| Type | Network hardware manufacturing |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1997 |
| Headquarters | Hsin-Chu, Taiwan |
| Key people | President & Founder: Calvin Ma |
| Products | Network hardware |
| Employees | 700+ (as of March 2007) |
| Website | www.draytek.com |
DrayTek is a Taiwanese manufacturer of broadband equipment, including firewalls, VPN devices, routers and wireless LAN devices. The company was founded in 1997 by a team of experienced engineers who decided to form their own company and create what they feel are superior network products. 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.
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 (Voice-Over-IP) 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 (UTM) firewalls products.
DrayTek's Vigor line offers the only modern consumer DSL-ethernet 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. Most Vigors also allow a virtual private network (VPN) connection directly to the router, without the need to pass through the VPN packets to a VPN server running on a computer. With appropriate configuration it is possible to make a VPN connect remotely to a Vigor router, use Wake on LAN to start up a computer connected to it, and make a remote administration connection to control the computer.
DrayTek was floated on the Taiwanese OTC Securities market in 2001. Google Finance Page.
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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 ("wires-only" service). The product was devised in the UK by SEG Communications 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, which made it very popular and firmly established DrayTek as a key player in the broadband Internet hardware market in the UK.[1]
This is an approximate chronological order of all major DrayTek products from 1997: