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News that's changing the Wireless World!
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Tuesday, February 17, 2004 |
Source: Wi-Fi Planet
A Branch Office Symbol
A new switch from a WLAN leader is specifically geared to bring the company's products to smaller branch offices.
Source Link
1:04:03 PM 
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Radio Interview with WNN Editor
Listen to Glenn Fleishman on The Works, a local program on NPR affiliate KUOW in Seattle, streamed live at 8 p.m. Pacific tonight (Tuesday): I'm talking to host John Moe about Wi-Fi and wireless in general. We talk about the basics, security risks, and the future in a 25-minute interview. I'm not sure if I'm the top of the hour or on the half hour. The program is archived after broadcast at the URL above and is available for listening via the Real player starting mid-day on Wednesday....
Source Link
12:39:05 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Boingo Adds French Locations
Boingo signed a roaming deal with Visacom, a Wi-Fi operator in France: The deal adds 30 locations to Boingo's network, including hotels and airports....
Source Link
12:39:03 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Wireless Honeypots
Security Focus ran an article about how to build a wireless honeypot: The writer encourages companies to consider setting up wireless honeypots as a way to learn about how hackers may be trying to break into their networks. [via Ars Technica]...
Source Link
12:39:02 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Cingular Buys AT&T Wireless
Cingular Wireless beat out several last-minute contenders over the weekend to win the bidding war for AT&T Wireless.
Source Link
12:38:59 PM
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Source: Ziff Davis
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:54 PM
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Source: Ziff Davis
Intel To Refine Mobile PC With "Florence"
Intel Corp. this week will show off its latest concept PC, "Florence", emphasizing mobility for different lifestyles and featuring a second LCD panel plus an embedded wireless mouse that also doubles as a VOIP phone.
Source Link
12:38:53 PM
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Source: Extremetech
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:52 PM
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Source: Extremetech
Intel To Refine Mobile PC With "Florence"
Intel Corp. this week will show off its latest concept PC, "Florence", emphasizing mobility for different lifestyles and featuring a second LCD panel plus an embedded wireless mouse that also doubles as a VOIP phone.
Source Link
12:38:50 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:49 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Intel To Refine Mobile PC With "Florence"
Intel Corp. this week will show off "Florence", its latest concept PC emphasizing mobility for different lifestyles, featuring a second LCD panel plus an embedded wireless mouse that also doubles as a VOIP phone.
Source Link
12:38:46 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:45 PM
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Source: Ziff Davis
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:44 PM
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Source: Extremetech
Compromise Spec, IEEE 1394 On Tap For UWB
Motorola Inc. execs are preparing a surprise compromise proposal to remove the ultrawideband standards logjam, which could eventually replace Bluetooth. Meanwhile, Intel Corp. this week plans to demonstrate wireless versions of IEEE 1394, USB, and other services running on early third-party UWB silicon.
Source Link
12:38:43 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Misleading Mobilkom Austria Announcement
This release says that Mobilkom Austria will build the "industry's first fully integrated Wi-Fi/cellular platform": If you read closely though, this isn't about seamless roaming from a Wi-Fi network to a cellular network but it's about backend integration. So a single backend billing, subscriber management and customer care platform will support both the Wi-Fi and cellular services offered by Mobilekom Austria. Also, this announcement sneaks in the tidbit that Mobilkom Austria will be offering Wi-Fi in McDonald's restaurants throughout Austria....
Source Link
12:38:40 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Baton Rouge Gets Free Wi-Fi Downtown
Verge Wireless built a network covering downtown Baton Rouge: Twelve access points will cover the area and the project should cost around $140,000. The network is free for Internet access but users that want secure connections will pay for the access. It seems that so far city leaders feel that more usage will come if they can raise awareness that the network exists....
