NetEqualizer the Safe Bet for Optimizing Internet Link During Economic Downturn

September 25, 2008 — netequalizer

We just announced a record profit for the quarter ending September 2008. I have included a copy of that announcement below.

Although we do not believe (or want to see) our success come at the expense of other players in the market, there is a strong contrast if you compare our performance to the higher-cost publicly-traded players in this market (see charts below).

I suspect these high-end shapers with expensive sales channels  may have trouble in this slowing market as they come under price pressure. IT departments continue to cut costs and the main play  of optimization products, reducing  ROI,  will lose some luster as Internet costs slowly fall. At some point, a high-end piece of equipment will lose out to adding more bandwidth.

NetEqualizer, on the other hand, is priced so much lower than these other products that our window of value will extend out at least another 10 years — perhaps more.

Although we are private company, we would be happy to share financials under NDA with any customer that has concerns going forward.  We have plenty of operating cash on hand and will likely expand as we pull out of this downturn and customers continue to look to reduce costs.

Stock charts for major players in the Internet/WAN optimization market

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=RVBD&t=1y

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=ALLT&t=2y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

http://finance.yahoo.com/q/bc?s=BCSI&t=1y&l=on&z=m&q=l&c=

Now, here’s our latest press release reporting profits…

———————————————————-

APconnections Announces 50-percent Increase in Profits During Current Quarter

LAFAYETTE, Colo., Sept. 22, 2008 — APconnections, a leading supplier of plug-and-play bandwidth shaping products, today announced that sales revenues have increased by 50 percent during the current quarter.

Company officials report that APconnections is finding that a growing number of ISPs, businesses, libraries, and universities are looking to the NetEqualizer to solve their Internet bandwidth congestion issues, oftentimes switching from more expensive traffic shaping solutions.

As companies deal with the ongoing economic struggles that have hit the nation, the NetEqualizer’s rare combination of effectiveness and affordability has been a major factor fueling this growth.

Other factors driving the upturn are:

  1. Comcast has adopted a similar fairness-based strategy to solve Internet congestion issues, thus validating APconnections’ long-held belief that deep packet inspection is on its way out. (See APconnections’ previous announcements on net neutrality: http://www.netequalizer.com)
  2. Direct sales and support for 90 percent of their customers, thus reducing the overall cost of sales.
  3. Simple turnkey set-up allowing new customer installations to require only one hour of support.

The NetEqualizer is a plug-and-play bandwidth control and WAN/Internet optimization appliance that is flexible and scalable. When the network is congested, NetEqualizer’s unique “behavior shaping” technology gives priority to latency sensitive applications, such as VoIP and email. It does it all dynamically and automatically, improving on other bandwidth shaping technology out there. It controls network flow for the best WAN optimization.

APconnections is a privately held company founded in 2003 and is based in Lafayette, Colorado.

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NetEqualizer Network Access Control Rollout

September 14, 2008 — netequalizer


After several months in development, the NetEqualizer network access control module is now available for trial.

The basic features of the Module are what you would expect (think airport T Mobile daily access etc):

1) The ability to dynamically authenticate/restrict users through a login process.

2) Automated payment processing for users who do not have a login.

3) The ability to selectively exempt an IP range from authentication redirection server. For example well known IP addresses on your network will not be forced to login, while other open IP address ranges (guest network) will require a login to obtain access.

4) The ability to custom brand  login pages and redirection service

Plus a couple of new twists that go above and beyond normal Network Authentication products:

1) Class of Service Specification When Customers Sign Up

For example, you will be able to offer customers a free standard service at modem speed with an option to pay for an upgrade for a faster connection. We have been playing with this feature at the office with our test system and the option to upgrade is very compelling. This could be a great way to increase revenue for those who might otherwise not log on at all if asked to purchase up front. Of course, this is made possible because the network access control is hosted by our NetEqualizer platform with full access to rate limiting features.

2) Group Licenses

This was one of the main requests from Portola Plaza Hotel (our beta site). They wanted to know if we could offer a system that allowed them to sell a group license (limited by total simultaneous sessions) to conference attendees. The other part of the challenge was to maintain a pay as you go option for individual hotel guests at the same time. Well, we have all that in there and it really is pretty impressive!

