE and SCSI ribbon cables for HDDs. It was the only way to move data more quickly back then. USB was successful because it was serial thus needing only a thin cable, but had decent speed - 1.5 Mbps and 12 Mbps in its first iteration. Nothing to do with ADB.

I owned one of the first Linksys consumer routers - released in 2000. I bought it because I was in one of the first communities in the U.S. to get cable modems, and needed a way to share my Internet with multiple computers. If you look through that manual, you'll see the web-based interface is virtually identical to what modern routers use. Linksys nailed it on day one, which is why they grew to dominate the home networking market (before being bought by Cisco). Apple insisted on requiring you to install an app to configure the router, which is why they're getting out of the business today.

I just replaced my wrt54gl with a Linksys WRT1900AC. It runs DDWRT, it's blue, and it's fast!

http://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-...

Would you care to revise and extend your comments, senator?

My bad... Yes.... http://www.linksys.com/us/p/P-...

I have a Linksys E900 I've been running DD-WRT on for a while, and never had a lick of trouble with it until this week, when the WAN port fried thanks to a power surge (caused by some dumbass with a drill...).

That's the router I'd recommend, as it's 802.11n, has enough space in flash to support a pretty feature-rich build of DD-WRT, and can be had for less than $50.

Product Page

But the price is pretty bonkers

http://store.linksys.com/Links...

From a few posts along in the thread https://lists.openwrt.org/pipe...:

Quick update on this subject: Linksys has now posted a GPL source for
the WRT1900AC, and it contains the wifi driver sources.
It appears to me, that this driver was properly licensed under GPL, with
proper license headers in all source files.

This means that work on supporting this device can theoretically
continue, although I expect it to take quite a bit of time. As I
anticipated, the code quality of the driver source code is abysmal.
This looks like rewrite (not cleanup) material, ugly enough to cause eye
cancer or frighten small children ;)

There are also still some pieces missing: Since this driver does not use
standard Linux Wireless APIs, it can only properly function with custom
hostapd/wpa_supplicant hacks. I don't see those in the release.

- Felix

Update 2: Those can be found in the OpenWrt SDK for this device on
GitHub. Same comments regarding code quality apply here.

- Felix

The link to the firmware appears to be here http://support.linksys.com/en-..., it's one of those annoying javascript-non-hyperlinks.

Can anyone more au fait with OpenWRT verify that this is correct?

The router has just been released and none of Amazon's usual resellers (including themself) have it in stock yet, so only a handful of grubbier resellers are listing it. The list price is $249, and undoubtedly it will be even cheaper than that once it's in good supply.

1. Go to
2. Click on "Downloads"
3. Select your product category (w.g. wireless router
4. Select your product (e.g. WRT54G)
5. Select your product version (e.g. 2.0)
6. Click on "Click here to view GPL Code" link

This brings you to the following page (for the US): WTR54G GPL Code Web Page. That page also lists the following FTP site: Cisco/LinkSys Open Source FTP site

So what are the missing that the FSF thinks they need to sue over?

I am actually prohibited from using GPL software at work

Considering the proliferation of GPLed software in everything from Televisions to Routers and Switches I'd say your employer should just close up shop now because they will not be able to avoid the "risk" and still do business.

We're running a web-based service on a razor-thin margin

And thankfully there are a multitude of open source licensed packages on which you can base your business, however as an end user and not a software distributor there is no reason to avoid GPL licensed software. Stop believing the FUD as you are greatly limiting the pool of software at your disposal.

Whatever you think of Best Buy, they have a successful internal community in Blueshirtnation.com. A google search turns up quite a lot of industry praise on those guys. It was even written up the Groundswell book by Forrester.

If you want your bosses to buy, make sure you give them plenty of examples of other companies being successful at it.

For me, the biggest business benefit to the call center is knowledge sharing, but you have to be careful because communities need a critical mass in members to be successful (or a highly dedicated internal resource building content and encouraging participation). Only the biggest call centers could make it self-sustaining. However, another idea might be to launch a peer-to-peer support community and invite your customers in. You can have a private area for employees, but have a larger area where customers can ask support questions. And unlike email, once a question is answered, everyone can use it. Dell, Lenovo, Juniper, Linksys, AT&T, Blackberry all have successful support forums.

