TP-Link vs Linksys

[Cyrille KWABONG]

Hello All,
If you were given the responsability to decide between TP Link or
Linksys for a large mesh deployment (500 Houses)
knowing that, you have first to customise the OS.
you have to install in the TP link or Linksys :

- Openwrt,DHCP,DNS,
- Raduis server, database
- Asterisk
- webserver with a social application
- Script (shell) interpretor or terminal

What will be your technical and commercial reseaons or arguments.

Thank you all.

[Wayne Abroue]

You are refering to manufacturers, vs actual units so difficult to comment.

Besides actual cpu/mem specs, my take would always be the flexability
of open source vs a closed source OS.

Wayne A

[Cyrille KWABONG]

Hi,

the intend is to get a router as "Home Services Platform", with these services :

> - Openwrt,DHCP,DNS,
> - Raduis server, database
> - Asterisk
> - webserver with a social application
> - Script (shell) interpretor or terminal 

it will be like a POP (Point of Presence) in houses, where users could make call in the house through asterisk, communicate with equipements at home through mails, but also share pictures with various neighbours and equipement.

For instance, imagine equipements at home tweeting and facebooking using the platforms (social network, web portal, voip, etc..) on my Router's OS ( OpenWRT).

I dont not if i hve explained the question ...

Thank you for your replies ..

--
------------------------------------------
Cyrille K.

Life is Beautifull ...

[elektra]

Hi Cyrille -

> > - Openwrt,DHCP,DNS,
> > - Raduis server, database
> > - Asterisk
> > - webserver with a social application
> > - Script (shell) interpretor or terminal

you have to be aware that embedded WiFi devices are limited with regards to RAM and CPU performance. You can certainly run all the stuff that you mentioned, but take into account that most current devices supported be the Atheros AR71XX port of OpenWrt have only 4MB flash and 32MB RAM. You can extend the flash with a external USB storage, but adding more RAM requires advanced soldering practize and the ability to modify the bootloader.

So you have to run a small webserver and a small database software which is happy with a small amount of resources, managing a small database. How much can you squeeze into 32MB RAM?

I am a fan of TP-Link, because it is a Chinese company marketing their own Chinese products. Linksys is a American company marketing products made in China - so you pay extra for the marketing and brand name of a American company. Which is fine, if the American company sells smarter designs and better software.

I can't say anything about the quality of the TP-Link firmware, since I only see their web interface for a few seconds when I change the firmware to OpenWrt. The hardware is fine. With this regard TP-Link offers a lot of "bang" for the buck.

Cheers,
Elektra

[T Gillett]

Hi Cyrille

As Elektra has pointed out, commodity routers are unlikely to have sufficient capability for the sort of things you plan to do. You might consider looking at devices that offer more capabilities such as one of the new ARM platforms such as the Genesi Efika MX (http://www.genesi-usa.com/products/efika).

The ARM platforms in particular are becoming commodity products at a very good price point, typically $100 - 150 with enough RAM (eg 500Mb) and Flash ROM (eg 8Gb) to operate as a entry level workstation, low power and completely solid state, with wifi, Ethernet, USB and SD slots, shipped with Linux installed.

regards
Terry

[Cyrille KWABONG]

thank you Terry, but i'm looking for a Router, i don't really care about the RAM because i'll not have more than 5 users per routeur.

The reason i'm uploading those services on the router, is to make the routeur+internet relevant to people in the developping world ( they have heard about internet but it is still not really relevant to them ) so ...

Is there any device in the same line which goes with my purpose ?

Elektra, TP-Link is no bad ... it sound like you have another proposal out of linksys and tp-link stuff., i'm open.

THank you.

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[Song, Stephen]

Hi Cyrille,

Are you thinking of hosting some of those services on a gateway
device? Surely you are not planning to implement a radius server on
each AP if you are only going to have a maximum of 5 users per device?

Are you thinking of an indoor or outdoor mounted device?

Regards... Steve

--
Steve Song
http://manypossibilities.net
http://villagetelco.org

[Cyrille K.| The State of Your Mind !]

Hi Stephen,
Let me give some more details:

- A Building is made of 5 Houses.
- each Building will have an indoor AP(wifi router) to share internet , and
other services (social sharing, telephony etc..) to the 5 houses, just like
a small wireless LAN.
- Buildings are not connected together
- The only way to communicate out for a AP in a building, is through
internet.

Building (with 5houses and a wLAN) ----------->> Internet
<<--------Another Building (with 5houses and a wLAN)

This is the point :
In developing countries, old people ( > 35old) are not really interested by
internet because of the content of internet ( it is not soo much relevant to
them).

So a solution is to gradually bring them to be acquainted to internet
services by giving them a mean to build an internet with the content they
like but also which can be useful to they neighborhood.

Some of the first services, I think should be helpful are social network for
sharing news, pictures, some web applications which can be a portal of key
information like what happened today in my street.

But we are targeting many houses, so we have to think low-cost. And in other
hand, this solution is just an entry point to get them acquainted to
internet services , after what we will be able to set a small server aside
and transfer those services from the Gateway(AP or wifi router) to the small
server .

Of course, security is required, authentification is also required
Tjh

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Cyrille KWABONG

-----Original Message-----
From: village-...@googlegroups.com
[mailto:village-...@googlegroups.com] On Behalf Of Song, Stephen
Sent: mardi 7 février 2012 13:07
To: village-...@googlegroups.com
Subject: Re: [vt-dev] TP-Link vs Linksys

Hi Cyrille,

Are you thinking of hosting some of those services on a gateway device?
Surely you are not planning to implement a radius server on each AP if you
are only going to have a maximum of 5 users per device?

Are you thinking of an indoor or outdoor mounted device?

Regards... Steve

On 6 February 2012 13:42, Cyrille KWABONG <kcyr...@gmail.com> wrote:
> thank you Terry, but i'm looking for a Router, i don't really care
> about the RAM because i'll not have more than 5 users per routeur.
> The reason i'm uploading those services on the router, is to make the
> routeur+internet relevant to people in the developping world ( they

> routeur+have

[Song, Stephen]

Hi Cyrille,

You might consider something like the Netgear N600 WNDR3700

http://www.netgear.com/home/products/wirelessrouters/high-performance/WNDR3700.aspx

I know that ProjectBismark (http://projectbismark.net/) have settled
on this router so can vouch for its OpenWRT support. They chose it
largely because of its impressive capacity for an AP. It has 8MB
flash and 64MB ram. And of course a USB interface. It is also dual
band. Not that cheap on the other hand, about USD150

You are mounting these devices indoors?

Cheers... Steve

On 7 February 2012 18:00, Cyrille K.| The State of Your Mind !