3) Smooth Service

For those hotels and institutions that have not been able to pull the trigger on something to eliminate their busy hour congestion, they will get the full power of our automated bandwidth controller. Many hotels and institutions have too many irons in the fire to address this issue, and perhaps their management cannot quantify the cost of slow Internet service, so they just live with it. These same institutions love to implement pay for internet service because that feature is clear-cut revenue generating device. So, now they will get both — revenue and smoother service for their paying customers all in one swoop!

4) Reliable Engineering

As many of our customers already know, we are an engineering company that developed a product, not an investor with a business plan that hired an engineering company. What this means is that our roots are conservative and we are in no hurry to put a solution on the market that will cause customers headaches as a result of some greedy business plan and offshore engineering. We do the work here in the U.S. and pay our engineers salaries of U.S. quality. The end result is a smoother process from start to finish. In addition, we are very conservative with our roll out and will not sell more than we can support at one time.

Needless to say, we were very excited to see the control module in action. It’s been even better to see that the months of research and development have paid off. For more information about the NetEqualizer network access control module, please visit our Web site at www.netequalizer.com.

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FCC to Rule Comcast Can’t Block Web Videos

July 28, 2008 — netequalizer

The FCC is expected to make an announcement this week that could significantly affect the direction of bandwidth management in the years to come. Although it certainly can’t be said that this was unexpected, the decision could signal the beginning of an official backlash against practices that are judged to conflict with net neutrality.

Here’s what the Wall Street Journal had to say…

Washington — Federal regulators are set to announce this week that Comcast Corp. wrongly slowed some of its customers’ Internet traffic, in a victory for consumer groups and high-tech companies that have fought to keep Web traffic free from interference.

The Federal Communications Commission will rule that the cable giant violated federal policy by deliberately preventing some customers from sharing videos online via file-sharing services like BitTorrent, agency officials said. The company has acknowledged it slowed some traffic, but said it was necessary to prevent a few heavy users from overburdening its network.

The decision, expected Friday, would set an important precedent in the continuing fight about how far phone and cable companies can go to make more money from their Internet networks. Cable and phone companies are experimenting with new ways to deal with people who use a lot of bandwidth, including “Internet metering” — charging customers for the amount they use.

To read on, click here.

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Telecom Industry Divided on Whether the Internet Will ‘Break’

June 26, 2008 — netequalizer

LAS VEGAS/PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — NXTcomm08 — Telecommunications professionals are split down the middle on whether increasing bandwidth demands are likely to break the Internet, according to a new survey released today. The survey showed half of respondents saying bandwidth demands will eventually break the Internet, with the other half saying they won’t. Of the fifty-one percent who see trouble ahead, one out of four think it could happen within two years.

The industry is also increasingly green about energy costs. Sixty-nine percent think energy efficiency is more important than circuit costs when constructing a network.

Tellabs and research firm IDC conducted the survey of 372 telecom industry professionals, which tracked respondents’ views on Internet use, the challenges providers face, and how those challenges will affect tomorrow’s networks. Broadband is integral to the way users work and play and is a vital part of everyday life.

“The findings of this survey make it very plain that bandwidth is not infinite,” said Lee Doyle, Group Vice President and General Manager, Network Infrastructure and Security Products and Services, IDC. “Unless there is sufficient investment into new infrastructure, the increased bandwidth demands of new advanced services could well outstrip capacity.”

The survey reveals that telecommunications professionals:

  • Are concerned the Internet will “break” – 51% are concerned that increasing bandwidth demands will “break” the Internet
  • Think power efficiency “laps” circuit costs – 69% say that in a network environment, energy consumption is more important than circuit costs
  • Think providers will do what’s necessary to clear lanes – Of the 80% who identified a way to deal with Internet congestion, 32% think providers address spikes in traffic by prioritizing via packet inspection, while 24% believe that spikes are better handled by charging more for excess bandwidth;
  • See video as a road hog – 43% believe that up to 30% of overall Internet traffic is video today, and 40% expect that to increase to up to 75% in five years
  • Believe Europe drives demand for mobile broadband – 80% expect that over the next two years, operators will face greater demand for mobile broadband services in Europe than North America;
  • Predict mobile TV use is in the fast lane – 50% say that video puts the biggest bandwidth demand on mobile networks today and 81% say that will still be true in five years.