Source Link
12:38:39 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Wi-Fi Threatens Cell Market
This is a thorough Wall Street Journal article that aptly describes how Wi-Fi is affecting the cellular market: The crowded cellular market already has plenty of pressure but Wi-Fi poses a threat from a voice and data competition perspective. The article cites Dartmouth College, which has offered students Wi-Fi phones, eliminating the need for students to use cell phones on campus. Hotspots are also threatening cellular operators' plans for delivering wireless data services. Apparently Nextel has confirmed that it is interested in dual-mode phones that would operate on cellular and Wi-Fi networks. I'll be very interested to watch how cellular operators approach the idea as I still think it will be difficult for them to rationalize handing off calls onto Wi-Fi networks that they don't own....
Source Link
12:38:36 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
McDonald's Goes High-Tech
McDonald's has already built Wi-Fi in 350 U.K. stores and has a total of 561 planned: It also is introducing fixed Internet terminals ad PlayStations. But the more interesting technology implementations are aimed at boosting productivity. Many of them involve wireless, though this article doesn't include many specifics about which applications will use which type of network. 225 managers and other mobile workers will use smartphones instead of laptops and mobile phones and they'll use both Wi-Fi and GPRS connections. That change is expected to save £600 per employee....
Source Link
12:38:35 PM
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Source: Wired.com
New Gadgets Revive Bluetooth
The wireless technology that works in a 30-foot radius has new life. Carmakers hope it will help customers comply with hands-free cell phone legislation, and other companies aim to use it to remove cable clutter in the home and office.
Source Link
12:38:34 PM
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Source: Userland.com
AT&T Wireless Bids Heat Up in an Apparent 2-Way Fight
A bidding war erupted yesterday for control of AT&T Wireless as Vodafone, based in Newbury, England, and Cingular Wireless, a joint venture of BellSouth and SBC Communications, submitted new bids that value the company at more than $37 billion or about $14 a share, executives close to the negotiations said.
Source Link
12:38:32 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Sensible Home Wi-Fi Security Advice
Solid advice on securing your home Wi-Fi network: This straightforward About.com article notes six steps to securing your network, all of which are sensible and well explained. (The link is for page 2; page 1 explains what Wi-Fi is.) Along these lines, Windows XP users should note that Microsoft recently released a set of patches that fix 802.1X and WPA problems. Read the summary. Point No. 6 in the About.com article is to keep current on patches!...
Source Link
12:38:29 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Mobilicom Unwires Austrian McDonald's
Austrian carrier Mobilkom will add Wi-Fi to all 161 McDonald's restaurants in the country (in German): Forty McDonald's in Vienna were already unwired in a test. Service will be free until the end of April. Mobilkom hopes to at least double the number of hotspots it operates on top of these new additions, although no time frame was mentioned in the article. Subscribers can charge their hotspot usage via a gateway page login or by using SIM card authentication. Mobilkom might also charge by the half hour, 2 hours, or 24 hour period. The article notes that exclusive of those time period plans, service (as with the company's GPRS and UMTS) will cost a euro a megabyte, which seems extraordinarily high....
Source Link
12:38:24 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Donate Your AirPort's to a Good Cause
Boston’s Tech Superpowers is working on a top secret initiative for which it needs base stations: They're looking for unused or broken AirPort base stations for an undisclosed project. Tech Superpowers swears it's for a good cause though, similar to its "unwiring" of the Boston Marathon but this time somehow related to the community wireless movement. Tech Superpowers is also responsible for NewburyOpen.net, the free hotspot covering parts of Newbury Street in Boston. [scroll to the bottom of today's items on the main page.]...
Source Link
12:38:16 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Out-of-Control Pricing
Swisscom and some other European hotspot operators are charging pretty insane prices for access: Swisscom charges over 5 EUR for 30 minutes, almost 28 EUR for a day pass, 145 EUR for one month and a whopping 1079 EUR for a year subscription. Seems like an odd way to try to make a business as I can't imagine many people are paying those rates....
Source Link
12:38:14 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
LEAPing to FAST
Cisco has submitted a draft of a new protocol for use in 802.1X authentication in hopes of fixing the problems found in its own proprietary LEAP.
