The Worldwide Developer's Conference 2012, hosted by Apple (News - Alert), saw a number of new products demonstrated including Aerohive's Bounjour Gateway.

Aerohive VP of Business Development Bill Hoppin took the stage at WWDC 2012 on June 13 to give a session on how Bonjour Gateway (News - Alert) can simplify network communications. Gateway offers Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) compatibility options that allow iPad, Macbook and iPhone (News - Alert) users to connect to a network and quickly gain access to services such as printing, remote video projection, etc. This can prove an especially useful feature to networks in the corporate workplace. The demonstration also informed onlookers of Bonjour Gateway's capacity to get around problems corporate network administrators often face when dealing with networks that have several subnets.

Bounjour is an open-source program used by the Apple operating system to communicate over both local and wide area networks using Internet Protocol (IP). First developed by Stuart Cheshire, it was trade-named "Rendezvous" in 2003; the name changed officially to "Bonjour" in 2005.

Here is why Bounjour is important: While IP is generally accepted as a standard protocol on wide area networks (WAN's), local area networks (LAN's) lack such a standard. This can cause problems; Bonjour fixes those problems.

Aerohive's (News - Alert) Bonjour Gateway turns Bonjour into a more robust tool, designed for convenient use in a corporate setting. It allows various pieces of hardware (laptops, desktop, printers, monitors, etc.) on both WAN's and LAN's to recognize each other and efficiently transfer data. It also allows administrators to get relevant information about these machines and the services they offer remotely, such as their IP addresses.

The program also provides security and filtering options that can protect this information when it isn't necessary to have it available. An administrator may, for example, want to give everyone on the network access to a printer, or restrict that access at a later date.

A video with more details on how Bonjour Gateway works, produced by Mathew Gast is available on Youtube.

Want to learn more about the latest in communications and technology? Then be sure to attend ITEXPO West 2012, taking place Oct. 2-5, in Austin, TX. ITEXPO (News - Alert) offers an educational program to help corporate decision makers select the right IP-based voice, video, fax and unified communications solutions to improve their operations. It's also where service providers learn how to profitably roll out the services their subscribers are clamoring for – and where resellers can learn about new growth opportunities. For more information on registering for ITEXPO click here.

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