“Internet access has become essential for millions of Americans and the appetite for bandwidth is putting pressure on service provider networks,” said Dan Kelly, executive vice president of global products for Tellabs. “Tellabs solutions enable providers to offer multiple levels of broadband offerings, based on the quality of service and the price that is right for their customers.

Tellabs polled industry professionals at NXTcomm08, the premier industry venue co-owned by the Telecommunications Industry Association (TIA) and the United States Telecom Association (US Telecom). Tellabs conducted the survey on June 17.

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Cyber Crime Feared More Than Burglary, New Study Suggests

June 9, 2008 — netequalizer

ORLANDO, Fla., June 9 /PRNewswire/ — AVG Technologies this week released the results of its own research study that showed U.S. citizens are more concerned about being the victims of cyber crime than burglary or assault.

Of the 1,000 PC users surveyed in March 2008 through market research company Ipsos, 57 percent felt that they will most likely be the victims of cyber crime with only 21 percent believing they will be victims of burglary.

These results can be linked to two key behavioral trends:

  • Very high use of the Internet for increasingly sensitive transactions:
    • 74 percent of users shop online
    • 67 percent of users bank online
    • 63 percent of users pay bills online
  • Low levels of protection with high concerns for cyber-related crime:
    • 15 percent of users surveyed didn’t know when security software was installed on their computers
    • 91percent of users agreed that cyber theft is certainly a concern

While 57 percent of users surveyed said they would most likely be the victims of cyber crime/theft, 73 percent felt confident that they were being protected by their Internet security provider.

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Number of Online Videos Viewed in the U.S. Jumps 13 Percent in March to 11.5 Billion

May 15, 2008 — netequalizer

RESTON, Va. /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — comScore, a leader in measuring the digital world, has released March 2008 data from the comScore Video Metrix service, indicating that U.S. Internet users viewed 11.5 billion online videos during the month, representing a 13-percent gain versus February and a 64-percent gain versus March 2007.

In March, Google Sites once again ranked as the top U.S. video property with more than 4.3 billion videos viewed (38 percent share of all videos), gaining 2.6 share points versus the previous month. YouTube.com accounted for 98 percent of all videos viewed at Google Sites. Fox Interactive Media ranked second with 477 million videos (4.2 percent), followed by Yahoo! Sites with 328 million (2.9 percent) and Viacom Digital with 249 million (2.2 percent).

Nearly 139 million U.S. Internet users watched an average of 83 videos per viewer in March. Google Sites also attracted the most viewers (85.7 million), where they watched an average of 51 videos per person. Fox Interactive attracted the second most viewers (54.3 million), followed by Yahoo! Sites (37.5 million) and Viacom Digital (26.6 million).

Other notable findings from March 2008 include:

  • 73.7 percent of the total U.S. Internet audience viewed online video.
  • 84.8 million viewers watched 4.3 billion videos on YouTube.com (50.4 videos per viewer).
  • 47.7 million viewers watched 400 million videos on MySpace.com (8.4 videos per viewer).
  • The average online video duration was 2.8 minutes.
  • The average online video viewer watched 235 minutes of video.
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Thirst for Bandwidth Increases Across Branch, Internet, and Data Center

May 6, 2008 — netequalizer

NEW YORK/PRNewswire/ — Bandwidth demands at branch locations are skyrocketing, according to Nemertes Research’s Advanced Communications Services benchmark. The study found that IT executives expect an 84% increase in bandwidth available in 2008, and a 99% increase in 2009, up from a 72% increase in 2007.

“The continued demand by remote workers for high-performance collaborative and centralized business applications is the driving force behind these increases,” says Robin Gareiss, Nemertes’ executive vice president and senior founding partner.

