[Preface]

With the continuous emergence and development of smart phones and various tablet devices, most families have several mobile phones, tablets, desktops or laptops. To access the Internet at the same time, wireless routers are essential devices. In recent years, several major brands have also launched their own wireless routers, and some well-known popular brands are also constantly improving their routers. In order to make a breakthrough in such an increasingly mature market, we really need to use our brains. We must base ourselves on innovation to have more development potential.

Dandelion router uses such a brain. On October 14, 2015, the peanut shell company, known for its dynamic domain name resolution, launched the dandelion enterprise level intelligent networking router. Its highlight is that it is the first router adopting VPC (Virtual Private Cloud) technology, which can realize intelligent cross Internet networking. Multiple routes under the same peanut shell account are interconnected, and it is very simple to build a private LAN. Let's see how the dandelion router performs from several aspects.

[Actor: dandelion router]

    The protagonist of this article is the dandelion router in the figure below. At the beginning, I had a good feeling when I saw its name. I liked dandelion very much. When it bloomed, when the wind blew, the white hairs drifted away with the wind, and went to a new place to continue to nurture life. It also has very high medicinal value. Once my blog name also has the word dandelion. The name of the router is also a little refreshing.

Official website of dandelion router: The price on the official website is 198 yuan, and you can get a discount of 8.5% if you buy 3 sets. The whole machine is guaranteed for one year.

[Unpacking picture]

I have been looking forward to it since I received the short message from Leifeng. com. When I went out to pick up the express delivery in Nanjing, it was almost 10 degrees below zero. It was already freezing and cold. Although the sun was good, I could not feel warm. It's really hard for those express boys to insist on delivering express goods in such cold weather. When the express is later than usual, please don't complain, wait patiently, it will come.

When the dandelion router sent it, the package was small, a little larger than some mobile phone boxes. The packaging box is protected by plastic foam.

Remove the plastic foam to expose the packing box. The overall design of the packaging box is very simple, The brand logo is only marked with a black dotted line in the middle of the front, and the logo and brand name are on the upper right corner.

The side of the two long sides reads: Dandelion, enterprise intelligent networking route, highlighting the highlight of this router from the packaging.

The two short sides are simple, only the logo of dandelion.

On the top of the back is the slogan of the dandelion router, "Give you a connected world". The main features of dandelion router are listed below.

Look at the specific features below the back. The main features are: intelligent networking, embedded peanut shells, cloud management platform. The product name, model, power specification, management address, default password, official website, manufacturer, 3C certification mark, environmental protection service life of 10 years, and MAC address and SN number of the router are also listed. SN number and default password are also available at the bottom of the router. These two information are very important and should be used in configuration.

Next, open the box formally. The overall package is in a box. It takes a little effort to open it. It can't be opened with only one hand. What's interesting is that there is a mystery hidden in the inner box. There are 4 paragraphs and 4 pictures on the four sides of the inner box. It's interesting to tell a story about an IT male pony and a dandelion router.

Let's see this story.

Finally, let's see what's in the box? On the top is a product manual.

Take off the manual and see two layers. The upper layer is the dandelion router, which is separated by cardboard for protection.

The lower layer is the power adapter and power cord.

A family photo of the dandelion router, that is, the package list: a dandelion router, a power adapter, a power cord, and a product manual.

Content 1: Product manual

The product manual adopts a foldout design, and the cover design is very simple. Only the product name and logo are marked, and the large space is blue, This is consistent with the style of the official website of dandelion, which is also dominated by blue. The white background of the fold is very clear, indicating the packing list, the name of the router interface, the login to the cloud management platform, and the after-sales policy: the dandelion router is guaranteed for one year, free of charge for quality problems, and is returned for 8 days without reason, as well as the two-dimension code of the dandelion public account.

The flip page on the back shows the steps of intelligent networking. The biggest highlight of this product is intelligent networking, which is very simple and does not require professional network management. The steps on the fold are: 1. Log in to the dandelion management platform; 2. Creating intelligent networks; 3. Install the user version client, and you can access the intelligent network anytime and anywhere even when you are away on business; 4. Precautions.

Content 2: Power cord

The power cord is also a highlight. Have you noticed? Its interface is Micro USB, which is great. The power adapter of the previously used wireless router should be connected to the socket, and the interface is circular hole. For example, when the students' dormitories are powered off at night, they can't use them and can't play with their mobile phones freely. With the Micro USB port, you can use the mobile power supply directly.