Source Link
12:38:11 PM
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Source: C|Net
Printer firms focus on camera phones
Through the Mobile Imaging and Printing Consortium, HP, Epson and Canon plan to create guidelines for the mobile phone industry to deliver reliable wireless printing options.
Source Link
12:38:03 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Atheros Launches IPO
The Wi-Fi chipmaker bets that the success of the WLAN market will make for a successful stock offering.
Source Link
12:38:00 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Atheros Raises Offering Price
Atheros raises its initial public offering (IPO) price in filing: The maker of Wi-Fi chips for companies like NetGear and D-Link hopes to have its IPO soon; it could raise over $100 million from the offering. Atheros certainly received a boost in the last few days as market research showed its two major customers with several hundred million in sales each last year....
Source Link
12:37:59 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Frozen WinXP? Just Wait, Microsoft Says
Microsoft KnowledgeBase article says waiting three minutes for locked-up computer during boot due to wireless networking issues is "expected": This troubleshooting page, updated on Feb. 10 of this year, states that Windows XP could lock you out of your computer for up to three minutes if a Wi-Fi card fails to respond properly when you boot your machine. It's "expected," so there's nothing you can do about it. [link via LockerGnome]...
Source Link
12:37:56 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
MCI Offers Satellite Broadband
MCI introduces new service, MCI Internet Broadband Satellite Corporate, for 128 Kbps to 1 Mbps of satellite bandwidth: A railroad, CSX, already plans to use the service at 200 locations which are too remote for terrestrial networks to be affordable. The service will be priced at from around $200 to $500 per month, comparable to wired line pricing. The article notes that MCI could only previously deliver 128 Kbps via its satellite network. The service apparently offers symmetrical bandwidth and can support VPNs....
Source Link
12:37:54 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Disney to Study Comcast Merger Offer
Broadband giant Comcast proposed Wednesday to buy Walt Disney Co. for stock valued at about $54 billion. Disney's board said it would study the offer, which would create the world's largest communications company.
Source Link
12:37:53 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Wi-Fi's Best Quarter Ever
In the final quarter of 2003, consumer WLAN products sold like hotcakes, but switches didn't add up to much. Meanwhile, Cisco took a beating (or did it?).
Source Link
12:37:51 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Wi-Fi Hits Marietta
Another story in the ongoing saga of Wi-Fi expansion in public spaces: When Wi-Fi starts to hit a town -- in this case, Marietta, Georgia -- it's like electricity or phone service first getting turned on. But more so: people now know the context for what public space Wi-Fi could mean, and many individuals and businesses in every community are already using Wi-Fi for their local networks. The anticipation and expectation is quite high. Eventually, it will be just another technology, but it's still fresh and sparkling in many parts of the U.S. and the rest of the world....
Source Link
12:37:50 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Edinburgh Learns to Worry about Wi-Fi
Another entry in an endless series of "Wi-Fi security risk" articles, this time from Edinburgh, Scotland: This article is only slightly sensational, which might result from the reporter having heard these claims for the first time about the risks of a wireless network. But they're not too far off the mark. The biggest problem in articles that cite the number of "open" access points, as a reader recently pointed out to me, is that unless you connect to the point and probe, you can't tell whether the gateway is inside or outside a firewall or has other restrictions....
Source Link
12:37:49 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
$2.5 Billion in Wi-Fi Sold in 2003
News.com reports on Synergy Research Group's Wi-Fi sales report: Revenue for Wi-Fi was $2.5 billion last year, or 40 percent higher than the preceding year; it increased 55 percent in the fourth quarter of 2003 to $752 million (presumably over the previous quarter). Cisco, in the form of its Linksys acquisition and enterprise divisions, somewhat under a $1 billion of that revenue stream. Linksys, D-Link, NetGear, and Buffalo are the top four consumer sellers, with NetGear bumping Buffalo from the No. 3 position. Cisco, Symbol, Proxim, and 3Com are the top four enterprise companies. Reminder to all Wi-Fi companies: you're all competing against Cisco....