Nemertes also found the adoption of managed services at the branch is increasing, and has been for the past three years. Now, 63% of companies use some type of managed service at the branch, compared with 46% in 2007, and 27% in 2006. Participants tend to use traditional carriers for network-based services, such as router management, WAN management and implementations. With resellers, the focus is ongoing management of applications, installation and training. With systems integrators, the focus is on design and implementation. With outsourcers, they center on network or application management.

Other key findings of the research include:

  • Video applications (including desktop, room-based and telepresence) top the list of reasons for bandwidth growth.
  • New collaborative applications, multimedia Web-based applications, and IP telephony are also drivers for bandwidth increase.
  • Management and monitoring tools are crucial for benchmarking costs, performance and utilization.
  • Robust, reliable, high-performance networks are crucial, especially in light of new applications and bandwidth requirements.
  • Optimization tools can assist with curtailing bandwidth spending and improve network monitoring.
  • Forty-nine percent of benchmark participants use managed routers or other network gear at the branch, followed by 22% using IP telephony management.
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Analysis: Vuze’s Allegations Are Anecdotal, But Troubling

May 1, 2008 — netequalizer

The following article recently appeared on ExtremeTech.com.

Analysis: Vuze’s Allegations Are Anecdotal, But Troubling

By Art Reisman

Marvin Ammori of Free Press recently referenced a report issued by a third party company, Vuze, that insinuates with some evidence that ISPs are blocking certain kinds of Internet content.

While I respect Marvin’s right to his opinion, and support the mission of FreePress.net, I was asked to comment on his assertions by the editors of PC Magazine and ExtremeTech.

As to the report issued by Vuze: I read their findings over and they were very careful to point out that their evidence is anecdotal in nature. Other than Comcast, which was outed and forced to admit its practice of blocking peer-to-peer traffic under certain conditions, the report does nothing to convince me conclusively of any deliberate blocking. In today’s world, anybody can assert something from scant evidence and there will be a bandwagon of followers drawing their own conclusions for a variety of reasons. Marvin’s reasons for jumping the bandwagon are noble but I think we must be careful here.

Now let’s get to Marvin’s comments.

“Vuze’s report suggests what many have feared all along: In addition to Comcast, other phone and cable companies may be censoring legal Web traffic over their networks. Many industry practices remain unknown and are increasingly difficult to detect.”

I can not agree more that industry practices are unknown and difficult to detect; that is an understatement and something I alluded to I wrote last year: “Consumers and innovators cannot be expected to police for abuse, nor should they have to accept interference until their network provider is exposed. Until the FCC makes it clear that it will not tolerate Internet blocking, phone and cable companies will continue to engage in this harmful practice.”

However looking to the government to solve this issue with mandates can easily backfire into a quagmire.

The Internet is what it is today exactly because no regulatory body hovers over it at every turn, although it has become vital and one could argue that somebody must protect it. However, the right way to protect it is to use antitrust laws to make sure consumers have a choice. You might also force some truth in advertising laws to insure consumers have accurate information when choosing a provider. Consumers are smart and savvy and will go with the provider that gives them the best service.

However, I would draw the line and not dictate to providers and tell them how to handle traffic congestion. There are legitimate overload situations on a network that can cause gridlock, and an honest effort to avoid these situations is what most ISPs strive for. Yes, some may view this as greedy abhorrent behavior, but you can’t have it both ways. If you want a government-run Internet, then come out and lobby for it — but declare your motives! But for now, these are public companies and over-regulating them will backfire. The way to solve it is with consumer choice and not another office at the FCC.

For example: We have three choices for broadband Internet in my part of Colorado: Comcast, Qwest and Mesa Networks. Mesa is the local wireless ISP here in the Front range. I know for a fact that Mesa Networks does not block or re-direct BitTorrent traffic. The competition is too fierce and being the smaller player, it is in their interest to provide top notch service. Unfortunately, some areas of the country may only have one option and I would concede in this case the FCC needs a soft hand:

1) Do not allow an incumbent to own both wired and licensed frequencies in the same area (if they are the only player). I am aware of several investors that plan to offer high speed internet services over licensed frequencies.

