Musenki's Linux-Based AP Ships To Beta Customers

An Anonymous Coward writes: "Austin, TX based Musenki ('musenki' means 'small wireless gadget' in Japanese) is poised to ship beta units of its first product -- the M-1 wireless access point that uses Linux. Pretty cool device that has open architecture and can be modified to accomodate growing 802.11 standards. Says they could have not have done it without open source community."

Comments

Can it be?

[CmdrTaco (editor)]

Can it be? Is this company really attributing some of its success to the open source community? While this is not like a company like Intel or HP saying they couldn't have done something without the help of the open source community, it is definitely a step in the right direction. Once we get the proper recognition, we will be on our way to attaining mainstream popularity.

Re:Can it be?

[stripes]

And how will this make linux mainstream? It won't.

Well it might make it mainstream in the embedded market, which would at least give it more developers and drivers for odd things. It will help a but, but only indirectly.

Oh my lord!

[jskarzin]

A company that openly admits they needed the open source community.. wow! Makes me smirk now to look at companies like LINDOWS, which are smothering and flaming the community-- hiding the source and ignoring them. Even slapping them in the face. Thanks, Musenki. You are a role model company.

Spelt wrong in title

[ackthpt]

Spelt Musenski in title, rather than Musenki (I thought fo a arf a mo an old bud named Musenski (or was it Musinski, Bull Moose anyway) was in the biz.

Curious

[Burgundy Advocate]

Does anyone know if they've included any extra security packages?

Seeing how WEP is basically an open door, I see no reason not to have ipchains installed and operational by default.

The software is there. Anyone know if they are using it? If not, it seems a bit a complete open door to these guys...

Boo

[NiftyNews]

The M-1? Well, they certainly aren't planning on creative naming schemes!

A test of support

[peripatetic_bum]

I dont know about you, but I think I am going to try to get my hands on one of there, (ie, but one).

I am going to watch this closely becuase I think here we have a real test to see what happens when linux has a product that people can buy and cant simply download.

If they do well, I think we should use them as a example of how things really are going to go for linux.

Thanks for reading

Languages

[Macblaster]

('musenki' means 'small wireless gadget' in Japanese)

Excellent example of why the Japanese language kicks ass - they have a single word that means small wireless gadget. If only english was that cool...

Re:Languages

[Squeeze Truck]

Last fall, the parliamentary election results for the entire country were printed on just 1/3 of the front page of the newspaper.

They could do this because each of some 30-odd political parties could be represented with just a single character.

Now that's efficient.

Re:Languages

[barzok]

We could use the symbols for the parties in the US, but most don't know what they mean.

Price seems high...

[Bogatyr]

The features seem good, but...
"Quantity one pricing for the M-1 (including 802.11b NIC, antenna, power supply, etc) will be $300, and the M-3 (similarly configured) will be $500, with quantity discounts available.
Beta units of the M-1 will go out on Monday, April 15th. Beta shipments of the M-3 are planned by the beginning of May. General availability of both should be by the end of June."
$300 or $500. And people complain Apple Airport Base Stations are overpriced at $300 MSRP, $270 or less (for quantity one pricing). The Musenski seems to be very cool, but with Linksys 802.11b access points at, what, $170 being touted as reasons to not but Airports, I can only hope they aren't priced higher than the market will bear.

Re:Price seems high...

[NetJunkie]

Good access points cost a lot. Sure, you can get a Linksys for $150, but a Cisco AP is still $500. They have features a "plain" AP doesn't have. In the case of Cisco, better security and good key management.

Re:Price seems high...

[ediron2]

Um, I'll admit that Cisco sells you better drivers, better utilities, etc., and I'll even bend anyone's ear about my own Linksys problems, but it still has to be said really loud, if you got modded up for that remark:

'Better (802.11b) security' is an oxymoron.

Hell, I had to make a 4-homed firewall at my home just to give me peace of mind while running wireless: Ext/Int/DMZ/WLAN. All because of design-by-committee screwups on the security. Bruce Schneier says "Good encryption isn't easy" and recommends LOTS of public scrutiny on any encryption algorithms. As happens way too often, the protocol's designer's wrongly chose otherwise.

Re:Price seems high...

[Animats]

But this new product includes an interface to a billing system. That's the big new feature.

Re:Price seems high...

[baptiste]

Cisco does not offer any better security than anybody else in the 802.11 space. In fact their stuff isn't that great, they just bought out some other company and slapped their sticker on it.

True, Cisco bought Aironet. However, they do have additional features that enterprise customers demand. Imagine having hundreds of APs using MAC authentication - gonna put each new MAC in each AP? Will a Linksys accept 1000's of Mac entries? Not likely. We use Avaya (Lucent) APs where I work that cost about $800 (though I've seen them for $400 at one place recently) Why? They support use of an external RADIUS server for authenticaton.

Trust me, I've got a Cisco/Aironet AP and a Linksys. The Cisco has a numerous of features aimed towards the enterprise including a web browser and telnet interface)

But for a small business/home user, the Linksys can't be beat. They've made huge improvment in firmware and clients over the past couple years.

As for the M-1, I'd say their price point is justified for the market they target - people who want an AP they can add custom features to with ease.

