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New Netcomm Smart i Share 56k Modem/Hub/Server
NAcker writes: "LinuxWorld.com.au has an article about a new type of 56K modem that is also a four port ethernet hub. The Netcomm Smart i-Share 56 offers DHCP and firewall services by running embedded Linux!
The article has photos of the "network in a box"." This is an interesting piece of kit, not as much of a stretch as those silly radio/flashlight hybrids from places like The Sharper Image. Now if only they would also make it a wireless access point, I would let my credit card heat up a little more. And besides, for those of us who submit to dialup, wouldn't it be nice to have a modem that runs the 2.0.38 kernel?
Of course you get root, since they're using telnet and not openssh. Just sniff the traffic.
Gawd - really!
You can get a linksys router and dsl for a year for the price of that thing!!
So why would I pay almost $500 for one that cannot share anything but a modem and provides no print server? Because it has Linux in it? The SMC might, too, but they are smart enough not to tell that to every hacker that might be looking for an exploit!
No it is not overkill for a device like this. Linux is the only thing out there that scales down well enough with enough features to run on embedded systems and that you do not have to pay for. This is one of the things that makes devices like this possible. If they had to pay for another embedded OS the profit margin on something like this would go away. And keep in mind this is embedded Linux and it has already won in that marketplace. See the link to understand why.
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Intel still makes i386's (last I heard). They're still very popular in SBC's, I have a couple from JK Micro that I've been toying with for a while. Tern is another (of many) i386 SBC vendors.
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...Lest we forget that many countries don't have decent DSL or cable services and a *lot* of people are grateful to have 56k dialup for their SOHO or small business.
Many products that are taken for granted in the US (Linksys et al) are not necessarily available in certain countries due to Telco regulations (many countries with monopoly telecom operators force a modem manufacturer to comply with certain rules - this can be expensive).
So, this appears to be an Australian product. Kudos to them. Don't knock the design or functionality simply because you've transcended this method of connection years ago. Small companies would find the opportunity to share 56k dialup access with a few PC's very interesting in some less well connected locations.
trolling the first world...
It includes a 4-port 10/100 switch, a WAN-side Ethernet connection to go to the cable or DSL box, and a serial port that can be used to connect an external modem as a backup. It does NAT. It does DHCP. It firewalls. It includes three "groups" for different levels of port blocking. It includes a parallel port for printer sharing. It's web-configurable. It has beta IPSec support.
It's also cheap, with a list price of $200 and at least one place selling it for $150-160.
-- fencepost
fencepost
just a little off
The company I worked at was a small VAR/System integrator in a Semi-rural area of Northeast Ohio. We sold and supported desktop computers and Novell networks to small businesses ( <500 employees) in an area with a radius of about 50 miles. The reason we installed these devices was that as the clients were very small companies, they had maybe two or three desktop PC's in their office that needed access to the internet. This was before cable modem/DSL technology (which I would say would be a more practical solution today, where available), ISDN cost a small fortune and didn't give much of a performance benefit, and a T1 cost a real lot of money (in the semi-rural areas where this company does consulting, I'm not even sure if T1's were available at the time, and even now they cost something like $1500/month because the clients are out in the boon-docks).
You might ask why not just give each PC their own modem and connection? Because then the company had to pay for extra dial-up accounts and extra phone lines (and these were not deep-pocketed companies), and the people in these offices that used the internet only made light use of it. Email, maybe an hour or two a day of doing business related work on the web (like checking prices from suppliers, or updating the company website, or electronically submitting government or insurance forms), and maybe a little bit of personal web surfing. Odds are, the various employees wouldn't all use the internet at the exact same time, and even if they did, the internet connection was mostly idle while they read the web-pages/email. So it worked out very economically and satisfactorily for the company to use one shared internet connection, and using an external device like this is more reliable than using Win98SE's internet connection sharing (which didn't even exist at the time). Although you could use *BSD/Linux, that would require a dedicated computer (which would be more expensive than one of these devices), and additionally the VAR I worked for didn't have any *nix experience and didn't want any ;-), and didn't require that any of the individual computers be on all the time.
