Linksys

Linksys Holdings, Inc., is an English (formerly American) brand of data networking hardware products mainly sold to home users and small businesses. It was founded in 1988 by the couple Victor and Janie Tsao, both Taiwanese immigrants to the United States.[1] Linksys products include Wi-Fi routers, mesh Wi-Fi systems, Wifi extenders, access points, network switches, and Wi-Fi networking. It is headquartered in Irvine, California.[2]

Linksys products are sold direct-to-consumer from its website, through online retailers and marketplaces, as well as off-the-shelf in consumer electronics and big-box retail stores. As of 2020, Linksys products are sold in retail locations and value-added resellers in 64 countries and was the first router company to ship 100 million products.[3]

History

In 1988, spouses Janie

Products

Linksys initially sold connectors for PCs and printers before newer forms of connecting home and business networks through wired Ethernet and wireless technologies.[24] Its networking products include Gigabit switches, Wi-Fi routers, Intelligent Mesh Wi-Fi systems, Wi-Fi extenders, Wi-Fi access points, and networking components.

Linksys Aware was introduced in 2019 as a first-to-market home monitoring system that alerts users to movement in their home through the Velop Triband system.[25] In 2020, Linksys released Linksys Shield, a parental control subscription service for the Velop AC2200 Triband that allows users to manage or block online content.

The company also announced its Linksys Cloud Manager 2.0, which included a configurable captive portal.

Routers

Linksys released its first Wi-Fi router in 2001 and has maintained early router releases for newer generations of Wi-Fi.[26]

The WRT54G was notable for having firmware based on the Linux operating system. Since version 5, flash memory was reduced from 4 MB to 2 MB, and VxWorks was used instead of Linux. The original Linux model with 4 MB was later available as the WRT54GL.

In 2017, Linksys launched the Velop line, a multi-unit tri-band mesh router system that uses three Wi-Fi radios.[27][28]

First announced in 2020, Linksys began marketing home-based Linksys smart routers and Velop Mesh Wi-Fi.[29]

In April 2021, launched its first Wi-Fi 6E-certified systems, including Hydra Pro 6E router and the Atlas Max 6E mesh system.[30] In January 2022, Linksys launched Hydra Pro 6, a scaled-back version of the 6E model.[31]

Wi-Fi systems

The Linksys Intelligent Mesh line, Velop, combines Linksys software and hardware to provide higher connection speeds throughout a location by using nodes with dynamic networking capabilities. Linksys in 2019, with the Linksys Aware line, was first to release mesh nodes as motion sensors, utilizing Wi-Fi signals without having to rely on other sensor devices.[32]

Linksys markets Wi-Fi extenders that work with most Wi-Fi and ISP routers, including dual or tri-band units, and plug-in devices that eliminate Wi-Fi dead zones by wirelessly communicating with a router.[33]

In 2018, Linksys released its cloud-based Wi-Fi management for business-class access points, the Linksys Cloud Manager.[34]

Linksys markets mesh Wi-Fi routers built for Wi-Fi 6 capacity, offering four times the speed and capacity of Wi-Fi 5. The mesh Velop Wi-Fi 6, announced in October 2019.[35]

In 2020, Linksys debuted 5G mobile hotspots, modems, mesh gateways, and outdoor routers.

HomeWRK

HomeWRK is a two-node, mesh-enabled Wi-Fi 6 router. The appliance provides separate wireless networks for personal and business traffic. Fortinet’s security stack runs on the device, blocking malware, ransomware, and filtering content.[39]

class	skin-invert
type	Subsidiary
founded	1988
founders	Victor Tsao Janie Tsao
location country	Milton Keynes, England
industry	Networking equipment
products	Routers, DSL/cable gateways, switches, wireless access points, storage and security IP cameras
parent	Cisco Systems (2003–2013) Belkin (2013–2018) Foxconn (2018–present)
homepage	https://www.linksys.com/

History

Products

Routers

Wi-Fi systems

HomeWRK

See also

External links

References