2) Require truth in advertising about contention ratios on a network; contention ratios dictate how many users share an Internet resource.

3) Require ISPs to divulge what bandwidth control techniques they deploy. Note this stops short of telling them what to do.

As for my personal bias, my position as CTO of NetEqualizer, a company that makes bandwidth controllers, seems to insinuate that I am in the pocket of the ISPs. Yes, that is a bias, but for the bulk of this discussion I view the large service providers as a consumer. Big agnostic corporations driven by their stockholders’ greed drive me crazy. Most are not my customers, however I just happen to understand both sides of this equation, as I live and breath bandwidth control for many verticals, and not just public ISPs.

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Does TCP need an overhaul?

April 6, 2008 — netequalizer

Just stumbled upon an article by

Dr. Lawrence G. Roberts, CEO, Anagran Inc.

He discusses the idea of solving Internet Congestion by Fixing the TCP protocol. Here is an excerpt


There has been widespread discussion lately about the unfairness of the primary protocol we rely on with the Internet – Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) – along with many proposals on how to fix it. Since there are clearly many problems with both slow and unfair service, my question is: Should TCP be overhauled to fix today’s congestion control problem, or does the network itself need fixing?

First, the problems include:

  • Multi-flow unfairness – More flows, such as P2P, can consume too much capacity
  • Distance unfairness – Long-distance users get slower service
  • Loss unfairness – Random packet loss slows flows unevenly; Web access is slowed

He then goes on discuss various specific congestion problems and proposes some ways to solve it by mucking with the TCP protocol itself. It is a very good article!

I Just wanted to point out that inside the NetEqalizer we have already brought back fairness to many congested networks without retrofitting TCP. I just wish we were a little better at getting the word out!

Here is the link to the full article

http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=499&doc_id=150113&

Eli Riles

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NetEqualizer Bandwidth Controller Looking Strong During Slowdown

April 5, 2008 — netequalizer

The last several months have been filled with panic and scare by the news media. The world is coming to an end for many reasons. To name a few:

1) Greedy Wall Street firms

2) Greedy oil companies

3) Lack of government oversight on the mortgage industry

4) An unpopular war in IRAQ

5) Child molesters on the Internet

6) Crazed lunatics on college campuses

I suppose you could listen to this and get depressed or you could ignore it and buy a NetEqualizer, which is what many new customers are doing these days.

One factor is obviously our price points. Companies either die or move forward, and part of moving forward involves maintaining a superior communication infrastructure.

During boom years, purchasing a bandwidth controller was an easy sale for our competitors. The Packeteer, Allot, River Bed reps showed up at the door and the typical IT director, opened his pocket, and wrote a check, often dropping 50K without blinking. Now with a slightly uncertain future, the formerly little known NetEqualizer brand, priced too low to be true, is now on par with more expensive traffic shapers.

Our inquires and sales for the first quarter of 2008 are picking up over last year. We have not increased our advertising and we still sell mostly direct, thus keeping our prices down.

In the past week, we had major sales to companies such as Fluor Corporation, Airbus, and some major college accounts.

More to come soon, look for our new release coming out in May 2008.

Eli Riles — For the NetEqalizer

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New NE3000-300 Now Available

March 22, 2008 — netequalizer

APconnections today announced the release of the NetEqualizer NE2000-300. It has all the features of a standard NetEqualizer, CALEA probe, peer-to-peer throttling, priority for voice and optional priority for video.

This unit doubles the effective bandwidth pipe of the current NE2000-150.

For details, contact APconnections at admin@apconnections.net or 303-997-1300.

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APconnections/NetEqualizer Featured in Boulder County Business Report

March 12, 2008 — netequalizer

The article below was recently featured in the Boulder County Business Report…

APconnections helps shape bandwidth with NetEqualizer
By Jules Marie

LAFAYETTE – Once a frustrated homeowner unable to maintain consistent Internet service, Art Reisman is now a global manufacturer of solutions for clogged bandwidth on the Internet.

