We primarily see two different support pages connected to each other when it comes to problem solving for it’s product users. First can be found at https://support.dlink.com/ . The page is completely dedicated for ‘Tech Support’ as it says on the top.

Global Support Page

Above all, on the top right, we get an options to choose the country. It’s to primarily to direct the users location & feed correct technical help information.

Very next section you find two tabs. One for ‘Consumers’ while the other for ‘Business users’. One can select the correct category, they fall into before proceeding for help. Just below that it speaks cautions you to keep your device firmwares up to date to experience optimum security. Wifi routers or other D-Link products can be registered by clicking ‘Register Now’ button & extend their free support life to 90 days.

Next to all, is the large search box to help users find relevant download materials & answers to the specific router problem.

D-Link offers extra with the supporting material & includes four different sections dedicated to ‘Recent Announcements’, ‘Recent Firmware’, ‘Top Frequently Asked Questions’ & ‘Top Support Videos’.

A section at the very bottom offers direct access to downloads, customer service or warranty related FAQs with answers & ‘Contact Support’ button to direct the visitor to a different ‘Consumer Contact Support’ page.

‘Customer Service’ button at the bottom pops up a set of popular questions & answers along with an email address & 800 toll free phone number.

‘Consumer Contact Support’ button takes the user to a new page that holds ‘Email Support’ request form. One can fill in all the product details & problem related information to raise a service request. The other button ‘call support’ popup a new box with another technical assistance information. It displays a toll free number for business & enterprise clients.

Support Page Dedicated to US Customers

Out of the two major support pages we find, second is dedicated to product users in US. A support button on the top takes you back to the first support page. Additionally a blog button is included to help users find faster solutions to the problems. Three major elements dedicated each for allowing product evaluation, raising a sales inquiry or contacting customer support are present. Contact support buttons take the users to ‘Business Contact Support’ page with same set of information as in last paragraph.

Blogs, forms & community 

D-Link has two active blogs dedicated to each; consumers & businesses. Direct links to the blogs can be found above on the website. Also, it has an active forum at http://forums.dlink.com/ for users or experts to connect & help each other.

D-Link Corporation originally named as Datex Ssystems Inc went public in 1994. Unlike most of other networking giants originating from USA, D-Link is a company from Taiwan. With company headquarters in Taipei, company is shipping it’s products successfully to several countries. D-Link develops & products products for home users & small to medium business clients. Company excels the networking & communication market with highest it’s highest share of user base. For home consumers, it produces wireless devices, broadband routers & other security surveillance systems. In Jan 2015, it was noticed that a particular firmware used by D-Link routers was vulnerable to DNS attacks. On 5th Jan, 2017, the FTC sued D-Link for having unable to take reasonable steps in securing their routers & security devices. However, company responded strictly by denying such claims for FTCs baseless charges.

Cisco Support Page

Cisco has expanded it’s reach across the globe very successfully. As company’s products are primarily focusing business customers, it can’t afford to have an average grade support infrastructure. To achieve that & to enable a customer connect only with correct customer service department, help portal has to be as simplified as possible. So, is what we find once we access Cisco’s main support page. (https://globalcontacts.cloudapps.cisco.com/contacts/selectsOptions/en_US)

At the very bottom, straightway, you’re given a TollFree number for ‘Customers & Partners’. Additional two numbers are listed for Technical Support. The information is only relevant for clients in US or Canada.

Focus of the page, the top section, it starts by offering a drop down list to choose the correct geographical location. Next, it asks you to select the ‘Country’ & the ‘Language’ for which customer support information has to be accessed.

Cisco has taken steps further, to dedicate support staffs based on the type of the issue, a customer contacts for. A support seeker looking for a technical assistance gets redirected to a tech support team, while issues related to order & billing are addressed by another. ‘General Inquiries’, ‘Password or Login Issues’, ‘Partner Support’ & ‘Request a Quote’ are other few popular categories to select.

Next, you’re prompted to select ‘Your relationship with Cisco’. ‘Small business Customer, Enterprise & Partner, Distributer or a Reseller’. Proceed, it opens a list of sub-categories to which the problem fits, most relevant at.

Ease of getting Cisco Customer Service Information

Finally, it takes just a few seconds to get all the relevant technical assistance information together. TollFree numbers to call, an option to open support case online, email address to make a written request or head to community help section straightway.

