TMCnet News
Apple applies for wireless iPod patent; Lenova to resell iPass access to prosumers/SMBs; Broadcom's tiny new chip; and more.(www.wi-fiplanet.com Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Gizmodo reports that Apple has submitted a patent application on how future iPods will use wireless to make online purchases of electronic media. Shades of Microsoft Zune? Or just a plan to combat the new music player directly? (Despite the fact that Zune's built in Wi-Fi will be limited to file sharing between devices at this point no direct Internet purchases from the handheld). Want to get online just about anywhere but your cheap company won't pony up for the iPass account you so covet? Well, buy your own. All it takes now is buying a Lenovo ThinkPad or 3000 family laptop computers. The two companies have a new deal for Lenovo's "prosumer" and SMB customers. Broadcom today announced a new set of "ultra-low" power Wi-Fi chips. The BCM4326 supports 802.11b/g; the BCM4328 is a/b/g. They measure a minuscule 50x50 mm. The chip has new algorithms that let it live in better harmony with Bluetooth on the same device (they call it InConcert), which is good, as they're made to be combined with Broadcom's own Bluetooth, VoIP, multimedia, or other radio-related processors. There's even some of Broadcom's MIMO/Intensi-Fi tech in there, though these chips don't support Draft-N. The chips are sampling now. October 17, 2006 SMC Networks is the latest company (joining D-Link, Linksys, Netgear, Buffalo, Belkin, TRENDnet, ASUS and ZyXEL) to offer products supporting Draft-N, the not-quite-fully-backed 802.11n specification (all the products are based on the 1.0 draft). The company promises backward compatibility with 11b/g which hasn't been a given for all competing products plus high speeds (300 Mbps). The lineup includes an ADSL2+ Modem Router (model SMC7904WBRA-N), a CardBus card and a desktop PCI adapter. Prices weren't announced. SMC expects them to ship this quarter. SpectraGuard Sentry, the wireless intrusion protection system (IPS) from AirTight Networks , is now for sale online for small and medium businesses. The company says it can be configured in 15 minutes though a Web-based interface to provide alerts via e-mail and otherwise to indicate trespassers on the network. Pricing starts at $495 to protect just two access points, plus $500 for an upgrade, with extra charges for telephone support packages. Spectec is going to offer the first microSD card with Wi-Fi. MicroSDs are ultra-small flash memory cards measuring 15 x 11 x 1 mm. Spectec's card will support 802.11b/g. Various phones from Nokia, LG and Motorola support the cards. 5G Wireless is selling a new self-enclosed antenna mini-base station, the G-ForceT 850 b/g PicoCell, for extending a network both indoors and outdoors in hard-to-reach spots. It doesn't require direct line of sight. The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (Bluetooth SIG) has a new Qualification Program for member companies. Supposedly, they can now better ensure interoperability, while at the same time making the certification process more consistent and automatic for members. The SIG sends 90 products through the program every month, and claims this will shorten the amount of time companies have to invest in products to get them to pass. Details on the program are online. A new company has joined both the Wi-Fi Alliance and the WiMax Forum this week. Mocana of San Francisco describes itself as a "provider of complete open standards-based security solutions," with customers like Dell, Cisco, Symbol and Nortel. The company's Device Security Framework bundles everything from embedded RADIUS and 802.1X authentication to IPSec and SSL for servers and clients. October 13, 2006 Trapeze Networks says its new SmartMobile architecture is the first to offer "intelligent switching, combining centralized and distributed forwarding for optimized traffic flow." In other words, if something should be done at the AP, it is; if it should be done at the controller, it is; if some kind of traffic should shunt to a different part of the network (like voice to an IP-PBX), it is. According to Dan Simone, VP and CTO at Trapeze, "Rather than say how the network works and force it, we say the needs of applications will change, the needs of environments will change, and SmartMobile will adapt." This new architecture is also Trapeze's first time trying its hand at mesh for some outdoor deployments -- and it's also ready to support 802.11n. The price is the same as previous Trapeze product, and should