Reisman, founder of APconnections, has developed NetEqualizer – a device that minimizes the peaks and valleys of Internet use by distributing bandwidth according to preset rules. Customers include the elusive Blackwater USA and the burgeoning Afghanistan wireless industry. The company also has domestic sales to corporations in industries around the country.

NetEqualizer is a bandwidth-shaping system designed for voice and data networks of 100 to 10,000 users. No changes to the existing network are needed, and it installs in minutes.

“Equalizing is the art form of looking at the usage patterns on the network, and then when things get congested, robbing from the rich to give to the poor,” Reisman said. “Rather than writing hundreds of rules to specify allocations to specific traffic as in traditional application shaping, you can simply assume that large downloads are bad; short, quick traffic is good, and be done with it.”

The software has jettisoned APconnections to the front of Internet traffic jams with its built-in fairness rules. When the network is congested the fairness algorithm favors business-class applications, including voice over Internet protocol, Web browsing, chat, and e-mail while delaying by a second an e-mail with 10 attachments.

Growing in popularity is AirEqualizer – proprietary software that minimizes disruptions to wireless network users. Reisman said it solves the hidden node problem found in wireless networks. Think of ‘nodes’ as wireless users, and historically the farther a wireless user was from the remote, the less priority those transmissions received. AirEqualizer balances the flow by using latency – similar to a time delay – which essentially blocks dominant nodes from usurping weaker ones.

Sweat equity, 401(k)s and day jobs financed the company. Minimal development costs were incurred as they added software to off-the-shelf hardware. First to market was the Linux Bandwidth Arbitrator – an open-source freeware program. Open source software is shared, and end users can make and suggest changes, but the software is still copyrighted. APconnections reaped the benefits of debugging advice globally and today enjoys worldwide recognition for its popular anti-clogging software programs.

In addition to the accolades received in cyberspace, APconnections advertised with http://www.adwords.google.com and found it to be a very cost-effective way to advertise on a small budget and is largely responsible for their international business growth.

Reisman’s goals have remained the same since 2003 – slow, steady growth. He declined to state his revenues though he did say that he is very profitable, moves 40 units a month and is growing steadily.

NetEqualizer has proprietary features and is no longer free. The basic device starts at $2,000 and with upgrades approaches $6,000. Reisman said he tries to ignore the competition.

“We stay original by not looking at others’ work. I don’t have the philosophy that we have to beat someone to grow or win. Internet optimization is slowly becoming a commodity. We’re not locking you into our solution, and it doesn’t require upgrades every year to keep it running. We do add new features, but we don’t obsolete customers or sell support contract.

“Philosophically, do the best, live in the now, and good things happen,” he said. “I don’t believe in saying we have to make this much money in order to be successful. We don’t have investors so it’s almost a completely stress-free life. We have a vision, we’re healthy, and we’re growing. We measure ourselves on how relaxed we are.”

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Equalizing Technology: NetEqualizer Offers A New Approach To Application Shaping

January 17, 2008 — netequalizer

Below is a recent editorial featured on Processor.com…

Equalizing Technology
NetEqualizer Offers A New Approach To Application Shaping
by Julie Sartain

Current application shaping products examine the content of Internet packets as they pass through the packet shaper. Using pattern-matching techniques, the packet shaper determines, in real time, the application type of each packet and then proceeds to restrict or allow the data based on a set of rules established by the system administrators.

Administrators can use these programs and define rules to restrict or allow any application that exists, but it takes an incredible amount of effort to keep pace. There is one product, however, that’s trying a new approach called equalizing technology. This product is NetEqualizer (800/918-2763; www.netequalizer.com) from a Colorado-based company called APconnections.

The Problems

According to Art Reisman, CEO at APconnections, pattern-matching techniques work on most classified packets, but what if the rules are set to restrict all packets containing ASCII characters or words such as Rhapsody, Napster, or bit torrent? One of these packets might contain a company-wide memo explaining the corporate policies regarding the usage of these programs on company computers. Pattern-matching rules would restrict this memo attachment.

