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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Monday, October 13, 2003 |
Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Certified for Voice
WLAN startup Airespace promises interoperability with SpectraLink and Vocera gear, and passes third-party certification tests.
Source Link
2:12:45 PM 
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Source: C|Net
Study: Price matters for broadband
Many dial-up households say they won't upgrade to broadband because it's too expensive. Will cable modem services resort to dropping prices to compete with phone companies?
Source Link
1:53:38 PM
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Source: C|Net
T-Mobile works to tighten Wi-Fi security
The carrier starts testing the 802.1x spec at certain U.S. hot spots, part of a push to lock up data and reassure businesses wary about the safety of information on Wi-Fi networks.
Source Link
1:53:36 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Setting Digest Mode Fixed for New List
If you already subscribed to the new Wi-Fi Networking News mailing list, you can now set digest mode: Sorry about the difficulty, but you can now set the digest mode for the mailing list so that you receive a single message each day containing that day's posts. This didn't work earlier today, but has been fixed. Send email to lyis@news.wifnetnews.com with just the words: set wifinetnews digest in the body of the message. You should receive confirmation via return email....
Source Link
1:53:34 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
New Zealanders Get Wi-Fi with Fuel
BP in New Zealand is adding Wi-Fi to its cafes at gas stations: Once 802.11g products are widely deployed in the market, I think implementations like this one will start to appeal more to the mass market. Ideally people could pull into the gas station and download music or movies to their Wi-Fi-enabled cars. Such entertainment applications will draw additional users. (Glenn notes that Estonia was the first country in which Wi-Fi was available at gas stations -- apparently, they pioneered a number of interesting combinations of Wi-Fi and other services, but are rarely cited because of their remoteness.)...
Source Link
1:53:32 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
iAnywhere Brags About Useful Wi-Fi
This press release is a nice roundup of a few interesting Wi-Fi deployments: iAnywhere is a subsidiary of Sybase and offers software and services to companies looking for Wi-Fi networks. One of the deployments described here is by Britannia Airways, which uses Wi-Fi in its crew rooms for cabin crew and pilots to check rosters, updated destination details, and air traffic control notices. The system automates 50 paper-based workflow processes. Another cool one is at a department store in Korea. Sales clerks carry wireless terminals that let them process purchases from anywhere, reducing lines at cash registers....
Source Link
1:53:30 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
U.K. Hot Spots Struggle With Business Model
The Guardian takes a nice look at the hot spot market in the U.K.: Just like in the U.S., operators there are playing with different ways of offering service. One provider, Broadreach, always puts PCs in its hot spot locations so customers can use the network without bringing in their own laptop. One difference in the way hot spots work in the U.K. compared to the U.S. is T-Mobile's deployment. At Starbucks in the U.K., customers who aren't regular subscribers must buy a voucher from the barista to use the network by the hour or day. The vouchers expire if customers don't use them within a time frame. It seems this process discourages use. I wonder why T-Mobile doesn't just set it up like in Starbucks in the U.S. where you can buy a day's use online? Maybe in the U.K., it's an issue of people using credit cards and their comfort with making online purchases....
Source Link
1:53:29 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Israel Officially Gets Wi-Fi
The trade ministry in Israel just officially set aside spectrum for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth: I wonder if people there have used Wi-Fi illegally without this designation? I'm surprised that the country is just approving Wi-Fi use seeing as Israel has a quite advanced wireless technology industry, including Alvarion, which has its headquarters there....
Source Link
1:53:28 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
New Entrant to Chip Market
IceFyre Semiconductor has come out with an 802.11a/b/g chip: Like its more established competitors, IceFyre says the chip will boost range and cut power consumption in half. The existing chipmakers with name recognition are struggling to win market share. I don't envy IceFyre as a new entrant....
Source Link
1:53:27 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Boingo to Add 2,500 UK Locations
Boingo Wireless to roam with UK's The Cloud; details to come: Boingo announced that they are finalizing an arrangement to allow their customers access to the currently 2,500 hot spots operated by The Cloud in the UK, which is adding 100 more hot spots each week. In email follow-up, a Boingo spokesperson confirmed that the date that roaming will start and the terms of roaming aren't yet set: will users pay a per-session fee or have their usage included in an unlimited Boingo package? That's still to be determined when the integration is finished....
Source Link
1:53:26 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
T-Mobile to Bring 802.1X to the Masses
The hotspot network of Starbucks, Kinko's and others will be offering 802.1X-based authentication as a free service to any interested subscribers, as T-Mobile continues to shift toward engaging enterprise customers.
Source Link
1:53:24 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Maxspeed Offers Mobile Thin Client
Maxspeed Corp. is relaunching its MaxBook 810, a notebook-style thin client that can connect with back-end servers via a built-in wireless PCMCIA 802.11b or 802.11g card.