The mobile power supply is used for testing, and the operation is normal.

Content 3: Power adapter

The power adapter shall be marked with the model, input and output voltage, current, and manufacturer. There are also 3C certification marks, double insulation and indoor use marks.

Both sides of the power adapter are dotted with radians.

Content 4: Taraxacum intelligent networking router

The dandelion router is positioned as an enterprise level intelligent networking device, and its overall shape is also a business style. Its main color is silver, and the front middle is marked with the dandelion logo. The design is simple and generous, square and upright. From the official website information, it is 128.8mm long, 88mm wide and 23.5mm thick. I have measured the length, width and thickness with a ruler. The parameters are basically the same. The entire router is about the same size as other routers. It is made of aluminum alloy. The surface film is made of sand blasting and anodizing. It feels a little cool in winter, but it feels good.

The thickness is more intuitive, about the size of a dollar coin.

The display screen is protected by a thin film when it is just received, and three icons can be vaguely seen, namely, power, networking and Wi Fi. When the corresponding functions are enabled, the blue light will light up, which can be seen later.

There are two external antennas with 5dBi gain, which can not be disassembled, but can be rotated freely to change direction.

Then look at the rear interfaces. From left to right, they are: reset key RST (small hole), one 100M WAN port (blue), three 100M LAN ports (yellow), and micro USB ports. The WAN port and LAN port are respectively equipped with a yellow indicator light. One thing to say is that the router reset key used previously is a prominent small round button, which can be directly pressed for a few seconds. But the dandelion router is a concave hole, which needs to be pressed with a needle for a few seconds.

The information on the back is also very simple. In addition to the brand name and logo, there are also information such as product model, power specification, management address, default password, product name, manufacturer, website and SN number.

[Specific parameters]

The official website of dandelion has specific parameters of the product, which are listed below. This model: D1509。

[Connect Router]

Connect the power adapter with the power cord and connect it to the PWR port of the router. Plug the power adapter into the socket, connect the network cable connected to the operator to the WAN port, and turn on the power. When the power supply is just turned on, the four yellow indicators of the WAN port and the LAN port will flash. Wait a few seconds, and only the indicators of the WAN port will be on. The wireless WI-FI of OrayBox_xxxx will also appear. xxxx is the last four digits of the MAC address, and the WI-FI is not set with security protection.

The front power key and WI-FI icon light up.

[Basic Settings]

Next, we need to make a simple configuration. You can use a mobile phone or a computer, but it is also a browser on the mobile phone. It is recommended to use the computer directly for the first configuration. The previously used wireless router management IP address is 192.168.1.1. The dandelion router is not. It has a cloud management platform. When you first enter oraybox.com in the browser address bar, the following interface will appear. The dandelion router can automatically detect whether the Internet access mode is broadband dialing, dynamic IP or static IP. For broadband dialing, you need to enter the broadband account and broadband password from the operator below, and click "Go online now" after entering.

After clicking "Go Online Now", an interface for entering the device password will pop up. Note that the password here is not the SN code, but the initial password of the router, admin. I have entered it incorrectly several times.

The above interface will only appear during initial settings. Then enter the web address oraybox.com , the following interface will appear directly. The background is well done, which means an interconnected world. Use the SN code login method. The SN code and password can be found on the back of the packaging box or the back of the router. If a remote LAN has been established to manage multiple devices, peanut shell account login is optional.

After login, the first login box will pop up. You can set the name and management password of the router, and bind the mobile phone and mailbox. Enter the information so that you can name the router.

In addition, notice that there is a row of white characters on a black background at the top of the entire page, which can be linked to these websites: peanut shells, sunflowers, dandelions, domain name websites Oray、 Mall, community, customer service and management center.

This is the upgrade interface that pops up. Click Upgrade.

[Taraxacum cloud management interface homepage]

The following is the dandelion cloud management interface after setting the router name. The top three big circles are local devices (number of connections, wired or wireless), dandelion routers (including router names and IP addresses), and public network IP addresses. They all have uplink and downlink speeds, and networking information. When intelligent networking is not implemented, the third big circle cannot be clicked and has no content. Click the circle of the router to get the following interface, which displays the router name SN code, MAC address, LAN IP address, subnet mask, DHCP status and routing system version. If the font here is blue, it indicates that it can be set. Click to enter the management interface, but you can also enter the management interface in another place. Next, if the font color is black, it cannot be changed. For example, SN code and MAC address are black. In addition to these information, there are three circles that show the CPU load, memory usage, and the percentage of Flash usage. However, the percentage of memory usage is a little high.

