[geeks] Cheap wireless APs

[Shannon Hendrix]

On May 21, 2009, at 19:35 , Lionel Peterson wrote:


> Shannon, if they did that, they wouldn't sell any router/AP devices,  
> just the soon-to-be-hacked crippled AP devices.

Other products that have done that for decades seem to have sold quite  
well, why wouldn't a Linksys router?

Only a tiny number of people know how or are willing to do what is  
necessary to enable all their features.

Besides: they are most likely doing exactly that.  I have opened a  
couple of different Linksys products where the board inside was  
identical, except one was crippled.  They didn't even remove the  
unused chips in one case.

>> Therefore, it seems to me it must be one of those things they do  
>> because they can, not because of some technical reason.
>
> Who says they aren't doing this? They have to make special packing,  
> manuals, etc. specific to each model. They need to price them to  
> cover additional packaging/production costs.

I'm saying that there is no reason for the huge price differences:  
they can make the same device and do different things with it.  They  
do it all the time and have been for a long time.

As far as additional costs go: there almost are none.  Companies like  
Apple and Atari solved this problem with far more complicated and  
differentiated designs in the late 1970s and early 1980s.

As far as packaging and documentation goes: most produces use the same  
packaging and have very little documentation, and that's generally so  
heavily automated the cost is pretty much the same.

> The Linksys hardware I use is fine, suited my needs for 5+ years...

I found it underpowered and under featured when it came out, but keep  
it around by offloading some of the work to an SME550 set before it.

If not for that, it would be dying under load daily.

The device is now ancient for this industry, and it was underpowered  
and under featured when it first came out.

Today it sells for not much less than it did in the beginning, and has  
not gained much in features or power in that time.

Just about everything else in the market is now markedly faster and  
better, or a hell of a lot cheaper.

It's interesting that they've managed to get away with that.

I think the reason is not lack of need, it's lack of ability for most  
people to express what is wrong with their setup enough to demand  
better.



-- 
Shannon Hendrix
shannon at widomaker.com