Cisco displays it’s corporate headquarters address at the bottom of all.

Dedicated Support Page for Enterprise & Service Providers

We also see support page dedicated for ‘Cisco Worldwide Support Contacts’ at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-worldwide-contacts.html . This is a page dedicated for Enterprise & Service Providers with relevant TollFree numbers to call, emails to reply at (based on the preferred language).

Dedicated Support Page for Small Business Users

We also see support page dedicated for ‘Cisco Worldwide Support Contacts’ at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-worldwide-contacts.html . This is a page dediAlso, they’ve a page specifically for Small Business TAC Contacts at https://www.cisco.com/c/en/us/support/web/tsd-cisco-small-business-support-center-contacts.html having same set of support information as above for small business users.cated for Enterprise & Service Providers with relevant TollFree numbers to call, emails to reply at (based on the preferred language).

Cisco Blog

Cisco has an active blog at https://blogs.cisco.com/ to keep yourself updated with latest news & product updates. Posts are categoriezed between two; ‘Most Recent’ or ‘Most Commented’.

It's mandatory to have an active support plan or product in warranty to avail Cisco Support. To register for a cisco contract, please visit the page at https://idreg.cloudapps.cisco.com/idreg/register.do

Belkin, Linksys & Wemo are child companies of Belkin International. It was listed in the “Inner City Top 100” for continuous 6 year. The company has got specialisation in connectivity devices from routers to network switches. It’s TuneBaseFM was awarded iLounge’s Car Accessory of the Year in 2008. Unfortunately back in 2003, company faced criticism when it launched a home use router which occasionally replaced users http requests with advertisement of Belkin’s filtering software. However, soon an update was released and this feature was taken off from the product.

Company offers a support page at https://www.linksys.com/us/support/ which clearly speak of it’s volume of consumers to cater utmost supporting requirements.

A technical support phone number mentioned on a yellow stripe on the top, ahead of all welcomes at the support page. So, this shows company is eager to solve most of the tech related problem, the very first. This is indeed, utmost required practical support service, should be offered to router consumer looking for solution.

If you've the Product Name or Model Number handy

Next to it, the search button that allows one to search & select their product to find relevant downloads (Manuals or Firmware). In case, one is unaware of the model number or so (most of the non tech savvy consumers) can browser the url given next (https://www.linksys.com/us/support-article?articleNum=141117). It’s important to note that finding the correct model number is a must, before getting correct support options or for a prompt solution.

Once the product name is known, Linksys takes it further to offer options to make it simpler to know more ‘About your product’, ‘Setup & installation’, ‘Login & Password’, how to add additional devices or adjusting advanced configurations.

Contacting Linksys Customer Service via Phone

Most of other companies, offering routers to home users doesn’t offer customer service phone number or chat as readily available as Linksys. So, apart from revealing the direct phone number on top of the page, it offers a dedicated ‘Phone Call’ section. Although, it offers a direct 800 toll free to connect to customer service (as easily as possible) but encourages to fill up a contact form with additional information before making a contact, as alternative.

Reaching them via Chat

Further, it offers a Live chat to connect customer support agent directly. It isn’t only dedicated to technical assistance but to the new users looking for more product information. Clicking live chat & selecting ‘Home Product Chat’ connects you to Tech Support representatives directly.

Linksys Twitter

As an extensive, off the site support, Linksys offers a very practical way to help consumers through their twitter handle. Answers to newly posted questions can be obtained in five different languages atleast.

Linksys Community Help

Last but not the least, to offer free assistance to their consumers is a dedicated ‘community’ section. Where users can exchange ideas & suggestions with each other & get help.

Register Your Product

'A Quick Solutions', section answers the most frequent problems in using the products. Like Netgear, Linksys also offers the feature to ’Register Your Product’ & make the support offering & accessing more easier.

Linksys provides a range of four different premium support plans to it’s users. It’s quiet similar in nature to the Netgear.

‘Direct Connect’ or ‘Direct Connect Unlimited’ offer same remote access troubleshooting by a live agent. As it speaks, former is an incident based plan, whilst later being an unlimited support with no restrictions.

Phone Connect, charges you a little extra but it allows you to have a dedicate tech support specialist be on call to trouble & fix the problem. Phone Connect 6, as the number says, offers the same service upto a maximum of 6 tech support calls.

