Cisco takes the Flip approach to Home Routers

One of the most essential tech products at home is also probably the one you hate the most: your wireless router.

Setting up a home network can be for some an excruciating experience, one that can leave even tech-savvy folks wringing their hands while switching off between calling the router's customer service line and their Internet service provider.

Cisco Systems says it's designed a new line of routers specifically to avoid this. The Valet and Valet Plus, will be available at retailers like Best Buy, Staples, and Target and online at Amazon.com starting Wednesday for $99 and $149, respectively.

"We're trying to take the negative emotions you have about not being able to set it up, and turn it into a positive experience," said Scott Kabat, director of marketing for Cisco Consumer Products.

Translation: Cisco thinks it's found a way to not make you want to throw your router out a window. Besides making most of the routers and switches that power the Internet, Cisco also makes consumer routers under the name Linksys. But it recognizes that even that product line isn't the easiest for non-technical people to use.

"It talks to a very narrow segment of the population, people who already speak the language," Kabat said.

The Valet and Valet Plus are designed to be the Flip video cameras of routers--an inexpensive and simplified version of a common consumer technology that basically anyone can use instantly. Flip is a line of small, inexpensive video cameras that have basically one button (record) and come with a built-in USB cable and simple editing software for quick uploading of those home videos to YouTube. Introduced just three years ago, the product turned the entire consumer video camera market on its head.

Cisco bought the maker of the Flip, Pure Digital in 2009 for $590 million, and this is the first new product collaboration directly between Cisco networking engineers and Pure Digital's design and marketing people. The company is hoping this more consumer-friendly approach will have a Flip-like effect on the home networking market as well.

READ MORE:    Cnet.com