be available this month. October 12, 2006 The latest Draft-N products were announced today by ZyXEL . To be called MIMO-N, the products will include a router (model NBG-415N, $160), CardBus adapter for notebooks (NWD-170N, $100), and PCI Card for desktops (NWD-370N, $120), all using XSpan chips from Atheros which ZyXEL says provide throughput of 300 Megabits per second (Mbps). The big difference from the competition is the ability to remove antennas from the equipment so you can upgrade performance the old fashioned way. The router supports Windows Connect Now and ships with Network Magic software; both help with setup. Ubicom's StreamEngine is built in for better Quality of Service on video and voice, especially for upstream bandwidth usage. Look for them to go on sale by the end of October. (ZyXEL says it may go for an ASUS-like return guarantee for upgrades to final 11n, but hasn't decided yet.) Slim Devices is teaming with Ruckus Wireless . The two say that by coupling the Ruckus MediaFlex wireless hardware with the Wi-Fi equipped Squeezebox media player, they can deliver to users "for the first time, high-quality, stutter-free music playback throughout their home over standard Wi-Fi." They say to just plug the MediaFlex into a gateway or broadband modem, hook the Squeezebox up in another room -- and without configuration, the owner will have streaming digital audio. The MediaFlex will ship with a Squeezebox player for $359. Linksys has launched a lot of routers since 1999. The first wireless unit, the BEFW11S4, launched in 2000. Since then, they've put out 18 wireless routers (not sure if that counts multiple versions of the honored and hackable WRT54G) and today the company says it has now shipped 25 million wireless routers in total. They started selling 100,000 of them a month and now ship 1 million a month. They claim to be responsible for one of every two routers out there. The company admits wireless networks at home still aren't that easy to set up, so they've launched a Learning Center section of their Web site to help out their 25 million customers, as well as those in the future. FON has officially launched its first wireless router (previously, the service relied on flashing third party routers like those from Linksys). The new La Fonera is a tiny unit less than an inch think that goes for only $5 if you agree to share your wireless access with paying customers. Each has two SSIDs -- one public and open, the other private and secured with WPA. You and your fellow "Foneros" get access for free on any FON router. The company hasn't had much traction in the United States, but wants to change that and will host some events in New York and San Francisco this month where it will give away the La Fonera routers to anyone promising to share the bandwidth. October 11, 2006 A new tool for criminal hackers, or a useful utility for small businesses looking for holes in their wireless networks? Perhaps new Wicrawl is both. Midnight Research Labs is behind the new, open source "access point auditor" that passively detects APs, even those not broadcasting SSIDs. It works with multiple Wi-Fi cards, and has a plug-in architecture, so it's open to adding abilities like encryption cracking. The software is currently in alpha testing. Credant Technologies of Dallas still wants to protect enterprises from their users' PDAs and smartphones (both with and without Wi-Fi). Version 5.2 of their centralized management platform, Mobile Guardian, will now integrate with Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) with a Windows Posture Plug-in. The software on client systems will sync with Microsoft Exchange servers over the air, blocking those without the Guardian software -- and it has proximity-based access to things like a Bluetooth headset without having to constantly re-authenticate. Yankee Group says that wireless broadband equipment makers had better start supporting 4.9 GHz the frequency reserved by the FCC in the U.S. for use by first responders if they want to be at all competitive. 