Re:Price seems high...

[stripes]

True, Cisco bought Aironet. However, they do have additional features that enterprise customers demand. Imagine having hundreds of APs using MAC authentication - gonna put each new MAC in each AP? Will a Linksys accept 1000's of Mac entries? Not likely. We use Avaya (Lucent) APs where I work that cost about $800 (though I've seen them for $400 at one place recently) Why? They support use of an external RADIUS server for authenticaton.

FYI, the Apple AirPort Base Station also does RAIDUS auth. Plus my Cisco AP died about a year or so after I bought it and Cisco wanted $700 to fix it. $700. Feh. I replaced it with a $200 access point. Cisco's product didn't do anything useful for the extra cost, definitely costing 3x as much and only lasting a year isn't a great deal.

As for the M-1, I'd say their price point is justified for the market they target - people who want an AP they can add custom features to with ease.

That I agree with.

Re:Since linux devices gets /.'ed rather easily-

[red_dragon]

Damn, Rob, even *you* have turned to karma-whoring? This is too much to witness...

"Small wireless device" ?

[Anonymous Coward]

Musenki means wireless device.

mu = not
sen = wire
ki = device

I don't see 'small' in there..

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[Quixote]

Maybe the "mu" doubles as mu as in "micro" ?

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[caffeineboy]

nah, the "mu" in question is the classic negation Kanjji. Mu meaning "no" or "non". Mu as in "muteki" (invincible) or "Muryo" (no fee) or even the classic zen fable about a dog's buddha-nature.

This sounds like just another case of loose translation fed through the PR department.

But people who can speak Japanese should be used to this.

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[Angst Badger]

Oh, thank god. I'd hate to think any language actually had a word for "small wireless device".

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[Squeeze Truck]

Actually, since the classic zen-fable is from China, it would be "wu", not "mu".

But who cares.

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[Peter Harris]

You're right.

Of course, they probably don't make all that many *large* wireless devices.

Re:"Small wireless device" ?

[Xerithane]

I think it's much worse the other direction.

Re:Since linux devices gets /.'ed rather easily-

[mosch]

It's not taco, look at the uid.

Re:By the way...

[danny256]

I choose not to view linux stories because as a software developer, i see open source as a threat to my well being. They are giving away for free what I am supposed to be getting paid to write, its a scary business model from my perspective.

Soekris

[Jeffrey Baker]

Musenski must have better PR people, but don't forget about Soekris. They make network computers that include two slots for radios and one slot for hardware encryption, running *BSD or Linux.

Re:Soekris

[Jeffrey Baker]

It is at the same stage as the Musenki: shipped in small quantities to testing customers.

Re:By the way...

[ethereal]

What's funny is that I pay more attention to topics that I consider threatening - for example, Microsoft, infringements on civil liberties, etc. Whether or not open source is really a danger to you, do you really think burying your head in the sand is the appropriate response? Besides, you might learn something :)

Support is going to be a challenge

[elflet]

They reasoned that there would soon be a significant opportunity to supply devices to public access "hot-spot" providers, wireless ISP/infrastructure providers (WISPs), and various value added resellers (VARs).

I love that they've done this on a shoestring, but the demands of deploying and supporting an end-user-device-cum-platform can crush a company. At a minimum, they'll need to issue patches in a form that can be installed without comprimising uptime, and VARs will demand "development kits" which are workable, documented, and supported.

Both of these are crucial. If even a few devices are hacked, you can kiss commercial adoption goodbye. If development requires too much time, the VARs will look for other platforms -- they tend to be small outfits without much time for puzzling out the source code. (I used to build development kits for well-funded OEMs, and even they rode us mercilessly for better documentation, support, and frequent updates.)

I hope they find a stable funding source and the best people they can. This is a worthy idea that deserves to work.

Musenki

[Squeeze Truck]

Actually, "musenki" means just "wireless device". I suppose you can assume it was small if you want to.

busybox + uClibc rule

[andersen]

Cool. This device uses Busybox and uClibc. These are very very cool projects for developing embedded systems. Of course I'm biased (busybox and uClibc maintainer hat on), but I had no idea these folks were building an AP with them. Looks pretty nice. I hope they send me a free one. ;-)

Re:By the way...

[child_of_mercy]

So for you to win the customers must lose?

and you can live with yourself?

wow.

No PCMCIA/Cardbus? PCI is Odd for wireless

[billstewart]

Just about all the wireless devices I've seen are really made for PC Card, aka PCMCIA and/or Cardbus, and if there's a PCI version, it's an adapter to plug their PCMCIA card in. At least one 802.11a manufacturer I talked to said that they weren't planning to do PCI and didn't think the other major players were either - if you want it, get a PCI-to-Cardbus adapter. So it's odd that a box made for the wireless gateway-frob market is using mini-PCI and the bigger one has PCI.

Re:Since linux devices gets /.'ed rather easily-

[red_dragon]

D'oh! I'm an idiot. *muttering*...

MiniPCI card

[GoRK]

Does anyone know the source of the minipci card or the antennas they are using? I'd sure love to cram one of these cards into my soekris net4501 box :)