DrayTek


DrayTek is a manufacturer of broadband CPE, including firewalls, VPN devices, routers and wireless LAN devices. The company was founded in 1997. Their earliest products included ISDN based solutions, the first being the ISDN Vigor128, a USB terminal adaptor for Windows and Mac OS. This was followed by the ISDN Vigor204 ISDN terminal adaptor/PBX and Vigor2000, their first router. Their head office is in Hsinchu, Taiwan with regional offices and distributors worldwide.
DrayTek was one of the first manufacturers to bring VPN technology to low cost routers, helping with the emergence of viable teleworking. In 2004, DrayTek released the first of their VoIP products which has become one of their key areas. In 2006, new products aimed at enterprises debuted, including larger scale firewalls and Unified Threat Management firewalls products however the UTM Firewalls did not sell in sufficient volume and the UTM products ceased development and production.
DrayTek's product line offers business and consumer DSL modems with support for the PPPoA standard compared to the more the widely supported PPPoE for use with full-featured home routers and home computers without more expensive ATM hardware. PPPoA is used primarily in the UK for ADSL lines. Most Vigor routers provide a virtual private network endpoint connection, either as LAN-to-LAN or as teleworker 'dial in' for a single remote device. In 2011, DrayTek added SSL VPN facilities into their range.
Although DrayTek do produce some products using Linux, most of their products are based around their own proprietary DrayOS operating system. Linux products includes the Vigor 3900, 2960 and the VigorAP wireless access points, though each of these relies on a large proportion of proprietary code.
DrayTek was floated on the Taiwanese OTC securities market in 2001.

Vigor 2200USB

DrayTek released the Vigor2200USB router in the UK in 2002, a unique router for ADSL, the only router able to be connected to BT's newly launched USB-modem based ADSL service. The router did not incorporate a modem, but allowed certain specified USB ADSL modems to be connected; at the time many Internet Service Providers required their USB modems to be used rather than allowing connection of ADSL equipment directly to the telephone line. The product was devised in the UK by and developed by DrayTek engineers. This was the only router supporting a separate USB modem, and was the only router compatible with BT's new USB ADSL service. These factors made it very popular and firmly established DrayTek as a key player in the broadband Internet hardware market in the UK.

BT MCT SIN 498 Compliance

For the UK market, DrayTek were granted MCT approval for their VDSL2 products in 2015, a mandatory requirement for products connected to the UK network operated by BT Openreach.

VigorSwitch V1281

DrayTek released the VigorSwitch V1281 in 2018, starting a new product category converging AV applications with IP Switching. The VigorSwitch V1281 was an Ethernet switch, specifically intended for switching IP based video feeds between sources and outputs. A companion app for Android/iOS allowed selections of sources. The VigorSwitch V1281 was designed by Michael Spalter and developed by DrayTek's engineers using their new switch operating system. The V1281 was compatible with various 3rd party HDMI-IP adaptors, as well as DrayTek's own HVE290. A scripting API allows integration with 3rd party home automatic system. The VigorSwitch V1281 was initially available in the UK only.

VigorACS

VigorACS is DrayTek's own management system which allows the mass management, reporting and control of DrayTek product estates. It supports the latest generation of routers, wireless access points and Ethernet switches. DrayTek VigorACS can be run on customer's own servers, on commercial cloud hosted platforms or as a subscription on DrayTek's servers.

Vigor 120 & Vigor 130

The Vigor 120 and Vigor 130 were modems introduced to allow the connection of Ethernet-based routers/firewalls to DSL lines. Many such products do not have built-in DSL interfaces of their own, or need additional modem connectivity for multiple WAN ports. The Vigor 120 was devised in the UK where PPPoA was commonly used for ADSL and where the PPPoA-to-PPPoE bridging provided a transparent connection for the secondary router/firewall. As a BT approved device, the Vigor 130 also ensures compliant with Openreach rules which mandate that approved. In some regions, the Vigor 120/130 were developed further to add very basic router facilities.

Products

This is an approximate chronological order of all major DrayTek products from 1997:

Router / Modem