On IRC, I use it at work but my frustration is that it has no real history - I've seen the same questions come up time and again. On a forum you can search and find past discussions.

Disclosure: I work for Lithium Technologies , an online community provider.

LOL. You must have missed the part where I said:

They're designed to have every host attached to the native VLAN.

"Native VLAN" == VLAN001, BTW.

If you can find me some way to specify different VLANs for different ports on, say, a Linksys WRT54G with default firmware (in other words, like 98.75% of the home market), I'll cede the point.

Somebody who tells someone else to "open your home router and follow the traces from the Ethernet sockets, then come back and revise your statement about VLANs" should not be the one telling others to "read up or shut up."

As for my "crude network device abstraction," you might want to inform Linksys of that so they can stop advertising their WRT54G as:

The Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router is really three devices in one box. First, there's the Wireless Access Point, which lets you connect both screaming fast Wireless-G (802.11g at 54Mbps) and Wireless-B (802.11b at 11Mbps) devices to the network. There's also a built-in 4-port full-duplex 10/100 Switch to connect your wired-Ethernet devices together. Connect four PCs directly, or attach more hubs and switches to create as big a network as you need. Finally, the Router function ties it all together and lets your whole network share a high-speed cable or DSL Internet connection.

I rather have more driver hardware support from vendors in Linux first. Apps will follow soon after.

I rather have more driver hardware support from vendors in Linux first. Apps will follow soon after.

Do you write to them and tell them that? Here are some addresses, write to one or two:

Creative (Webcams) http://asia.creative.com/contactus/presales/

Logitech (Webcams) http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logitech_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Lexmark (Printers) http://www.lexmark.com/lexmark/sequentialem/home/0,6959,204816596_689444666_0_en,00.html

Nokia (PIM sync software with OpenSync) http://www.nokia.com/A4126575

Epson (Printers) http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/AboutContactUs.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes

Gigabyte (New motherboards should ship with Linux drivers) http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Company/ContactUs.aspx?CompanyWebPageID=6

Linksys (Networking equipment) http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1114037291276&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

SIS http://www.sis.com/support/support_tech.htm

ASUS http://usa.asus.com/aboutasus.aspx?show=3

There are routers out there that will take two or more WAN inputs. I have owned two different Linksys models that do that and they work okay. You can do load balancing or failover with the ones that I have had. The load balancing is essentially session based, so if you were doing a big download, you wouldn't get the speed of both lines, just the one that was handling that session. But for a lot of things you do use both links.

Here are the ones that I have owned:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1123638171618&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7161822279B08

and

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1123638171675&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7167522279B09

The top one is about $150 and supports VPN as well. I've seen similar boxes from other vendors and you can do this with Linux/BSD as well.

There are routers out there that will take two or more WAN inputs. I have owned two different Linksys models that do that and they work okay. You can do load balancing or failover with the ones that I have had. The load balancing is essentially session based, so if you were doing a big download, you wouldn't get the speed of both lines, just the one that was handling that session. But for a lot of things you do use both links.

Here are the ones that I have owned:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1123638171618&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7161822279B08

and

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1123638171675&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7167522279B09

The top one is about $150 and supports VPN as well. I've seen similar boxes from other vendors and you can do this with Linux/BSD as well.

This thing is supposed to be pretty idiot-proof and can be found for $30-$50.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&cid=1146774321820

Write to the hardware vendors and let them know that we want to buy and use their products on Linux. Here are the addresses of some other hardware vendors. Copy the list and write to one every week:

Creative (Webcams) http://asia.creative.com/contactus/presales/

Logitech (Webcams) http://logitech-en-amr.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/logitech_en_amr.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php

Nokia (PIM sync software with OpenSync) http://www.nokia.com/A4126575

Epson (Printers) http://www.epson.com/cgi-bin/Store/AboutContactUs.jsp?BV_UseBVCookie=yes

Gigabyte (New motherboards should ship with Linux drivers) http://www.gigabyte.com.tw/Company/ContactUs.aspx?CompanyWebPageID=6

Linksys (Networking equipment) http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Content_C1&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1114037291276&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

Some routers (notably the WRT54GL , which I have), keep connections open for a very long time, effectively using up your available connections - more here.