Click the local device to see the number and specific information of the devices connected to the dandelion router. In the device name column, the symbol on the left can see whether it is an Apple device or an Android device, how to connect, their respective MAC address, IP address, downlink and uplink speed, and speed limit settings. Whether to allow networking can filter the devices that do not want to be networked. This is very convenient for managing your own wireless network and preventing network scratching.

In the figure above, you can see that the fonts on both sides are blue, indicating that they can be modified. The first is the name of the device, which can be named for your own device, so that it is easy to manage. The other is speed limit setting. Click the blue font, and the following setting interface will appear. You can open the speed limit switch and enter the limit values of upload bandwidth and download bandwidth.

[Device Management Interface]

The above interfaces are the home page interfaces of the dandelion router. Click the device management in the upper right corner to enter the management interface. There are many functions in the management function interface. See the list on the left. Specific functions include: intelligent networking, system information, Internet settings, WI-FI devices, LAN settings, password modification, system upgrade, restart routing, restore factory settings, port mapping, DHCP settings, custom HOST, network MTU, intelligent QoS, MAC address cloning, MAC and IP binding, MAC Internet access control, DNS settings, static routing, and DMZ.

[System Information]

The following two pictures show the content of system information, so the font of system information in the left list is blue, that is, the information currently displayed. The content of system information is also very complete, including Internet access information, wireless network information, LAN information, router information, and the items that can be modified also have the blue word "modify" next to them.

[Internet Settings]

Internet settings display the Internet access method and the broadband account and password entered at the beginning.

[WI-FI setting]

The next important and necessary setting is the WI-FI setting, because so far, the WI-FI used is the default name and is not encrypted, which is definitely not possible. In the WI-FI setting interface, the 2.4G network switch is turned on by default, below which you can enter the name, password, signal strength and wireless channel selection. There is an option on the right side of the name. To hide the name from detection, don't select it. I just couldn't help but select it, but I couldn't find WI-FI. I had to press the reset key of the router to restore the factory settings and reset from the beginning. There is also an option for password. No password is set. It is selected by default. It is recommended to cancel and set the Internet password. There are three options for signal strength: energy-saving mode, standard mode and through wall mode. Standard mode is selected by default. If the router is placed in the bedroom and the Internet is usually connected in the bedroom, you can choose the energy-saving mode to reduce radiation. If the area is larger, select the standard mode. If several walls are separated, the through wall mode can be selected, the signal transmission power will be higher, the natural radiation will also be higher, the power consumption will be more, and the equipment loss will be greater. The wireless channel has automatic and 1-13 options. The default is automatic.

After the Wi Fi settings are completed, the following interface will pop up to restart the router. Remember to refresh later. Because you have set the password, you have to find WI-FI for the first time and enter the password to connect to the Internet.

[LAN setting and password modification]

The LAN setting and password modification interfaces are relatively simple, so we will not put the picture. LAN settings display the IP address (modifiable) and subnet mask of the dandelion router.

[System upgrade]

Automatic update can be turned on. The system version is displayed here. For those who love to struggle, they can also switch to the development version, which will weaken the stability.

[Restart route and restore factory settings]

There is only one button on the interface of restarting route and restoring factory settings, namely the button of immediately restarting and the button of immediately restoring. Click Restart Now. The restart process takes about 2 minutes, and the network and WI-FI will be disconnected. Click Restore Now, The router will return to the factory state, clear all set information, and disconnect all devices connected to the router. It's relatively simple here, so I won't put any pictures here.

[Port Mapping]

Click Add Map in the upper right corner to pop up the following interface, where you can set the protocol. You can select TCP, UDP or TCP/UDP.

[DHCP Settings]

The DHCP switch is on by default. You can set the IP address range and lease time. When the lease period expires, the device will regain the IP address, which will not affect the Internet access.

[Custom HOST]

You can customize HOST, Connect some commonly used web addresses and domain names with their corresponding IP addresses Improve the access speed of web pages. There are sample statements on the page.

[Network MTU]

MTU（ Maximum Transmission Unit ）The maximum transmission unit is 1500 bytes by default, but it can be changed in this interface. It is recommended to default.

[Intelligent QoS]

Intelligent QoS The function is suitable for enterprises. When working in an enterprise, due to the large number of users, many computers use bandwidth to access the Internet at the same time, which may cause some users to have a slow network speed. use QoS， You can limit the maximum bandwidth of each host in the network, prevent a user from occupying too much bandwidth resources, and ensure that users can access the Internet normally.

