Internet cafe is a relatively special environment in network applications. Although the scale is generally only a few dozen to a few hundred nodes, but these points are often at the same time uninterruptedly in the browsing, chatting, downloading, video-on-demand and online games, the data traffic is huge, especially the exit traffic. Internet users who come to Internet cafes for consumption have different needs for surfing the Internet, and their applications are very complicated. These specialties determine the needs of Internet cafes for the router has the following several **** the same point:
Powerful performance: data processing ability to be strong enough to access the Internet at high speeds and smooth, large data traffic without dropping, non-stop.
Functionality: rich features, common and cold applications.
Stable and reliable: Highly stable and reliable, able to work for a long time without interruption.
Good compatibility: to have strong compatibility, to be able to adapt to different operators of different access services.
Simple to use: easy to install, easy to configure, easy to manage, easy to use, user interface is friendly and easy to understand.
Reasonable price: under the premise of ensuring performance, there should be a reasonable price, with excellent performance-price ratio.
In summary, we can summarize the demand for Internet café routers into four words: more, faster, better, save, that is, more functionality, speed, stability, compatibility, but also to save money.
The current situation of the Internet cafe router
At present, some Internet cafes are still using the old-fashioned way of proxy server, dedicated to a PC as a server, installing the proxy software, Internet cafes, all the computers through the proxy server **** enjoy the Internet. The disadvantage of this approach is: the complexity of the proxy software installation and setup, non-professionals are difficult to use well; the need to specialize in a server, the price is expensive, more than 10,000, and the poorer at least four or five thousand, and the general reliability of the PC server is poor, and often easy to die.
Some larger Internet cafes, out of trust in the traditional router brand, directly using the low-end traditional enterprise-class routers. The disadvantage of this approach is: expensive, often tens of thousands of dollars, but in fact, limited processing power, can not meet the high data throughput requirements of the Internet cafe, so that many hold spend money to buy peace of mind of the Internet cafe owners greatly distressed. Traditional routers provide a variety of optional narrowband interface in the Internet cafe completely useless, can be said to be a waste. And this kind of router configuration operation is complex, non-professionals are difficult to use.
Smaller Internet cafes, for cost-saving considerations, the direct use of SOHO-class routers. The disadvantage of this approach is: although this type of router is inexpensive, as long as a few hundred dollars, and the operation is very simple, but because designed for SOHO, its data processing capacity is limited, can not meet the requirements of the high data throughput of the Internet cafe, in the case of high data volume is prone to disconnections and crash.
Internet cafe router selection
What kind of router should be used in an internet cafe? In this article, we recommend a few routers that are really suitable for Internet cafes: TL-R480, TL-R480+, TL-R488, TL-R490 and TL-R4000. choosing a product is, on some level, choosing a manufacturer, and these routers are all produced by TP-LINK, which is a mainstream manufacturer of network equipment in China. TP-LINK is a mainstream manufacturer of network equipment in China, and its network cards, hubs, switches and other products have long been familiar to everyone. Since 2002, when it started selling broadband routers, TP-LINK has been launching a full range of self-developed broadband router products, and with its high stability, good compatibility, and obvious advantages in cost-effectiveness, etc., TP-LINK's position in the broadband router market is becoming increasingly prominent, and according to the industry's evaluation, the share of the broadband router market in China has already exceeded 50 percent. According to the industry evaluation, TP-LINK's broadband router market share in China has exceeded 50%.
These high-performance broadband routers recommended in this article are among the many TP-LINK router products designed specifically for Internet cafes, and are characterized by the following features:
Strong performance: the latest dedicated high-performance processors from the world's top manufacturers are used, with operating frequencies ranging from 133MHz to 533MHz, and with a large-capacity Cashe inside the processor and external The processor contains high-capacity Cashe, external high-capacity Flash and SDRAM memories, plus self-developed high-efficiency software with its own intellectual property rights, which makes its processing power outstanding, and its WAN to LAN throughput reaches wire speed or quasi-wire speed, and the different models have been proved by the application of actual Internet cafe environments to be able to satisfy the simultaneous high-speed Internet access of 200 to 1,000 terminals, which is far beyond the ordinary medium and low-end traditional enterprise routers and SOHO-class routers.
Data Ready
Email, social media, and cloud apps always updated and available at power on.
Feature-rich: These routers have built-in switches, and in addition to common features such as IP*** enjoyment (xDSL/Cable Modem/Ethernet), built-in firewalls, DHCP servers, access control, domain name filtering, MAC address filtering, MAC address cloning, virtual servers, DMZ hosts, static routing, etc., the router also supports In addition to the common features such as timer control, on-demand connection, anti-DoS attack, dynamic DNS, IEEE 802.1x, UPnP, MSN Netmeeting, etc., it also supports a wide range of features to meet the different Internet needs of different cybercafé consumers.
Stable and Reliable: These routers are equipped with a highly redundant built-in power supply with three-phase grounding, which enhances stability and reliability in terms of temperature rise, anti-misuse, anti-accidental power-down, anti-static, and anti-electromagnetic interference when compared to external power adapters. At the same time, the large size of the all-steel shell, sturdy and strong, good ventilation and heat dissipation, can effectively shield electromagnetic radiation, can be installed into the standard 19-inch rack, even if the environment between the Internet cafe equipment is a little worse can also be handled with ease. The circuitry is equipped with hardware power monitoring and watchdog to further enhance stability and reliability. The software provides real-time traffic monitoring and automatic virus isolation, so that even during periods of virus flooding, the router will not cause congestion or crash like other routers.