Linksys, among others make a wirelress router box that will accept one of these cards. Disclaimer: I haven't used one, so I don't know if it fits the characteristic of "easy to use."

Additionally, some PDA smartphones can run the app WMWiFiRouter, which will share its data service through ad-hoc WiFi connections. I once set this up through my HTC Mogul (Sprint) and served up a connection to two laptops simultaneously. Unfortunately, the data connection dropped every time the voice portion of the phone was active.

According to the the user guide it uses 0.5A at 12V DC. That comes to 6 Watts by my calculations. Of course you would have to oversize your solar panel by greater than a factor of 2. I would go with something like this ICP Global Technology P/N 99M 25012 12V 1.2A trickle charger. It's a measly $179.99.

whoops, forgot the following:
First, a link PVC2300. Secondly, the camera goes for >$300 and they have a wireless version as well, but, of course, that won't do POE.

Most routers do some logging for you.....

For example, here is a link to the manual of a popular wireless router (warning: PDF) http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?blobcol=urldata&blobheadername1=Content-Type&blobheadername2=Content-Disposition&blobheadervalue1=application%2Fpdf&blobheadervalue2=inline%3B+filename%3DWRT54G_UG_WEB_20070529.pdf&blobkey=id&blobtable=MungoBlobs&blobwhere=1193775701174&ssbinary=true&lid=0703200349B02

On page 18 (PDF page 22), you can see a reference to the logs being kept. My Netgear works similarly. Then all you need to do is save those somewhere.

Layne

The machine I use to sync my Apple TV is a Windows Vista box that is a member of a Windows 2003 domain.

Heck, if you already have Vista's Media Center, then I think the $300 Linksys product (and Amazon Unbox) is much better than Apple TV (and iTunes). Add an HDTV tuner to the Vista PC and the Linksys media center extender becomes a PVR with no monthly rental or subscription fees. Like the Apple TV, the Linksys streams protected content (Amazon Unbox). It also streams up to 1080p over 802.11n or wired ethernet.

There are worst-time patches and CPU binding patches for Linux. Not only that, but many embedded applications are not, in fact, in need of an RTOS at all. Linux won't displace QNX, LynxOS, and VxWorks completely, but to say it's not making gains in the embedded space is either disingenuous or ignorant of the facts.

It'd also be pretty big news to, for example, MontaVista, Nokia, Cisco, and the BlueCat folks that embedded Linux isn't making any sales.

how about a WRT350N with a USB drive?? there is a usb port on the router, and admin pages on the router to make shares and assign permissions (AFAIK, it won't integrate with LDAP). even act as an FTP server. lower power consumption than even a VIA.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1162354643512&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=4351239789B01

The Linksys NSLU2 is a little slow & not very intuitive but I just replaced my home file server (Athlong 1.4Ghz, 512MB, yaddahaddah) with one of these. There is a big fanbase for this little device and 3rd party firmware.

If you're using powered speakers, why not just go digital (say, over fibre) to the speakers?

Three things.. 1.. cost. 2.. Rich Audiophiles think the descreet steps of the D/A conversion will degrade the audio. Selling a digital solution to the tube amp CD rejecting purists is not a way to make money. 3.. Compatibility. Analog RCA connectors is universal. Digital standards between manufactures is anything but. In the pro field, extra boxes add complexity and another point of failure which is often hard to troubleshoot. In broadcast, digital is the only way for long haul program distribution and remote broadcasts. It's noise free and either works or it doesn't. (same for cell phones)

And wires aren't the only option: with ECC and some good buffering/caching, you could probably just stream the digital over WiFi. I haven't tried it but don't see any significant obstacles.

Several manufactures are going this route with a package.
http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=318
http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1137028967848&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper
http://www.laptopmag.com/Review/Linksys-Media-Extender-WMCE54AG.htm

But the physics of speakers is unforgiving. There are plenty of exotic solutions to those problems. If I were an audiophile instead of an engineer, that's the hole I'd probably throw my money into.