In addition, many companies intentionally refuse to classify their communications, so their packets slip past the application-shaping products. Seems like a small issue, unless hundreds of these junk mail packets are slipping through onto thousands of desktops in your company nationwide on a daily basis. Then it becomes a huge problem, as the bandwidth is usurped to process this unwanted garbage.

Even if an application-shaping product can identify 90% of the spectrum of apps (and that’s a lot), notes Reisman, 10% is still unclassified. Your options are to either monitor and manually classify that 10%, which is very time-consuming and costly, or allow those packets to pass without restrictions.

Solutions

“Our products can, generally, extend the capacity of your Internet from 25 to 50%,” says Reisman. “This means you can have that many more people using the Internet without adding more bandwidth.”

There is always the potential for a few users to overwhelm the Internet connection, he notes. But when applied to many verticals such as ISPs, libraries, schools, colleges, and businesses with 50 or more employees, the NetEqualizer prevents this from happening.

“NetEqualizer appliances automatically shape traffic based on built-in fairness rules,” notes Reisman. “This method allows network administrators/operators to quickly and easily bring network traffic into balance without having to build and manage extensive policy libraries and all without changes to their existing network infrastructure.”

How It Works

Reisman explains that APconnections looked at how systems keep one process from locking up the whole computer. For example, Microsoft Windows (www.microsoft.com) does not handle this well; however, Linux and Unix, as well as some of the other server equipment that’s available, do. The premise of these products is that no single computer program is allowed to dominate the CPU, so everything that’s running gets a turn. “We then applied this tried-and-true methodology to an Internet link,” says Reisman. “The result is NetEqualizer.”

NetEqualizer uses behavior-based shaping, adds Reisman. It looks at the behavior of abuse on an Internet link and then takes action based on that. When the network is congested, the fairness algorithm favors business-class applications, such as VoIP, Web browsing, chat, and email, at the expense of large file downloads.

The other available products (that is, the competition) try to classify specific varieties of traffic by type. Intuitively, the classification by type is easy for customers to understand, but implementing that process is very time-consuming, and the cost of trying to identify every type of traffic on the Internet is overwhelming and nearly impossible. NetEqualizer, on the other hand, always gets the bad guys because bad behavior is not a function of application type. And, as an added bonus, customers do not have to relicense the technology every month; it just works.

In addition, says Reisman, all the settings can be changed in real time, with no effect on network service quality. And, NetEqualizer allows priority to traffic for hosts that are not supposed to be shaped. Also (for organizations that require 100% network uptime), the NetEqualizer architecture allows customers to build a redundant system by configuring two NetEqualizer products running in parallel.

R&D History

“We started with no backing money, so we built a simple open-source version of the concept and begged people to try it,” says Reisman. The product excelled and then rose to one of the top 100 open-source projects in the world. (That’s considered extremely high when most top open-source projects are targeted to the general consumer.) Then, the company commercialized and enhanced it and contracted with a hardware manufacturer to produce it. There are now more than 1 million end users on six continents behind the NetEqualizer equipment.

“We had many setbacks in the early going,” says Reisman. “Mostly just trying to get the product stable and keep it running on a reasonably priced piece of hardware.”

Most of APconnections’ market is customers who desperately need something but don’t want to pay $50,000 to optimize their $500-a-month Internet trunk. Getting the product stable in heavy use required the company to purchase sophisticated simulation equipment to troubleshoot the last few hard-to-find bugs. (That was more than three years ago.) Since then, APconnections has had reports of its servers in continuous, heavy use for years at a time without rebooting. “We are very proud of that,” says Reisman.

What’s New?

According to Reisman, the company has recently adopted this technology into an AP (access point) and, quite by accident, have solved a common problem called the hidden node issue, which has plagued 802.11 operators for years. There are other options for this problem, but these choices lock customers into proprietary solutions. APconnections’ solution is completely compatible with existing 802.11 wireless technologies, so customers can mix and match its AP without replacing everything.