2.4 GHz, the unlicensed spectrum used by Wi-Fi, is too crowded and "cannot successfully guarantee the high level of service reliability or mobility required for mission-critical public safety applications," according to a statement by the research firm. 4.9 GHz has less interference, more security (since not everyone can use it), and using it means sharing the licenses with like-minded agencies, so there could be better communication. October 5, 2006 JiWire's Hotspot Helper utility is now in general availability for all comers. And Google is now recommending it as a security VPN tool for its Mountain View, California users. Google is calling it a "reliable third party VPN solution." Hotspot Helper is free to use for up to 30 minutes a day. For unlimited use, it costs $25 a year. While a lot of metro-scale mesh networks are turning to companies like Ruckus and PEPLink to get equipment that customers can put in their premises to extend coverage, MetroFi has gone somewhere else: the Cantenna . Not the kind you make with Pringles cans and foil (though that might work too). Instead, the provider of Wi-Fi in cities like Cupertino, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, California is saying the high-gain, directional Cantenna Wi-Fi Booster antenna from Wireless Garden is MetroFi's recommended product for customers with a weak signal. The Cantenna is only $50. Apparently, using Wi-Fi is a sign of impatience. eBay Express did a study to find the "most impatient cities" in America (Austin, Texas was #1), which it found by counting the number of convenience-oriented services like quick copy shops and in-and-out gyms. The number of Wi-Fi hotspots in a city was a factor. In-Stat says that, despite better security standards, the use of security on WLANs in businesses is still woefully low. However, that could change over the next few years as security needs for portable devices and for protecting network assets become more prevalent. 460 million new client devices with Wi-Fi -- PCs, handsets and more -- will be in businesses between now and 2010, making up almost 95% of all client devices. silex technology america says its SX-600 is the "industry's most secure" Ethernet-to-wireless adapter (it plugs into the Ethernet port of any device to get it on the WLAN, without any drivers needed). That's because they built in support for WPA2 with AES, the highest Wi-Fi encryption going, and then added 802.1X authentication with various Extensible Authentication Protocol (EAP) types: TLS, TTLS, LEAP, PEAP and FAST. Plus, it has its own password protection and access control lists to make sure only the right people use the peripheral in question. It can all be configured on a Windows computer. It'll start selling sometime this quarter for $285 MSRP, in both plastic and metal casings. Students can act now and buy the Wi-Fire high-gain Wi-Fi adapter for cheap. Well, cheaper. The $109 card with directional antenna combo that mounts atop your laptop screen is now $89 from hField , but only to students of higher education. Wi-Fire reportedly delivers a range of 1,000 feet on 802.11b/g networks. Taiwan's Accton Technology says it has a design ready for OEM/ODMs to build a Wi-Fi phone for Skype. The VM1185T design is certified by Skype's call center. Wistron NeWeb has a new dual-mode GSM/Wi-Fi phone called the GW1 . It works with HelloSoft's SIP-based VoIP technology when connected to an 802.11 network. It also plays MP3 files, shows pictures and handles instant messages on a two-inch color LCD. Talk time is five hours on GSM, four hours on a WLAN. Laptops too expensive for your operation? Wyse Technology has a new family of wireless thin client systems ready, the V-Class . All they need is a power source. They operate with Microsoft Terminal Services, Citrix Presentation Server, VMware VDI and Wyse Device Manager running OSes like Windows CE, XP embedded, and of course, Linux. For the Wi-Fi connection, they support 802.1X authentication with WPA2 encryption (or back down to WEP encryption as needed). October 3, 2006 ASUSTeK Computer is the latest to join the Draft-N product bandwagon. Using Broadcom's Intensi-Fi chips, the company is launching a router (model WL-500W) and adapter (WL-100W) under the brand name of Super Speed N (no pricing was announced). They promise transfer speeds of 100Mbps or higher. Here's the real corker: ASUS will "guarantee future 802.11n compatibility and give users peace of mind when purchasing draft-N solutions" if purchased before Dec. 31, 2006. The upgrade program will start when 802.11n is ratified (likely in 2008) and doing so will not start the warranty over. They'll provide firmware upgrades online, and if it's not that easy, they'll swap hardware with you, paying only for the shipping of the return unit. It isn't UMA, but it might do the job until then: D-Link says its new V-CLICK phone will support GSM (slide in the SIM card of your carrier of choice) and Wi-Fi. Click a button and the phone will turn the Wi-Fi connection on or off, which can be used to access an Internet phone service, probably of the SIP variety. It