Absolutely true. As such this is the part of my system that was the most involved in selecting and is the single most expensive part of my system. I used my speakers to demo why speakers make a big deal in the system. When asked about speakers, I would send them over to my speakers and ask them to knock on the back, sides, and top of them while the system was off, and then have them do the same with any other speakers they find. A speaker box is a wodden drum which the speaker drivers thump. Number 1 rule is find speakers that don't add their own sound. Speakers that sound like knocking on an empty wodden box are to be rejected. Most speakers are made this way because it is cheap, lightweight to reduce shipping costs and easy to sell at lower price points. A good speaker will sound the same as knocking on the cement sidewalk outside.

If you ever run across an old pair of the early standard in quality speakers, the Accoustic Research 3a's, take the time to knock on the back of them.

After the cabinet is properly built, the next item on the list is quality drivers with proper magnets, voice coils, and loose suspension. You don't want the speaker cones themselves to be a cheap drum. Good drivers are rarely put in cheap cabinets and the reverse is true. The quickest way to find good speakers at the local stereo showroom is to shut everything off and start knocking on some cabinets. Quite a few years ago some the passing cabinets was from Yamaha, JBL, Accoustic Research, Polk, and some Kenwood and KLH. Failures included most of the Pioneer (Except the premium line) Optimus, Sony, and most other consumer grade speakers.

Personaly I have a pair of Yamaha NS1000's and a pair of AR 3a.
http://www.arsenal.net/speakers/ar/classic/ar-3a/ar3a.htm
http://www.audioreview.com/cat/speakers/floorstanding-speakers/yamaha/PRD_120821_1594crx.aspx

These are all much dated as I am.. but gook well built equipment doesn't need to be in next years landfill. If I threw these on Ebay, I am sure I could get my entire investmet back unlike the cheap stuff.
If you want to have fun,

The very day that Linux supports my wireless adapter! Seriously, every year or two I download Linux and give it another go. And every year something fails to work. I know that some of you run Linux and that's great. And I know that some of you want everyone else to run Linux too, and that's great too. But here is my wireless adapter: http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Product_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1160093476789&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper&lid=7678939789B01 I've had it for months now, and I tried real damn hard to get it to work with Ubuntu. Hours, literally. I posted on the Ubuntu forums and some generic Linux forums, I even broke down and BEGGED someone, somewhere to link me to a WIRELESS USB NETWORK ADAPTER that I can buy online, of any speed that I can plug into my computer, install a particular distro of linux (I wanted Ubuntu, but ANY one you tell me) where that OS will recognize the wireless adapter, and be able to use basic WEP encryption. Here are my choices.... 1.) Run Windows; everything works, new games run, OS isn't as fast as it could be and maybe I'll have to reboot once every 2 days and I might get a virus once a year if I'm a retard. 2.) Run Linux; replace a bunch of hardware including my wireless network adapter, have crappy support for my video card and even worse support for new games.... 3.) Run Mac; buy a new computer or deal with a bunch of emulators/hacks...have a bunch of hardware issues and lack of support for new games. I don't like Windows. I think I'd like Linux better. I've tried real hard to run Linux; but it don't work.

Don't understand why so many people are complaining about this, I doubt it will make any difference to the majority of people complaining.

If you want to connect your old IDE drive to a new computer, just buy a converter, if you can afford the computer, I'm sure you can find the extra $20 somewhere.

If your old IDE drive breaks and you need a new one, get a SATA card, it costs less than $30, so if you can afford the new drive, I doubt you will have a problem paying the extra $30.

If you want to add storage space to your existing computer and all your PCI slots are gone or you don't know how to open a computer, get a USB drive. Since you don't have a SATA connection, I doubt speed is your main concern.

Finally, if you don't have USB connections, get something like the NSLU2, you can even run Linux on it (I'm running two of those at home with Debian Etch, works really well).

I'm sure you could come up with some scenario where the IDE drive would be useful and there really isn't any other option, but for the vast majority of people complaining, there are solutions already out there that will solve the problem.

At least IIRC this is a new explicit clause in GPLv3 to make it easier for "box-sellers" such as Linksys and TiVO to provide the required source. IMHO it would have been just as easy and not extremely expensive to put just an extra, source CD in the box (I don't own either so I don't know if they actually do this anyway).

