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A little bit about the history of Zyxel on the client side
By the way: the name of the company in Russian correctly sounds like this: zayksel =)
About the author:
Vladimir Ivanov, a specialist in the field of information security . The author worked in completely different places: in the judicial system, defense enterprises, in banking structures, in the entertainment business, IT companies, in many enterprises, known and not very well. No profiles in social networks. Released his own book , is the author of security materials in IT magazines.
Nostalgic bond
I met Zyxel for the first time in such distant, as it seems now, 90s years.
By hook or by crook, I managed to get a corporate unlim (unlimited connection) home.
Although only at night, and only under the "honest pioneer" that I will not forget to turn off, so that in the morning the office could connect from the Network.
And then for the first time the question arose about the modem. I already had some NoName bought on occasion.
- And what is your line? My friend asked sympathetically, who gave the coveted username / password from the night unlim.
“Yes, the usual telephone,” I answered.
- If it is really bad, then you need Zyxel.
- What is it?
- A modem like that. Not a modem, but just a monster. He, like a bulldog, clings to a line and holds a dead grip until you tear it apart.
Old Soviet telephone lines inherited from the USSR ... Does anyone else remember how we lived with this “connection”? When I worked at a telephone exchange, I looked at everything with my own eyes. Broken street cross cabinets, flooded switching wells ... People went to work and went nowhere. Telephone network installer - this was one of the most drinking professions. We, the “programmers,” were sitting in a cozy control building, and they were driving on a call in the most severe frost or rain. To those flooded wells and broken cabinets. Few people can not drink the bitter, working under such conditions.
A little later, I also wanted a Zyxel. I was advised by the legendary ZyXEL U-90E. Good, reliable thing. But then I bought the Omni 56K II. Either he regretted the money, or it was necessary to wait until they brought it, and this at once - “pay and take”. Also a cool thing. Disconnections became less frequent, the percentage of successful downloads increased. I even began to get a little used to confident work on the Web.
The second time I came across a Zyxel modem in the mid-2000s when I connected the Stream. Conditions at work - always in touch. The company worked around the clock, with branches in different cities. But the business has not yet learned how to recruit and pay for the presence of duty administrators. What will happen - they called at any time of the day the “admin on the servers”, that is, me. Remote control is our everything.
To connect, I bought a Zyxel Prestige 660 series, more precisely, the P-660R EE. ADSL2 +. Solid, reliable ADSL modem. For three years of use, he never let me down. Turned on, tuned and forgot. Great, really.
The third time I turned to Zyxel products not so long ago. We needed a secure gateway for a small organization. Friends asked for advice. Another shabashka for "thank you" for friendship. In fact, the company was not so small, about twenty users, plus a director and a “deputy” with laptops. They are afraid of viruses. Caught "cryptographer", the previous admin tormented from the heart. Since then, there have been no special attacks, but "sediment remained."
Deputy general, who, in fact, caught the “infection” on one of the dubious sites, rushed with the idea that one antivirus is not enough. Required to put two antivirus on each computer. None and arguments did not work. “Two checks are more reliable than one and a point!”
And then I came across a description of the Zyxel USG60W.
“And what exactly is there an antivirus in this box?” - was perplexed by the ubiquitous "deputy."
- There is. And this is Kaspersky. You now have ESET NOD32, Kaspersky will be at the entrance. He will not catch - ESET NOD32 will pick up the rest. This option suits you?
He arranged this option. Doesn't crash, doesn't crash. Antispam and content filtering were also found in this “little box”. “Life has become easier, life has become more fun.” Even spam has become less. Grace ... There is also a mechanism for "detecting and preventing intrusions."
There is an established opinion that Zyxel is only modems and another network part. No, not at all. I saw both cameras and network storages. But with network equipment, Zyxel really has always been doing well.
And then there was 2014. International sanctions. The growth of the dollar in rubles. And many immediately became not up to "show off". Certificates from expensive vendors sadly hung on the carnations in the reception offices of system integrators, as a reminder of past greatness. It was necessary to learn to live in a new way.
It suddenly became clear that “works well” - this does not always mean “very expensive”. Nature does not tolerate emptiness and, if there is demand, there will be supply. The era of affordable and reliable solutions has come. Free from sanctions and other political tinsel.
And Zyxel always made good equipment. Simple, reliable, understandable to everyone. With what we congratulate them.
Happy Anniversary, Zyxel! After all, you turned 30 not so long ago! How do you feel about exchanging the fourth ten? But be that as it may, for many years you and your users, partners and everyone else.
Zyxel in Russia - some facts from the history of the company
Zyxel has things that he can rightfully be proud of. Below is a short list of achievements for which the guys from this company can safely hang a medal on their chest. Or two, it all depends on the severity of the issue.
I will not give a long list of all the achievements, but I will write only about what I thought was interesting.
In 1988, Dr. Shun-I Chu rented an apartment in Taoyuan (a city in Taiwan) and made a laboratory and workshop for the development of an analog modem there.
The case was progressing very successfully and a year later (in 1989) the headquarters of the new company moved from the apartment to Hsinchu Science Park.
Already in 1991, a sales representative and technical support center ZyXEL Communications Corporation in the United States.
In 1995, Zyxel established a R&D unit in San Jose, California.
Interestingly, some of the usual IT stuff in the world were released by Zyxel:
1992 - The world's first integrated modem with fax and answering machine.
1995 - The world's first analog-to-digital ISDN modem.
2004 - The world's first ADSL2 + gateway.
In the post-Soviet space, Zyxel appeared quite early - in 1992. In the fall of 1992, Zyxel Communications Corporation entered into a distribution agreement with Russian partners: Demos and Data Express, in 1993 Data Express became the exclusive distributor of Zyxel Communications Corporation. Particularly due to cooperation with Russian colleagues, Zyxel was the first company to implement a number of functions specific to the Russian telephone network in the U-1496 series modems, which made these modems much better suited to the very specific capabilities of telephone lines of the former USSR.
Due to the emphasis on R&D, Zyxel modems have earned the fame of the most "tenacious" among all devices of this type. Zyxel's proprietary protocols at 16.8 Kbps and 19.2 Kbps in the 1990s were actually the standard for high-speed data exchange, and the highly reliable ZyCELL protocol can still be considered the best in terms of noise immunity.
2010 year. The appearance and separation of Keenetic.
With the growing popularity of Wi-Fi devices, home Wi-Fi routers have become a familiar attribute of most people's homes. In 2010, the Russian team of Zyxel suggested undertaking the development of such devices, but taking into account their (Russian) proposals, however, this would require additional unplanned resources. The Russian representative took up the development on their own, which led to the birth of Keenetic and the separation of these devices in a separate direction. It is worth noting that Keenetic routers are programmatically and structurally different from the official Zyxel products. In 2017, Zyxel Keenetic finally turned into an independent brand Keenetic.
2016-2017 year. Rebranding and integrated approach.
On April 27, 2017, Zyxel Communications announced the opening of its own local office in Russia and the CIS to promote network equipment in our market and to change the structure of the distribution channel in the former USSR.
Now the main thing is new working methods, which consist in an integrated approach to the needs of customers. The main direction is B2B with telecom companies, system integrators, distributors.
About a year before, Zyxel rebranded and appeared in Russia with a new face.
The figure schematically shows the main stages of development of Zyxel.
It remains to wish the Zyxel colleagues further success and new interesting achievements.
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