has Opera Mobile as a browser for Web surfing on the two-inch color screen. The phone will cost $600, though, so it's intended for businesses. Look for it in early 2007. Microsoft's soon-to-debut Zune media player has Wi-Fi, as everyone knows. But yesterday, engadget.com revealed that having Wi-Fi and making it useful are two concepts Microsoft hasn't quite got right in this iPod competitor. Specifically, the Wi-Fi connection in the first version can only be used for ad-hoc connections between Zune units, to share songs and albums for three days or three listens, whichever comes first after that, the shared song is deleted. It will also share image files. Zune will not download songs from the Zune online store; it won't connect to the Internet at all; and the real kick in the pants: you can't even use the Wi-Fi to sync your music with the files on your PC. You have to use the USB cable. It could all change shortly after launch, but for now, Zune's wireless seems to be pretty... wired. iSkoot has introduced a new 100Kb Java-based software client for phones that will work with its own network server to let dual-mode phones (supporting GSM/CDMA and Wi-Fi) connect to commercial VoIP service. That includes GoogleTalk, AIM, Yahoo Messenger, Microsoft Messenger and, of course, Skype. The VoIP connection can be made over the Wi-Fi or the CDMA network, even over 3G networks. The ZigBee Alliance has enhanced the remote wireless control tech once again, which should be publicly available in early 2007. OEMs can now put individual devices (for ZigBee, that could be things like thermostats, light switches, garage door openers, etc.) into a group or multiple groups so that one push of a button turns them on or off. Commands to devices can be targeted by type, to put items to sleep or bring them awake, for example. Devices can also be configured over the air, making it easier to add new devices as needed. Tendril says it will release its new Tendril Access, an access point for 802.15.4/ZigBee sensor and control networks, which serves as a gateway between wireless and wired networks. It works with Tendril's modular system, or can stand alone with other ZigBee nets. Carriers that want to provide fixed/mobile convergence (F/MC) can now look at Cisco Systems . The company just finished testing Kineto Wireless ' Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) Network Controller (IP-UNC) with Cisco's Mobile Services Security Gateway (SeGW) for both the 7301 and the 7600 series platforms. UMA is now a 3GPP global standard for mobile/Wi-Fi convergence. Both Kineto and Cisco sponsor the new UMAToday.com information site about UMA services. Investment in wireless LANs is the number two priority for small to medium sized businesses in North America, especially for businesses with over 100 employees, according to a survey from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA). Number one priority is laptop upgrades. New phone systems is third, but jumps to number two with smaller offices (less than 100 people). September 27, 2006 Companies like Cisco and Motorola are sponsoring a new Web site called UMA Today , which they call a "complete source of information on the UMA market." UMA, short for Unlicensed Mobile Access, is a tech that allows calls to hand off between a cellular network and a Wi-Fi network, requiring a phone that supports both types. It's growing in popularity overseas, and there's at least one trial of it in the United States with a major carrier. Check the site out for a central repository on all things UMA. Berkeley Varitronics Systems (BVS) has a new wideband spectrum analysis tool, BumbleBee-EX, now supporting WiMax analysis. It measures frequencies between 2.0 - 4.0 GHz and 4.9 - 5.9 GHz, used by 802.16 WiMax, 802.11a/b/g Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, among other technologies. They'll be showing it next month at WiMax World in Boston. September 26, 2006 In August, Crutchfield's catalog leaked info about the Sirius Stilletto 100, a new portable unit that will not only stream Sirius satellite radio from satellites, but will also do it via Wi-Fi at home or at hotspots. Think of it as TiVo for satellite radio, as it will also record 100 hours of audio programming. The company confirmed it today, including the ability to record up to six-hour scheduled recordings and up to 10 hours of individual songs (hit the "love" button when you hear a favorite), for up to 100 total hours, all taken from the live satellite radio broadcasts. Your own WMA and MP3 files can also be stored and played