In the *DRAFT* GPLv3 version it says at 6.3b:

b) Convey the object code in, or embodied in, a physical product (including a physical distribution medium), accompanied by a written offer, valid for at least three years and valid for as long as you offer spare parts or customer support for that product model, either (1) to give anyone who possesses the object code a copy of the Corresponding Source for all the software in the product that is covered by this License, on a durable physical medium customarily used for software interchange, for a price no more than your reasonable cost of physically performing this conveying of source, or (2) to provide access to copy the Corresponding Source from a network server at no charge.

Disclaimer: IANAL, and the ink of that piece of the GPLv3 I quoted isn't yet dry I believe.

I recently purchased a SRW208L managed switch from Linksys. On paper, it sounds great: 1000/100/10 speed, 8 port switch with PoE and VLAN capability and a nice port mirroring feature. Unfortunately, when I unpacked it and pointed my Safari browser at it, I got only a background colour without any menus. Same for Firefox. I have only Mac and Linux machines available in the place where this switch will be used and configured so its really annoying that they cant get a simple embedded web server to work.

A search of Linksys's own forums found lots of angry owners with the same problem. Unlike Linksys's other products, this one's web interface is written by morons and somehow does not display anything on standards compliant browsers. Their engineers must have worked really hard to make it only work in IE.

I had an online chat with a Linksys rep who empathised with my dissatisfaction but kept returning to the line that 'it says on the spec it works best in IE6'. 'Best'! Ha! 'Best implies that SOMETHING would work in other browsers. After I explained that I am using a Mac, he suggested using their 'workaround' which involved installing 'IE Tabs' in Firefox. Riiiiigght, not quite sure what a Mac is, are we matey? My argument is that it claims to have a HTTP interface. My browser does HTTP, yet it does not work. I want a refund, they said 'no'. This is just total incompetence from their software developers and is totally indefensible in today's IT world.

I recently purchased a SRW208L managed switch from Linksys. On paper, it sounds great: 1000/100/10 speed, 8 port switch with PoE and VLAN capability and a nice port mirroring feature. Unfortunately, when I unpacked it and pointed my Safari browser at it, I got only a background colour without any menus. Same for Firefox. I have only Mac and Linux machines available in the place where this switch will be used and configured so its really annoying that they cant get a simple embedded web server to work.

A search of Linksys's own forums found lots of angry owners with the same problem. Unlike Linksys's other products, this one's web interface is written by morons and somehow does not display anything on standards compliant browsers. Their engineers must have worked really hard to make it only work in IE.

I had an online chat with a Linksys rep who empathised with my dissatisfaction but kept returning to the line that 'it says on the spec it works best in IE6'. 'Best'! Ha! 'Best implies that SOMETHING would work in other browsers. After I explained that I am using a Mac, he suggested using their 'workaround' which involved installing 'IE Tabs' in Firefox. Riiiiigght, not quite sure what a Mac is, are we matey? My argument is that it claims to have a HTTP interface. My browser does HTTP, yet it does not work. I want a refund, they said 'no'. This is just total incompetence from their software developers and is totally indefensible in today's IT world.

I'm pretty sure they are referring to this rather than that

/AC

Why not use your low-power embedded router as your 'always-on' system?

Grab a Linksys WRTSL54GS or some other supported model and install OpenWRT. From there you can install GNU screen, a torrent client, an IRC client, and an instant messaging client of your choosing. The device has a USB 2.0 port so you can attach a large external hard drive or multi-GB flash drive for your torrent downloads.

You'd have to get use to using CLI tools, or if you so choose, you can engineer something web-based using an embedded web server.

This device can remain on 24/7 and consumes about 7-10 watts. On the plus side, you can also use OpenWRT to apply QoS to your torrent downloads so you can keep rocking your FPS or webcam pauselessly on your power-sapping neon-lit dual SLI Aurora.

My Linksys WRT54GXv2 says it has QoS built in. This isn't the low priced model, rather I spent over $130 USD on it. http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Produ ct_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=1115416825933& pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper and has a QoS configuration page. After working with support for months to get QoS working, then sending the unit back, I bought a cheap Buffalo as recommended by DD-WRT FAQ - http://www.dd-wrt.com/wiki/index.php/Index:FAQ#Whi ch_router_should_I_buy.3F . Ok, the day the $30 USD router arrived, I loaded DD-WRT, setup QoS for VoIP and started calling friends. I'm on /., so it was a short list. At the same time, I ran multiple bandwidth speed tests while chatting. At the end of the conversation, I told them that I'd been using VoIP **and** running a speed test.

