So what made you want to put this kind of feature into your Wi-Fi router? Mr. Yoshida said the following about the impetus.
"The development started with the idea that it would be difficult to understand what was connected to Wi-Fi and who was connected." As the number of devices connected to Fi has increased, the issue has become more apparent.”
It's true that the number of devices connected to Wi-Fi today is far greater than it was a few years ago. All kinds of devices such as smartphones, tablets, PCs, game consoles, TVs, recorders, and home appliances are becoming connected via Wi-Fi.
In this situation, few people can answer immediately how many devices are currently connected to Wi-Fi. With this, if you cannot determine whether the Wi-Fi router you are currently using can provide sufficient performance, even if a device you do not know is connected illegally, you will not notice it at all. I can't.
Mr. Yoshida continues. “There have been general functions such as MAC address filtering for functions to manage devices connected to Wi-Fi. It was difficult to understand and not a function that everyone could use.”
When Wi-Fi first appeared, MAC address filtering was often introduced as an almost essential function along with passwords for encryption, but recently it is not said that it is actively used. hard. Mr. Yoshida said, "I decided to make it easier to use because I wanted many people to use it, including those who are not so familiar with it," says Mr. Yoshida.
"Fortunately, we have provided a function called 'Kodomo Anshin Net Timer', which is an advanced version of MAC address filtering and can control the Internet connection time. This function has been well received by families with children. This is a function that we already had, but we wanted to take this opportunity to make it even easier to use and have it be used by a wider range of people, so we have evolved it into a 'visible and secure net'" (Mr. Yoshida).
However, no matter how easy it is to understand, it is a function that is not very well known in the first place. Therefore, the company also conducts market research.
After explaining in advance about the "visualization" function that allows you to manage information on devices connected to Wi-Fi, we surveyed whether or not you are interested in "visualization", 59% of the total In addition to answering that they are interested, among Wi-Fi users, 79% of users using high-speed Wi-Fi routers of 3 × 3 or higher answered that they were interested.
It is clear from this result that many users are worried about not being able to grasp the full picture of the connected device and whether the device is properly connected. Rather than being complacent on the manufacturer's side, it's very serious about implementing functions after confirming whether there is a user's need.