Linux is the only thing out there that scales down well enough with enough features to run on embedded systems and that you do not have to pay for
No it's not. Linux There are several freely-available embedded OSes. One of them is eCos. Hell, another is FreeBSD. Et cetera, et cetera...
You really need to step outside of your FUD-lined linux cage every once and a while.
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SecretAsianMan (54.5% Slashdot pure)
Washington, DC: It's like Hollywood for ugly people.
Unlike conventional Microwave ovens, the HotPenguin 7.2 has no keypad and is controlled by commands received through Telnet connections via the Ethernet port. All operations are controlled via the "cook" command and the oven includes a complete man page for the command detailing all options, including power level (30%, 50%, 70%, and 100%), cook start and end time (expressed as seconds since 1/1/1970), and beep frequency, interval, and duration to signal that a cooking event has completed.
The retail price of the HotPenquin 7.2 is $950 and there is currently a two to three month order backlog due to stories that appeared on Slashdot.com and other Linux-related web sites.
Could you make this thing act as a Hylafax server and add extra modems? Mmmmmm.
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This is not "news". Netgear and Linksys, along with several other companies have had 56K hubs/routers/dial-up managers for some time now. Just because this thing runs linux doesn't increase the "gee-whiz" factor, IMO. Linux is overall for a device like this anyway.
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It may be slow, but at least it's expensive! $480Aus = ~$260 US. Alternative "magic boxes" from other companies are about $130-$150. What exactly is the benefit of this thing?
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When I started using Coyote Linux as a "router" connected to a cable modem, the terms of service for my provider clearly stated one machine per modem.
Recently, I went back to look at the Terms of Service and this provision was removed. I have to believe that the availability of access sharing devices and software was responsible for this change.
Heck, yeah! Then all you'd need is a video card running the 2.0.38 kernel, too!
And a sound card running the 2.0.38 kernel.
And a DVD-ROM running the 2.0.38 kernel.
And a CD-R running the 2.0.38 kernel.
And a keyboard running the 2.0.38 kernel.
And a mouse running the 2.0.38 kernel.
I'm sure we could cram a kernel or two into a wrist rest, too...
information wants to be expensive...nothing is so valuable as the right information at the right time.
Obliteracy: Words with explosions
It's not a far-fetched idea, I just think that the company that designed this was merely trying to jump on the Linux and dial-up router bandwagon, and wasn't really trying to do anything ground-breaking.
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I just got one a few days ago. It's working fine as a router for my cable modem, but the wireless card I bought for my laptop came with drivers that windows won't even recognize as valid drivers. I had to return it, and Fry's didn't have any other choices for PC cards. So I don't know how well the wireless works yet.
DLink's 713 Wireless 11Mbps/10/100 Mbps router".
word.
Lucent/Orinoco has a wireless 'residential gateway' product that has a built-in 56k modem. It can also act as a bridge to an existing 10baseT LAN. It has worked excellent. I'm not sure what OS it runs though. Unfortunately, you do have to have a windows box to configure it. It just sends some stuff over the network to configure the box so it probably wouldn't be that hard to reverse engineer.
RG-1000
I don't think that's it's meant for a "high-security" or industrial strength network, so the added overhead of SSH isn't really required. Afterall, if you've only got a 56K connection to deal with in the first place, what's the chances that some uber-hacker is going to be on your (4 port) network?? Most end-users are familiar with WWW, the "power users" can use telnet, but (IIRC) Windoze doesn't even come with an SSH client, and their target audience has probably never heard of SSH anyway.
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I assume that normal /. reasoning includes the following: Linux-based => hackable => must-have. Or something like that.
Of course, for that sort of money you could get a 486 and slap Linux, a modem and a network card into it; the only real advantage with this gizmo is that you get everything in a neat, quiet little box.