Source Link
1:53:23 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
T-Mobile to Offer 802.1X
T-Mobile will use 802.1X authentication to secure local Wi-Fi links: Nancy will have more on this story later today -- she filed a brief with the Seattle Times this morning about it -- but I wanted to push out a more general note. Security at hot spots has been one of the bugaboos of the industry. 802.1X authentication with secured EAP (in this case, Protected EAP or PEAP) allows the secure login of a user and then secure exchange of unique WEP or WPA encryption keys. This means that a T-Mobile user with Windows XP using a software update that Microsoft promises for early next year will be able to have their own separately encrypted local channel. Unless T-Mobile has made mistakes on the gateway side that would allow employees to tap into the access point or router -- which seems a much lower threshold of worry -- customers with the right software and without VPN access suddenly have a very high degree of local link security and integrity....
Source Link
1:53:19 PM
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Source: Computer World
Megabit Mobile
Mobile wireless data rates will make a quantum jump in the next five years, compared with little growth over the past decade. And Wi-Fi will be integrated into cellular service too.
Source Link
1:53:17 PM
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Source: Wired.com
Is MS Wising Up to Smartphones?
Microsoft is off to a rocky start in the smartphone business. It remains to be seen whether Sierra Wireless' plans to introduce a Windows-powered smartphone will change anyone's opinion. By Elisa Batista.
Source Link
1:53:16 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Subscribe to Posts When They're Made
You can now subscribe to receive posts from this list as they're made: With some interesting monkeying about, you can now subscribe to the Wi-Fi Networking News list (see form at upper left) and receive posts as they're made. You can subscribe for individual posts or, after signing up, change to digest mode so that once per day you receive a message containing all posts. I've added this ability because I know that many of you would like to see posts from this site as news blasts. I'm a big fan of RSS site syndication (see the link at upper right and view this list of RSS news readers). But I also know that the more methods that news can be distributed, the better for those of you trying to follow a field of interest. Let me know what you all think of this through the usual methods. Feedback about the particular format is also welcome....
Source Link
1:53:15 PM
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Source: C|Net
HP spotlights mobile gear
Hewlett-Packard is using a Swiss telecom show to unveil a slew of devices that can connect to one--and in many cases more than one--wireless network.
Source Link
1:53:13 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Incomprehensible Microsoft Press Release
Microsoft releases garble, something, yadda, to allow automatic provisioning of garble garble: This press release from Microsoft is so full of jargon, market-speke, and other obsfuscating details, that I'm not sure what they're saying. I think they're announcing an update to Windows XP which will appear next quarter that will let hotspots more easily allow arbitrary users to login using PEAP and 802.1X. We'll see if it turns out to be what the announcement meant. If I'd written the release, I might have said, "Microsoft is using software already built into Wiindows XP to let hotspot users enter a login name and password in a profile, click a single button, and have a secure connection that other users in the same location can't snoop on because of robust encryption." A little clearer? Maybe still obscure....
Source Link
1:53:12 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
NIST May Approve 802.11i
If NIST approves 802.11i, then VPNs may be optional in governmental installations: Matthew Gast notes that the potential approval of AES as an encryption method as part of 802.11i would allow system administrators in networks that rely on these NIST guidelines to avoid VPNs and use secured 802.1X with 802.11i using AES. I wrote in InfoWorld in January of this year about 802.1X within 802.11i plus secured EAP could eliminate the cost and complexity of VPNs. 802.1X is relatively straightforward even with PEAP or other modes compared with VPN setup and management. VPNs for roaming users are still a requirement, of course....
Source Link
1:53:10 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Pay by SMS
Vodafone (Portugal) lets cell phone subscribers pay for hotspot access via SMS: Vodafone has launched its WirelessLAN service in several locations around Portugal, and allows users to pay for a session by sending an SMS message requesting access. The service will cost 5 euros an hour, 12 euros a day, or 30 euros for 72 hours, but will be limited to the cost of a single SMS message per session until the end of the year to promote the service. Apparently, any roaming partner of Vodafone's cell networks, which they count as 281 operators in 134 countries, can use SMS within Portugal to pay for service, too. This service is similar to Excilan's in its interesting crossover between cellular telephone billing and an out-of-band authorization. In Excilan's method, you enter your cell phone number in a gateway page on your Wi-Fi equipped laptop or handheld, and then you are called by an automated service to approve the session. Excilan has arrangement with just a few WISPs and cell operators....
Source Link
1:53:05 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Chicago, Midway to Unwire
Chicago and Midway airports will have Wi-Fi next year, says airport authority: Like Boston, they've finally gotten off the dime and are issuing a request for proposals. Concourse is in the running as they have the broadest airport experience. However, the recent split between them and Wayport makes me wonder how much revenue they can attract in the near-term from users. Without the Wayport partnership, which allowed Concourse to easily resell access to a number of other partners, including iPass, Boingo, Sprint PCS, and GRIC without direct relationships, Concourse now has to build a bridge to each of these firms. They did work with iPass as the gatekeeper for service in Minneapolis-St. Paul once, and that fell apart because of incompatible models in charging....
Source Link
1:53:04 PM
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Source: Wired.com
Parents Sue School Over Wi-Fi
Worried that the wireless network could adversely affect growing children's health, a group of parents launches a lawsuit against a Chicago-area institution. The school says the technology is safe.
Source Link
1:53:00 PM
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Last Update: 11/1/2003; 11:29:37 AM
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