Source Link
12:37:47 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Canadian Restaurant Adds Wi-Fi
Earls Restaurants is installing Wi-Fi with FatPort's help for both customers' and managers' use: It's definitely passed a trend and into routine that retail businesses find just as much utility and potentially more cost savings (versus actual net income) from having Wi-Fi hotspots in their locations. Most of the 50 restaurants already had DSL installed, and so that wasn't a separately tracked cost. Amusingly, it took quite a while for FatPort to install some locations because of the infrequent airline service....
Source Link
12:37:45 PM
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Source: C|Net
FCC to weigh in on VoIP regulation
One thing is clear in the days before the Federal Communications Commission decides on crucial broadband phone policies: Telecom regulations will never be the same again.
Source Link
12:37:43 PM
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Source: eWEEK Technology News
Fujitsu Refreshes LifeBook Notebook
Fujitsu Computer Systems on Tuesday refreshed its LifeBook notebook line, adding a faster desktop-class processor as well as an updated wireless module.
Source Link
12:37:42 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Boingo Down Under
Boingo buys access from SkyNetGlobal: This will open Boingo to 130 locations in Singapore and Australia. The Singapore locations are mostly McDonald's. The press release implies that SkyNetGlobal has 130 hotspots overall, but a brief look at its locations list shows about that many in Australia alone....
Source Link
12:37:41 PM
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Source: Ziff Davis
Fujitsu Refreshes LifeBook Notebook
Fujitsu Computer Systems on Tuesday refreshed its LifeBook notebook line, adding a faster desktop-class processor as well as an updated wireless module.
Source Link
12:37:40 PM
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Source: Extremetech
Fujitsu Refreshes LifeBook Notebook
Fujitsu Computer Systems on Tuesday refreshed its LifeBook notebook line, adding a faster desktop-class processor as well as an updated wireless module.
Source Link
12:37:39 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Chunnel-Fi
Eurostar to trial Internet links over Wi-Fi on Chunnel trains: As part of an ongoing strategy of getting travelers who would normally fly from Paris to London or vice-versa to take the channel tunnel train, Eurostar is trialling the use of Wi-Fi in first class at no additional cost to passengers. The service uses satellite downlinks and cellular uplinks, as with most train trials. Service would be interrupted in the tunnel, but the majority of the trip will have active service. This story has a few additional details and notes that trial service would begin by the end of 2004....
Source Link
12:37:33 PM
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Source: C|Net
Covad to launch VoIP service
The DSL provider joins a bandwagon-load of broadband rivals in jumping into offering local and long-distance phone service, which it plans to kick off by the end of this year.
Source Link
12:37:31 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Fish Wirelessly
Boaters in the middle of Lake Conroe in Texas can now access the Internet: Jarvis Entertainment Group, West Hills Park Joint Venture, and Del Lago Resort are building a Wi-Fi network that will completely cover the lake. The network also covers the 18-hole golf course at the Del Lago Resort....
Source Link
12:37:29 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Vernier Releases Upgrade
Vernier Networks came out with an updated version of its WLAN security and management platform: Network managers that use the product can link bandwidth requirements with user profiles. The platform also helps limit the damage to a wireless network after a worm or virus attack. Infected users will be quarantined and barred from connecting to the network. The new platform also offers a central management console....
Source Link
12:37:28 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Tough Competition in WLAN Switch Business
WLAN switch makers continue to duke it out in the marketplace: Even though analysts have been predicting consolidation for a while, not much has happened and in fact new competitors, sometimes in the form of established equipment vendors, continue to enter the market. Recently I've noticed press releases coming out to announce practically every new customer win as the switch makers look for recognition. This piece mentions a few such announcements that came out today, including that Aruba is building a network for Ariba and expanding the network at Dartmouth University. Airespace also announced it is building a network at Galluadet University in Washington, D.C....
Source Link
12:37:27 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
Proxim Sounds Off on Switch
The new architecture from Proxim -- designed in tandem with partners like Motorola -- will be tuned specifically to support future VoIP implementations.
