1. Introduction
Recently the Australian government and the opposition have been debating about the future development of broadband accesses in Australia. This is a sign of how much broadband has become, and will continue to be, an essential part of our everyday life.
Now, in addition to ADSL2+ and cable connections, a new method to access Internet has become available ¡V 3.5G mobile broadband. A number of service providers, including Telstra, Optus, Three, Vodafone, etc., have already offered this service through their respective networks.
DrayTek, well recognized for their capability in tuning out the latest technology quickly to cater for customers´ needs, have come up with another innovative feature for their already feature-packed routers, Vigor2800 and Vigor2910 series. Now both series handle 3.5G mobile broadband, through a simple firmware upgrade. The firmware is FREE.
2. Vigor2800 series and Vigor2910 series
The Vigor2800 series router has a built-in ADSL2/2+ modem, a 4 port switch and supports up to 32 VPN tunnels of a complete range of protocols, Object Oriented SPI firewall, URL content filtering, QoS, IM/P2P blocking, etc. There are sub-models in the Vigor2800 series: Vigor2800G router includes a 108Mbps Wireless Access Point, Vigor2800V has VoIP capabilities, while Vigor2800VG has both the wireless and VoIP capabilities.
With the latest firmware, Vigor2800´s USB printer server port allows an extra broadband connection through a 3.5G HSDPA USB modem* or 3.5G HSDPA mobile.
The 3.5G HSDPA connection through Vigor2800 series can be a backup to the ADSL connection, or be the sole Internet connection. In the back up mode, when the ADSL connection is down somehow, the 3.5G connection will be evoked automatically. When the ADSL service is restored, the router will switch back to ADSL without human intervention.
One common scenario for application of the 3.5G connection is when you move house or relocate office, you don´t need to wait for weeks for telephone line installation, ISP access, etc. Just hook up your 3.5G mobile phone or USB modem onto the Vigor2800 router, and you have the Internet access back instantly, together with the full set of features that Vigor2800 supports.
The Vigor2910 series is a dual WAN broadband router with most of the features of Vigor2800 except the ADSL modem. The dual WAN can be programmed for load balancing; and with the new firmware, the Vigor2910 series allows connection to Internet through 3.5G HSDPA and be used as one of the two WANs for load balancing purposes.
If your location does not have access to cable or ADSL, you can still use 3.5G mobile broadband as the sole Internet connection and gain benefits of all features provided by Vigor2800 or Vigor2910 series. This marriage of the strong features and the mobility of 3.5G creates a huge set of potential applications.
For more details of Vigor2800 series click here
For more details of Vigor2910 series click here
3. Applications
The tenants of the hostel can easily share the Internet among roommates.
Just because you are travelling on cars, trains, etc., will no longer be an excuse for not having access to Internet.
Mobile broadband base stations will cover a majority of space in Australia, making it more accessible than ADSL and cable accesses; and this mode of broadband access will be the only option in many locations.
4. Compatible list
5. Australian Mobile Broadband ISP List