Good compatibility: One of the biggest advantages of TP-LINK routers over other brands of routers is that they are exceptionally compatible, no matter which ISP you choose, and no matter what type of equipment or how it changes at the local level, they work everywhere. This is on the one hand because TP-LINK is a local manufacturer, in the field of network and communications for many years, the telecommunications environment in China to understand the specifics of the product development phase on the targeted design; on the other hand, thanks to the wide range of applications of its products, tens of thousands of units shipped each month, used in all corners of the country, the compatibility problems encountered have encountered, and have been resolved. There are problems, engineers will immediately go to the scene to collect data for analysis, generally within three days to provide solutions, while Taiwan manufacturers know little about the telecommunications environment in mainland China, reflecting the problem, solve the problem of the pipeline is not smooth, slow response time. In contrast, TP-LINK routers are characterized by good compatibility.
Ease of use: TP-LINK routers are designed with ease of use in mind. From the full Chinese interface to the quick installation wizard, from the concise and clear menu to the full detailed help, from the reasonable default configuration to the detailed easy-to-read manual, all reflect the humanized design concept. The internal switch supports Auto MDI/MDIX, which saves the trouble of figuring out the positive and negative wires, and the UPnP support makes it easier to use. Support for remote management and online upgrade makes administrators more worry-free.TP-LINK router is easy to install, easy to configure, easy to manage, easy to use, the user interface is friendly and easy to understand, do not need a professional can use it well.
Reasonable price: TP-LINK products have always been characterized by a high price-performance ratio, and these routers are no exception. With such high performance, the price is only a thousand to five or six thousand, which is less than the price of a PC-based proxy server, only a few tenths of the price of a traditional enterprise router with similar performance, and only a few tenths to a dozen tenths of the price of a traditional enterprise router with much lower performance, making it a real value for money.
So what is the difference between these routers? And what kind of Internet cafes are they suited for?
The main difference between TL-R480+, TL-R488 and TL-R480 is the number of WAN ports
The main purpose or role of multi-WAN port routers in the application of cybercafes are three:
One is to increase the egress bandwidth. ADSL is only available in most areas with a bandwidth of 2M, and Ethernet is only available in 10M, no matter how fast the network is, the router will handle it. No matter how fast the internal network of the Internet café, the router processing capacity is much stronger, the exit bandwidth is only so much, we are crowded there, the hero has no use. And with multiple WAN ports, such as dual WAN port TL-R480 +, two WAN ports can be done between the load balancing, equivalent to the exit bandwidth broadened to twice the original, and similarly with four WAN ports TL-R488 can be broadened to four times the exit bandwidth, the Internet is also smoother. At present, whether ADSL or 10M Ethernet broadband, the monthly fee is very low, and apply for a few more costs are also very limited, with limited costs in exchange for the bandwidth of the exponential growth of the larger Internet cafes is very cost-effective. Of course, you can also go to the operator to rent 100M access, but the monthly cost of tens of thousands of monthly fees is too expensive! And the solution of using a multi-WAN router to get the same effect at a fraction of the cost, why not?
The second purpose is to realize the automatic diversion of data. Internet cafe business network failure is the most annoying thing, Internet users will not only refuse to pay, but also go to other Internet cafe consumption, if it happens often will lose these customers forever. One of the most common network failures is access failure, which may be the failure of the ISP bureau equipment, may be a line failure, may also be the user side Modem failure. If you use a multi-WAN router, apply for multiple lines, and these multiple lines can also be different carriers, such as a China Telecom ADSL, a Netcom 10M Ethernet, you can be in an ISP, a line, a Modem failure, automatically redistribute the data traffic to the port that does not have a failure, without interrupting business. The chance of all ISPs, all lines, and all Modems failing at the same time is almost zero. In the past, some people have used several single-WAN routers at the same time to divert large data traffic in the Internet cafe, but this program needs to be artificially divided into several groups of Internet cafes, a router to manage a group, so that on the one hand, it is necessary to set up the gateway of all the computers of the cafe one by one in order to correspond to different routers, which is very troublesome, and on the other hand, inter-group communication in the cafe has to circle around the network and then come back, which is not only slow, but also occupies the originally tight export bandwidth resources. This is not only slow, but also takes up a lot of bandwidth resources, and once a line or a Modem fails, all the computers in the group belonging to that line will not be able to access the Internet.
The third objective is to provide more content services to attract more customers. Different ISPs offer different services, and these different services are placed on the ISP's own servers, and to enjoy these services you must apply for access to the appropriate ISP. However, different Internet café consumers have different needs, and the best way to satisfy them is to apply for more ISP access services, which requires the use of a multi-WAN router.
The difference between TL-R4000, TL-R490 and TL-R480
is mainly the performance difference. TL-R490 and TL-R480 compared to TL-R480, due to the use of higher performance processor, higher main frequency, internal high-speed architecture, the processor contains Cashe capacity is also increased exponentially, so that the average performance than the TL-R480 doubled! The TL-R480 has a higher performance processor. The TL-R4000 adopts the top Intel IXA network processor, based on Intel Xscale technology, with a main frequency of up to 533MHz, and 4 CPUs distributed processing, which enables its IP packet forwarding capability to reach the limit value of 148810pps (64 Byte packets) for Fast Ethernet 100M line speed. The average performance of the TL-R4000 with this processor is more than five times that of the TL-R480. This means that what can take 200 computers with the TL-R480 can take 400 computers in the same environment with the TL-R490, and up to 1,000 computers with the TL-R4000.
With the current practical application environment of domestic Internet cafes, these routers recommended in this article will surely have a router that suits your needs.