There are too many features in DD-WRT to list here. QoS that works, OpenVPN are the main reasons I have it.

Highly recommended to stay away from Linksys. For folks that aren't going to replace their firmware, Linksys is fine, but for those who want to get more than stock out of the hw, don't touch it.

Yes, they do have a product: http://www.linksys.com/iphone/

They also sell a `Linux Friendly' version, the WRT54GL. It's generally about $10 more than the VxWorks version (which has less memory, as you mentioned).

Also related to this, and similarly amusing:

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Promo tion_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=116563331864 0&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

The above page at Linksys has links at "where to buy" for Amazon... None of the nine products that come up use the word iPhone! So, Cisco is pimping their minion Linksys, and Linksys is pimping their "iPhone", but they aren't selling a product that has "iPhone" anywhere in its name and doesn't appear on any of the product shots -- except for the user photo linked to in the parent post. When did the word 'iPhone' first appear on a shipped Linksys product? Can anyone that's actually bought one give me a date? Is the December user-photo a forgery?

I see what you're saying now, but I stick with what I said about it being Cisco's pie in this instance: not because Apple have a monopoly on iEverything, but because they still have to work with Cisco in order to use the iPhone trademark.

It doesn't matter any more what Cisco's motives were, because speculation to that end won't stand up in any court, nor will it prevent Apple from having to do what is necessary to be able to use the iPhone name.

Also, Cisco already have released an iPhone.

I wonder if they will change the name of it thanks to ciscos iPhone

And yet, if you search on the site hosting the actual brand name of the phone, you'll discover that -- *shock* -- there's actually a bit of information about the device. I saw this a few weeks ago while looking for a wireless IP phone for home.

http://www.linksys.com/servlet/Satellite?c=L_Promo tion_C2&childpagename=US%2FLayout&cid=116563331675 8&pagename=Linksys%2FCommon%2FVisitorWrapper

Occam's razor. They were working out a last minute deal and someone forgot to sign and fax the final agreement. Cisco has to sue at this point, otherwise they're not defending their trademark. I bet this will all be resolved by end of business day tomorrow.

They sure do, as of a week or two ago! It's the Linksys iPhone, but as you can see on the page there Linksys is a division of Cisco.

I'm sure it wasn't a coincidence, but so they could get more money out of Apple in any trademark negotiations (actively shipping product and all...)

First of all, what about Linksys iPhone??? Isn't there going to be naming conflict?

Also, anybody knows if these things are on pre-order? I bet you can resell it for 3x the price on ebay in June and July!!! Wohoo 300% gain!

Side note, I still think Apple's technology is kind of limited because it's made with "dumb user" as a main target in mind. Therefore, don't expect it to give you a lot of tweaking and config options and too many features. Unless, of course, someone cracks this baby and I'm sure this will happen sooner or later...

Cisco clearly owns the trademarked name, and in the phone category. And they've owned it sine long before the iPod, a name registered only in 2001. And they're using it. Sooner or later, probably sooner, Apple will have to pay money to Cisco. Lots of money.

Word Mark: IPHONE
Category: Goods and Services IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S: computer hardware and software for providing integrated telephone communication with computerized global information networks.
FIRST USE: 1997-06-06.
FIRST USE IN COMMERCE: 1997-06-06
Registration Number: 2293011
Registration Date: November 16, 1999
REGISTRANT: INFOGEAR TECHNOLOGY CORPORATION CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 1775 WOODSIDE ROAD REDWOOD CITY CALIFORNIA 94061
LAST LISTED OWNER: CISCO TECNOLOGY, INC. CORPORATION CALIFORNIA 170 WEST TASMAN SAN JOSE CALIFORNIA 95134

"Slapping a web server on an embedded system just so you can interface to them is beyond asinine."

Shhh! Don't tell Brandybuck about this.

2. Apple will release the iPhone, and it will be the must have phone of 2007

It wont be called iPhone because Cisco/Linksys has already released one and owns the trademark for iPhone. The Canadian trademark is controlled by Comwave, I believe (someone linked to them defending the trademark against Apple in another article but I can't find it now).

MacPhone perhaps? That seems to be more in line with some of their recent naming conventions as well.