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| Thread ID: 133089 | 2013-05-27 04:37:00 | Geekzone Crowdsourcing Project | johcar (6283) | PC World Chat |
| Post ID | Timestamp | Content | User | ||
| 1343609 | 2013-05-27 04:37:00 | Got this email today: A couple of weeks ago I posted in the forums about a secret project coming to Geekzone. After over 24 pages of people guessing what we're working on I can now tell you about it. Welcome to the Telecom Geekzone Crowdsourcing Project! We know how much you understand what your needs are when it comes to having a great Internet experience. When Telecom New Zealand approached us to help get input from you and other Geekzone users in helping define a new device that could bring that closer to everyone we thought it would be a great opportunity for our community to have a say so we jumped on board. Telecom New Zealand wants to create a modem/gateway that can make everyone's Internet more enjoyable, easier and having the features you chose to make it happen. This new modem/gateway is a device that will support Telecom New Zealand's current DSL and UFB technologies but could in theory be used with other ISPs. How will this work? We have opened a forum at www.geekzone.co.nz with a discussion where you can post your ideas for a great modem/gateway. You and other Geekzone users can then use the [+1] buttons to vote ideas up. At the end of the first week we'll select the most voted ideas and create a poll with the top ones so everyone (Geekzone users or not) can then vote (and discuss the features, refining our understanding) to select which ones interest them most. Everyone's participation is important - you can either post your ideas or vote for someone else's ideas. We will pass the results to Telecom New Zealand, where an expert panel will work through the submissions and confirm which ones we can expect to see implemented. We will post the final feature list and Telecom New Zealand will work with the manufacturer to provide regular updates so we can see how it's progressing. There will be some of these new modem/gateways available for testing by Geekzone users who participated in creating the list. We also have a prize list to distribute amongst those who helped create the device. The top prize will be a free 500GB broadband package from Telecom for a year and a final modem unit at the completion of the project. The full project brief with requirements, deadlines and prize descriptions is now available in its own forum at www.geekzone.co.nz Cheers Mauricio Freitas Might be an interesting project to follow... |
johcar (6283) | ||
| 1343610 | 2013-05-27 04:59:00 | Wow very cool! | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1343611 | 2013-05-27 05:27:00 | So many bad ideas posted... Because it's the geeks on Geekzone, they're asking for the most retarded things! Here's what I posted, in case the big bad wolf over there nukes it because I mentioned more than one thing in the post: In reality I think that most of the ideas are good ideas if you're implementing them yourself, but bloody terrible ideas if you're doing it for the mass market! Here's what I think it should have (Posting it here rather than there coz there's a whole lot of things all-in-one): A real simple interface, like Gargoyle, only even simpler Allow config of certain more "advanced" things in a clearly marked "Advanced mode" perhaps similar to how the Linksys / Cisco SPA series phones have Reliability should be the #1 priority. None of this business where you fire up TeamSpeak3 and the router crashes, or a few torrents make it die... A solid CPU / RAM / Flash amount inside of it (Yes, it's going to push it over the $25 mark to manufacture or buy for Telecom, but tough!) Even easier setup for the per-device bandwidth monitoring (Yeah do it by MAC and prevent static IP's that haven't been assigned from the DHCP server by default, similar to Gargoyle, but trim down the WebUI even further) Easy access to the *basic* line stats, uptime, and number of reconnections since boot. Most people won't need to see the advanced connection stats, so just put up the sync speed, SNR / Noise margin, and how many disconnects maybe on the main "status" page. An easy "Why aren't I online" button that will test and see if the have sync, auth, dns resolution, ping response and finally http working. Those things can easily be seen by a customer, from their LAN, potentially without even logging in to the device (Just restrict the listening ports of the web daemon or something) Easy access to your WiFi settings. Hide most of the advanced things and just show: SSID, Encryption type, and the password. Hell get rid of the encryption type even, force it to WPA2-PSK. Home users don't need radius options.... And have a "Generate" button for passwords, make it 10 chars long, and disable things like upper-case "i" and lower-case "L" so as to avoid confusion Gotta have the SIP-ALG / VPN-ALG stuff sorted, they're such a pain in the ass in so many ways... with more people using multiple SIP devices that could be a real PITA if it's not done right Port-forwarding should be simple and well labelled. If