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NetEqualizer Trivia, Famous Encounters with bandwidth shaping

January 12, 2008 — netequalizer

What do Lance Armstrong, Barack Obama have in common with NetEqualizer? Read on to find out.

The engineers at APconnections, being the geeks that they are, like to play a little game of trying to make a valid case for famous people who may have used a NetEqualizer. Loosely defined this means have they ever logged into the Internet through an ISP provider that uses NetEqualizer for their bandwidth control.

Obviously most of this game based on p racticalspeculation, but there are some compelling cases.  In the case of Barack Obama it is a matter of timing. The diplomatic American Embassy in Kabul runs an unsecured  wireless internet service for employees and visitors. A few months ago they purchased and installed a NetEqualizer , seems there internet link was getting a bit overloaded.  We also know from our sources inside the embassy, that Diplomats, including US Congressmen and Senators, will often stop over, open their laptops and use the wireless network in the Embassy to check personal e-mail. So it is very likely that various US Senators and Congressmen have been logged into our system there, especially over the holidays when they are drumming up support by posing with the troops.  Unfortunately our research shows that Senator Obama’s recent world wide tour had him in Kabul on July 19th. The NetEqualizer did not arrive at the embassy until early October of this year.  A minor disappointment, but things are looking good for the next president.

Note: Sitting presidents do not use public Wi-fi systems when traveling.

Other likely famous users include Lance Armstrong. The Olympic Cycling training center in Colorado springs deploys a NetEqualizer going on two years now certainly Lance has stopped by once or twice over the years?  As for Sarah Palin,  we have quite a few units scattered around  regional ISPs in the state of Alaska.  If Sarah Palin gets out and about with her laptop, there is a good chance she has logged into the Internet through one of our units.

Since we first published this article back in November 2008, we added the Vancouver International Airport as well 100,000 additional users through ISPs throughout the world. We’ll keep searching for celebrity sitings as they come in.

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Taming the Net in the Middle East

December 26, 2007 — netequalizer

Here’s an article about NetEqualizer’s work in Iraq and Afghanistan that appeared in the Boulder Daily Camera…

Taming the Net in the Middle East

By Brian Martinez For the Camera

In 2003, the Lafayette-based APconnections launched its first commercial sales of the NetEqualizer. Today, the company has expanded across the world and helped establish stable Internet connections in Iraq and Afghanistan for major companies such as Blackwater USA.The NetEqualizer is a “plug-and-play bandwidth control” system, which means it regulates an Internet network by monitoring all the people connected and detecting potential crashes of the system.

In the event of a possible system crash, the NetEqualizer re-prioritizes power distribution giving priority to things like e-mail and Web browsing over large file downloads, preventing a system shut-down and helping with the congestion of the Internet network.

“Think of it as regulating traffic as it merges onto the highway,” said Art Reisman, CEO and president of APconnections. “If it weren’t for the NetEqualizer, traffic would come to a standstill. It puts a delay on things like big downloads to slow them down.

“But the key is it’s temporary — if we didn’t, everything in the network would come to a halt.”

The NetEqualizer has become the “bandwidth optimization technology” of overseas companies such as Afghan Wireless, which was the first firm to provide public Internet access in Afghanistan, and Blackwater USA, the controversial personal-security company with the largest presence in the region.

Afghan Telecom, which became the official telecommunications provider of the government when it was incorporated by the Ministry of Communications and Internet Technology in 2005, also uses the NetEqualizer. APconnections currently has supplied NetEqualizer to more than 10 companies in the region.

“We don’t want to take credit for anything grand over there,” Reisman said. “We’re just providing a service. But it’s good they have a product like ours that they can count on. But we’re not going to create an office over there or anything.”

NetEqualizers are used all over the world, including Africa. This summer, APconnections announced it has served more than 1 million Internet users.

APconnections competes with the Israeli product NetEnforcer and the California-based company Packeteer, both of which provide products with similar services as the NetEqualizer.

“We do things a little differently than those companies, but still accomplish the same things a little cheaper,” Reisman said. “We’ve kind of developed a cult following. We’re the smaller player, but the people who use us would never switch.”

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