There are not many devices for home use, so I don't think it is necessary to open them.

[MAC address clone]

With this function, you can Let multiple clients share broadband Internet access.

[MAC and IP binding]

Click Add Binding in the upper right corner to pop up the following interface, which will display the names, IP addresses, and MAC addresses of all devices currently connected to the WI-FI. Select the required binding and click Bind in the upper left corner.

[MAC access control]

If the control switch is turned on and the MAC address is entered, the network can be disabled to prevent network scratching.

[DNS Settings]

You can enter the preferred and alternate DNS, or click the blue font to use the recommended DNS.

[Static routing DMZ ］

The standard router version used does not support static routing and DMZ functions. To enable it, you need to upgrade the router version or try to switch to the development version.

[Application Center Interface]

The application center interface is as follows, mainly including peanut shell dynamic domain name resolution and sunflower remote boot. The remote boot function is not available yet.

[WI-FI test]

Let's do a WI-FI test at my home. My home area is about 103 square meters. The floor plan is as follows. The router is placed in the corner of the living room to test the signals at six points A, B, C, D, E and F. The distance between the router and these six points is about 4m without partition, 4m with a sliding door, 8m with partition, 4m with partition, 7m with partition and 5m with partition.

In the following test, the router mode is the standard mode. The results are as follows. The signal strength can also be seen from the WI-FI icon above. Point A: - 54dBm, point B: － 60 DBm, point C: － 72 DBm, point D: － 68 DBm, point E: － 69 DBm, point F: － 58 dBm。 It can be seen that the unblocked point A signal is the best, followed by the point F at the gate. In the room with wall isolation, the worst is only two WI-FI signals. The standard mode performs generally.

Next, test the through wall mode of the router, and the results are as follows. Point A: - 46dBm, point B: － 57 DBm, point C: － 64 DBm, point D: － 58 DBm, point E: － 63 DBm, point F: － 54 dBm。 The worst Wi Fi signals become three bars. It can be seen from the comparison that the signal of the through wall mode is much stronger than that of the standard mode, which depends on your needs.

[Intelligent networking]

Intelligent networking is a highlight of dandelion router, like VPN. When the company has several branches, needs to access the intranet at the same time, or has several branches in many places, you can use the dandelion router to form a remote LAN. Dandelion router adopts VPC technology, and does not need public network IP. Even if you do not understand network management knowledge, you can quickly build a remote LAN interconnection by reading the instructions, which is simple and easy to use.

From the official website, the intelligent networking of dandelion router is divided into free level and professional level, free level does not charge, and professional level each router is 128 yuan/year. The specific differences are as follows.

To realize intelligent networking, you also need to return to the device management interface of dandelion cloud management. The first item on the left is intelligent networking, and the interface is as follows. It only takes two steps. The first step is to put the dandelion intelligent networking device under the same oracle account. The second step is to click to create a network immediately.

Click the "I want to network" button. If you have an oracle account, you will enter the login interface. If not, you need to register one. After registration and login, the following interface appears.

Before intelligent networking, you can make preparations and add the router to be networked to the device list. Click the device list in the upper right corner to enter the following interface. Click the top left corner to add a router, and enter the SN code and password. For example, the following figure has added a dandelion router. But this step can also be done in networking.

It doesn't matter if you don't click the device list first, you can add it below. Assuming that no device has been added before, click the "Create Network Now" button, and the following interface will appear, where you can enter the network name. For the free level of network type, only peer-to-peer networks can be selected, that is, members are connected to each other.

If no router has been added to the device list before, you need to add a router first. Just enter the SN code and device name. At most three routers can be added to the free level. Then select the router to be networked, and the list on the left will guide the list of selected network members on the right. However, be sure to note that the IP addresses of the added routers are not consistent, and it is recommended to use different network segments, and then click Finish.

After completion, enter this interface, where you can also modify the created network name, manage members, add visitors, delete members, and so on. So far, the networking step is over, isn't it very simple? Even the Internet Xiaobai can understand this step. You don't need to find a professional network administrator anymore.

Back on the home page of dandelion cloud management, due to the implementation of the intelligent networking operation, the third big circle will become the networking icon, and the network name will be displayed, which can be clicked. However, since there is only one dandelion router on my side, there is no router connected to another place, so there is no network member on this side.

The above is the networking test of a single dandelion router. The steps are the same as those of multiple routers.