It’s to note that note all Linksys products are eligible for Premium Support, specially those out of warranty or being bought refurbished.

​

Linksys, an American company originally founded in 1988 by a couple migrated to US from Taiwan was lately sold to Cisco in 2003. Belkin, another router manufacturer took up the ownership ten years later in 2013, continued the Belkin brand alive, releasing new products under the same name. Linksys basically targets home & small business users in US or other countries. Cisco enhanced the Linksys’s production lines by acquiring a VoIP provider Sipura Technology in 2005. Somehow, later in 2013, Cisco sold it’s home networking assets along with pre-build 30% home user support market to Belkin. Future predictions clearly state Linksys ownership to be sold to another Taiwanese company, Foxconn for nearly $866 million. So, we clearly would never know the reason company being sold to one another, although it seems to be a success atleast to US market since the year it was launched.

Netgear has extensive range of products & so it’s contact us page lay out. Primary support page can be accessed at https://www.netgear.com/home/contact-us/. First section speaks about the ‘Customer Support’. It further takes the user at https://www.netgear.com/support/ & prompts to select the netgear product type. 

‘Wifi Routers’ to ‘Network Storage’ to ‘Home Networking’ etc, one can select the appropriate product or run a search for exact model number. This takes the user to a section that feeds consumers relevant ‘Firmwares & Software Downloads’ or ‘Documentations’. You can select ‘Looking to buy?’ to directly be taken to product specifications or place an order with ‘Stables’. Same sections offers you more resources to troubleshoot, check configuration, check compatibility & to know default logins & passwords etc.

Checking Support Status

‘Contact us’ page speaks more about checking your support status. One needs to login to their netgear account to know that. Additionally, it offers you to register any of your newly bought netgear product. This makes it eligible to receive updates & further receive complimentary support. ‘MyNETGEAR’ a login interface that router offers can be used to manage warranties, registrations & latest news.

Phone Help

Next is the ‘Call us’ section which offers dedicated toll free numbers for Home / Service Provider & Business Product / Reseller Sales Phone : 1-888-NETGEAR (Home Users) Phone : 1-866-480-2112 (Business Users)

Replacing a defective product

Additional options, users can find on support page is to get answers before buying or replacing a defective product.

Email Help

Further, company provides email support using it’s directly reachable four different email addresses. While reply to customer support can be made by clicking the ‘Contact Customer Support’ button on the page, sales team can be reached at [email protected] For ‘Media Inquiries’ direct email is [email protected] Investor Relations can be managed at [email protected]

Netgear Premium Support

Netgear offers range of ‘Premium Plans’ for to cater faster support options. One of which they name ‘GearHead Support for Home’, plans can be purchased by accessing https://gearhead.netgear.com/ . It offers, round the clock tech support with flat pricing at no hidden charges. A tech expert instantly takes up the issue for a faster fix.

Next in the list is; Netgear ProSupport’ that offers extended warranty & help from NETGEAR certified experts. They’ve dedicated ProSupport options for Home & Business users separately. Last but not the least,

Netgear Community Help

Netgear offers, ‘Ask the Community’ portal for consumers to chose between range of more than 154,542 topics and 1.183 users online at times. This is companies biggest initiation to avoid any of the router problems go unresolved.

Netgear Inc, a company that produces hardwares for home users, business users & service providers has now expanded it’s reach in more than 25 countries. Ever since the launch Netgear has focused upon providing reliability & ease of use to it’s products. Company produces mostly wireless or wired internet devices. More than 30.000 retails outlets & still expanding, are the figures speak for the companies success itself. It’s has outsourced most of it’s manufacturing process to other companies.

A major share of that comes from countries like china & Vietnam. Earlier, a major security concern was noticed in the products produced by SerComm (one of it’s manufacturing partner). It exposed a backdoor potential enough to leak an unauthorized access to it’s devices. Beside all, Netgear is known to produce one of the finest routers in the market.

‘Netgear Parental Control

‘Netgear Parental Control’ is a feature that let’s consumers set boundaries for websites being accessed using it’s netgear devices. One can download ’Netgear Genie’ Application to easily set such controls. It offers complete customization of what a teenager can see & do online. Same features can be deployed to put restrictions on browsing internet in an office environment.