Source Link
12:37:25 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Ethical Wi-Fi Borrowing
The Ethicist endorses borrowing a neighbor's Wi-Fi signal: In a fairly one-sided debate of the issues, the mention of Time-Warner's Roadrunner threat letters to purposeful Wi-Fi sharers aside, The New York Times's columnist Randy Cohen says that unless you inconvenience the consumer you're borrowing from, you're not going to ethical heck. His summary of Time-Warner's issue is specious, though. The company argues, in effect, that while you may have a glass of water at a neighbor's, you may not run a pipe from his place to yours. Actually, because the service is unmetered, it's more like saying, we're providing you unlimited water for personal use, and guests are okay, but you can't run a pipe to a neighbor's house. (Cohen quotes Mike Godwin, the formulator of Godwin's Law, which is infallibly accurate.)...
Source Link
12:37:24 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Gainsville Airport Offers Free Wi-Fi
The airport sees just 700 passengers a day, but they'll have access for free: For $340 per month, the airport will run the Wi-Fi system, replacing five phone lines in their business center which cost almost as much, and must have been available for local modem calls....
Source Link
12:37:23 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
iPass Posts Strong Results
iPass posts strong growth in customers, income, earnings for 2003: iPass is an international aggregator of dial-up, wired, and Wi-Fi networks primarily for corporations which use iPass's connection software and tie in their existing user authentication systems. iPass charges typically on a metered (per minute or per day) basis. iPass increased its customer base by over 50 percent year over year, while improving revenue by 37 percent quarter over quarter ($37.5M versus $27.4M) and 47 percent year over year ($136.1M versus $92.8M). Net income was $13.9M for 2003 against $5.5M in 2002 (excluding a $24.3M one-time tax benefit in 2002). The company expects revenue for 2004 to top $180M. From the Wi-Fi side, iPass exceeded 5,000 aggregated locations in 2003, and will be adding 3,900 T-Mobile hotspots in 2004, among other locations for a near-term total of 10,000 Wi-Fi hotspots, the CEO said in a recent interview....
Source Link
12:37:22 PM
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Source: C|Net
Nextel to test '4G' broadband service
Cell phone service provider Nextel Communications is set to begin testing a new, "fourth generation" wireless broadband offering later this month with several companies in the Raleigh-Durham, N.C., area.
Source Link
12:37:21 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Wireless Touchscreens Cut Waiters
Eugene, Oregon, restauranteur invests $15,000 in wireless ordering system to cut jobs: It's a sad reality, but as this fellow notes, his biggest cost is labor, and a touchscreen wireless ordering system reduces errors, increases table turns, and improves an individual waitron's efficiency, thus allowing the owner to ultimately have fewer staff....
Source Link
12:37:20 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Networking News
Oregon Gets Biggest Hotspot
It's always worrisome to qualify networks as the "biggest" but in this case I'd bet that eastern Oregon really does have the biggest hotspot in the country: Yesterday, Boardman and Hermiston, Ore. turned on a 600-square-mile hotspot. The network came about through a public/private initiative and was built by EZ Wireless. The network will be used by the Morrow County Emergency Management and Chemical Stockpile Emergency Preparedness Program, the police force, and citizens. Initially, it will cover 600 square miles which includes four counties and seven cities, some in Washington. The second phase, which should be complete this summer, will add another seven cities. The press release isn't online and any news organizations in the area either don't post the stories online or require subscriptions from visitors wanting to read the stories online....
Source Link
12:37:19 PM
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Source: C|Net
China gears up for RFID
A Chinese working group is developing a national standard for inventory-tracking radio tags, a process likely to be closely watched given China's recent demand that foreign Wi-Fi makers take on local partners.
Source Link
12:37:17 PM
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Source: Wi-Fi Planet
TI Talks Chips
The wireless chipset developer says 2003 was a great year for sales and expects this year to be even better.
Source Link
12:37:16 PM
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© 2004 [OCCalWUG]
Last Update: 3/1/2004; 10:14:57 AM
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