It must be noted that the routers for remote networking must all be dandelion routers, and the dandelion routers for networking must all be placed under the same peanut shell account. In order to practice this function, I later contacted another small partner "geek man" on trial, and really came to a remote networking. "Geek man" is located in Hefei, and my location is in Nanjing. thank With the strong support of "geek man", this is a real joint test.

The steps of intelligent networking are the same as those above, so I will not play it again. But please note that a dandelion router can only access a remote LAN. What we tested was to add my router "Geek man" created a LAN called "Lei Feng Trial", so I had to unbind it first. You can enter the intelligent networking interface to delete the network I built earlier. If it also shows that it is bound, you don't need to worry. When adding a router, click Continue to Add and enter the management password of the router to unbind it.

The following figure shows the information of two dandelion routers added before networking. SN number and device name will be displayed. Click Management on the right to enter the cloud management home page of a router.

After the network is built, I log in to my router and see that the third circle of the dandelion cloud management interface shows that my router has joined the LAN named "Lei Feng Trial". Click this circle to see other member information and the connection type is P2P peer-to-peer connection. My router IP address is 10.168.1.1, and The router IP address of "Geek Man" is 10.168.11.1, which can be seen in the same LAN.

In addition, click Intelligent Networking in Device Management to see the above information.

Next, let's see whether it is connected. Use the ping command to test. You can see that my computer can be used to ping the other router 10.168.11.1.

Then use my computer to ping the other party's computer 10.168.11.154, which is also available, indicating that the LAN has been successfully created. But really speaking, there was a problem at the beginning when we tried, that is, we must pay attention to that the original IP address of the added router must be in different places and different network segments.

After the successful networking, you can team up to play games, share files and photos, and work remotely. In a word, kids in different places can play happily in the local area network. However, the file transfer rate still needs to be improved.

Finally, let's talk about how to delete a LAN if you don't want to build one? To delete the LAN, you must log in to the peanut shell account of the network. There is a management center at the top and right, and there is a product management under the list. Click the dandelion to enter the following interface. I spent some time looking for it here.

Enter the dandelion management interface, you can modify the name of the LAN. There is a delete icon on the far right. Click to delete the network directly. If you don't want to delete the network and want to delete members, just select Delete in the member list. You can also add visitors. The operation is very simple.

[Summary]

Finally, it is time to summarize the experience of dandelion router.

1. The name of the dandelion router is really small and fresh, but its appearance is standard, there is nothing particularly outstanding, the material is good, very business style, the size is about the same as the ordinary wireless router, and it is not as large and heavy as the imagined enterprise router.

2. One dandelion router costs 198 yuan, and you can get a discount of 8.5% when you buy three. Just enough to buy one is an ordinary wireless router. When enough to buy more than one, you can network in different places. Of course, the free networking can only be connected to three at most. This function is great and cost-effective.

3. Micro USB is used as the power cable, so students' dormitories are not afraid of power failure. Mobile power can be used for power supply.

4. Input directly in the browser without installing APP or software Oraybox.com can log in to the special Dandelion cloud management platform has a clear interface and is easy to use.

5. The function of intelligent networking is absolutely powerful, and the Internet Xiaobai is not afraid of it. It does not need professional technicians. It can achieve remote networking in two simple steps, and it is stable and reliable. This highlight is definitely the biggest selling point.. Of course, the first networking may still have to be explored, but it is really simple, and should be completed within half an hour. In addition, the peanut shell is embedded, supporting the intranet version and the public version.

6. Previously, home wireless routers were often easy to be disconnected and had to be repeatedly plugged in and out, which was very annoying. The dandelion router is still relatively stable in use, and the LAN connection process is also relatively stable, but it still needs to be further tested. Stability is also a very important performance of routers.

7. It is suitable for families, student dormitories, small and medium-sized enterprises, chain stores, business trips and other occasions, and is very easy to use.

Of course, the dandelion router still has something to improve. It has only a 100 megabit interface, no gigabit interface, and no expansion port. In addition, when logging in for the first time, it is necessary to enter the mobile phone number and verification code, which has never been encountered with other routers before. There is also nothing particularly outstanding about wireless WI-FI 2.4G and 300Mbps. In addition, the instructions are relatively simple, and some operations may require more searching to become proficient.

Expect more wonderful dandelion!

Finally, thank you for the trial opportunity provided by "Lei Feng Trial" and the cooperation of "Geek Man". Thank you for your patience and support!