This feature is perfect for hotels, airports, or anyplace where a provider serves a frequently changing customer base.

Here are the details...

First off, our network access control module will not require any new hardware. It will be a fully integrated module and will run on all NetEqualizer units shipped after 2007.

The following features will be initially included:

• Time-based usage by login - You will be able to offer your customers a login to your network for a subscribed amount of time.
• Re-direction to a Web site of your design - You decide what users will see online first.
• Group-based block license enforcement - We are told this is an industry first. This gives the option for a group to purchase a block of licenses (simultaneous shared logins). For example, if you have an event where a group needs network access, rather than force every customer to purchase a 24-hour license, you can sell 100 licenses to a certain group. They can then distribute those to their members, which saves you the trouble of distributing licenses to every customer.
• Class of service by group - Operators will be able to set different classes of service for each group that's been created.
• Flexible time-out periods - This may also be an industry first. When a user is not active for an hour or so (the time is flexible), in some cases you may want to have them automatically logged out. This feature allows you to do this.
• No fixed MAC address or IP address required - Users will be able to dynamically identify themselves with personalized login IDs and passwords.

Administrators will be able to extend and modify access features at their discretion.

Module Pricing:

• NE2000-2 thru NE2000-10 -- $1500
• NE2000-20 and higher -- $2500

NetEqualizer price not included. Customers with current NSS will be given a full credit against any license fee. Additional support and setup fees may also apply.

For more information, contact us at admin@apconnections.net or 1-800-918-2763.

Despite the obvious potential relationship between net neutrality, deep packet inspection and bandwidth shaping, the issues are not inherently intertwined and must be judged separately. This has been the outlook at APconnections since the development of the network optimization appliance NetEqualizer five years ago.

On the surface, net neutrality seems to be a reasonable and ultimately beneficial goal for the Internet. In a perfect world, all consumers would be able to use the Internet to the extent they saw fit, absent of any bandwidth regulation. However, that perfect world does not exist.

In many cases, net neutrality can become a threat to equal access. Whether this is true for larger ISPs is debatable, however it cannot be denied when considering the circumstances surrounding smaller Internet providers. For example, administrators at rural ISPs, libraries, universities, and businesses often have no choice but to implement bandwidth shaping in order to ensure both reliable service and their own survival. When budgets allow only a certain amount of bandwidth to be purchased, once that supply is depleted, oftentimes due to the heavy usage of a small number of users, options are limited. Shaping in no longer a choice, but a necessity.

However, this does not mean that a free pass should be given for Internet providers to accomplish network optimization through any means available even at the expense of customer privacy. This is especially true considering that it's possible to achieve network optimization without compromising privacy or equal access to the Internet. The NetEqualizer is a proven example.

Here's what a few of our Latin American users are saying...

--Angel Behar, Director General de PacificNet, Culiacan, Mexico

TPP es un WISP con más de 5000 usuarios de banda ancha en distintas ciudades del interior de Argentina (creciendo a un ritmo de 450 por mes), al principio utilizábamos Allot como tecnología de control de trafico pero enseguida nos dimos cuenta que en una red publica, del tipo residencial, DPI no era el camino ya que requería mucho tiempo y esfuerzo actualizar las políticas de trafico de acuerdo a los cambiantes hábitos de nuestros clientes. Buscando una alternativa de backup para casos de emergencia encontramos el Netequalizer, una vez que lo pusimos en marcha dejamos los Allots en modo de análisis y mantuvimos los Neteqs haciendo el trabajo de control de flujos. Luego de un año de operaciones nos dimos cuenta que el control automático de flujos, aunque menos preciso, es la manera mas práctica y económica de entregar una excelente experiencia a nuestros clientes.

--Reinaldo Niella, Telefonia Publica y Privada, Buenos Aires, Argentina

For more information on the AirEqualizer as a hidden node solution, click here.