the user is buying / getting one of these, don't bother with DMZ or other things like port-knocking. That's not for the mass market, those users can get another router VDSL2 and ADSL2+ support, along with an additional "WAN" port so they can connect to Fibre connections etc USB File / Printer sharing is nice, but most people just simply don't bother with it. If they really want it, they'll leave a desktop PC on to do it. Personally I'd leave it out and avoid confusing people DLNA and the likes? Nope. FTP / Bittorrent server? Nope. They're nice-to-haves for the geeks but most people simply don't care VoIP built-in? Yeah I'd include a FXS port, maybe two, but again the setup of that's going to have to be bloody simple in the "basic" interface. Perhaps just include the "SIP Proxy", "User ID", "Password" and that's it, other advanced settings can be specified elsewhere, but if this router is going to be used by Telecom, then they'd have to start some form of residential offering. QoS is nice, but perhaps just have three basic things: Realtime, normal, low priority. Throw most things in normal like HTTP traffic, gaming / voip in realtime, hell even put things like Email in to "Low", and allow the customer to choose from a set of standard apps to customize them if they want. Make it easy to factory reset the device, in case the customer locks themselves out. Remote management via TR-069 would be nice Allow SSH management perhaps from the LAN side only. Anybody who's worth their salt can remotely get into their own home PC via SSH and then in to the router if they really want remote administration for it. Again, reliability should be #1 priority, right now those Thomson / Technicolor ones are not. Hell most home DSL routers aren't reliable even Priority #2 should be simplicity. Make it easy enough for the average joe blogs at home to fire up, use, and not be overwhelmed by it. Most people have a bit of an understanding that they're looking for the "Wireless setup" to change their WiFi password, or at least find out what it is, but right now if you try doing that in the current generation of routers supplied by Telecom or Vodafone, it's a *nightmare*. Thoughts? |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1343612 | 2013-05-27 05:38:00 | Well if its custom software, lets hope it doesn't turn out like telstras T-box. A guest network would be good |
plod (107) | ||
| 1343613 | 2013-05-27 05:52:00 | Yeah true that, and same for the Genius router, had no end of issues with that... | Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1343614 | 2013-05-27 06:46:00 | Leave Telecom out of it :) | R2x1 (4628) | ||
| 1343615 | 2013-05-27 07:18:00 | I can't think of the jargon for it, but that auto crossover / patch cable thingie for folks who've got the wrong cable without the crossover. It's pretty standard feature these days, but still not something to overlook. I don't like the fact my own router doesn't have the option to log out. It would be nice to end a config session without having to reset the router in order to stop the next person to sit in the chair from having unbridled access to the guts of the thing. The LAN side can have a bit too much trust extended to it at times. Some useful dialog when User / Password are wrong or authentication failed would be nice. So many people have barely any idea what their login details are, which can lead to a whole lot of guessing with differnt combos of "I think it might be ***** or *****, or ***** when the unit keeps giving a red light on the WAN connection. While it might reduce security marginally, a response like "Username not known" or "Password Incorrect for Username *****" would be more useful than "Authentication failed". How often have I wasted hours trying different combos of peoples user/pw only to later find Telecom hasn't set up BB on their line? Is it possible for a router to report when such a condition exists? |
Paul.Cov (425) | ||
| 1343616 | 2013-05-27 08:12:00 | I can't think of the jargon for it, but that auto crossover / patch cable thingie for folks who've got the wrong cable without the crossover. It's pretty standard feature these days, but still not something to overlook. You'd probably be hard-pressed to find an ethernet switch chipset that didn't have this feature nowadays. Like I said on the Geekzone thread, I want high quality components in mine and decent design for thermal management so it doesn't overheat and lock up in summer. |
Agent_24 (57) | ||
| 1343617 | 2013-05-27 08:16:00 | Yeah that's Auto-MDIX. I agree, just a password is needed, it's all that Gargoyle has. I posted saying the interface needed to be simple. Gut 90% of the features out of current routers, they're not needed. I agree though that the #1 priority should be reliability. Still, posting on Geekzone, gives me the heebie jeebies... Can't stand their supreme dictator, so brash and confrontational he makes even the Dutch look polite. |
Chilling_Silence (9) | ||
| 1343618 | 2013-05-27 08:45:00 | Dear I say if you want a simple interface for a router, can't get much simpler then apples | plod (107) | ||
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