back; the unit works with software from Sirius and the Yahoo Music Jukebox to manage your MP3 files. Price is cheaper than expected at $350 MSRP. Separate vehicle kit and home kits are $70 each, plus the executive system with extra accessories will be $150. It probably won't ship until early October. Swedish carrier TeliaSonera will be using Kineto Wireless' Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology to deliver GSM-to-Wi-Fi hand-off services in the Baltic and Nordic regions, part of TeliaSonera's "Home Free" service. They've been testing it for about a year. The first phone to use it will be the Samsung P200 . ABI Research says in a new study that a sea change is coming to consumer electronics as they move to using Wi-Fi for delivery of content as needed. The research firm expects that the 40 million CE devices with Wi-Fi this year will balloon to 249 million by 2011. Today, most of the products are game consoles like those from Nintendo and Sony; ABI sees Microsoft's handheld music player with Wi-Fi, the Zune, as signaling the "beginning of a large scale movement towards embedded Wi-Fi in portable media players," a move already embraced by camera makers like Kodak, Nikon and Canon. Colubris Networks' new Integrated Sensor/AP, the MAP-330, has a dual radio design, with one radio for monitoring and the other for delivering network access to clients, all the better to prevent network quality interruption by having an AP trip over into intermittent security scans. It costs less than doing a sensor overlay on top of APs. The MAP-330 works with the Colubris Intelligent Mobility System (CIMS) WLAN switching system. Axis Communications has a new network camera, the AXIS 207MW, that hooks to wired or wireless networks for remote monitoring. It even supports WPA2 encryption. The camera delivers MPEG-4 and Motion JPEG images up to 1280x1024 resolution, approximately 1.3 megapixel, and has a built-in microphone. Axis calls it the smallest one-megapixel camera around. It should be available in October for $400. Axis this week entered a strategic partnership with Firetide to provide video surveillance over wireless mesh networks, the first deployment of which just launched in Haverhill, Massachusetts. That setup uses AXIS 214 PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) and AXIS 211 fixed cameras. TRENDnet has new network attached storage (NAS) server enclosures that work with 3.5-inch IDE hard drives and connect via either wired (model TS-I300 for $130) or wireless 802.11b/g (TS-I300W for $170). They also have USB 2.0 ports to connect other external drives such as Flash or SATA drives. They come with digital media and backup software from Nero. September 22, 2006 Helium Networks ' latest, SiteStumbler, is a $995 "entry-level" site survey/audit program for mapping 802.11a/b/g networks and creating simulations of how they'll perform. They describe it as incorporating "a proprietary version of the popular NetStumbler for superior wireless data collection." A free seven-day demo is available for download. The folks at Champaign-Urbana Community Wireless Network (CUWiN) announced earlier this week the release of an update to the open-source, community-network-oriented, wireless mesh software CUWiNware, to version 0.7.0. It now has dual-radio support, one for access and another for mesh backhaul, improved routing, support for Atheros chips (specifically, the AR5312 Wireless SoC) and other new hardware, as well as a Web-based user interface, among other improvements. The city of Urbana is converting its current CUWiN nodes with one radio into dual-radio units, putting the free software to the test. September 19, 2006 Network Chemistry has upgraded its RFprotect Distributed product with a new dashboard and Web-based interface, as well as better integration with the RFprotect Endpoint software running on laptops. Now, when a user with Endpoint enters the network, RFprotect Distributed sensors will automatically see them and classify the user as authorized. Endpoint continues to disable bridging automatically, in case a user gets an ad hoc connection from outside that might want to connect to the wired side of the network. Network Chemistry, which designs its own sensors, has also upgraded software to take preventative measures against rogues and other unwanted devices, blocking them from accessing the network infrastructure. The capacity is also up each sensor can now contain/restrict multiple devices, not just one-on-one. All the upgrades are available now and free to current users. Sputnik has a new product, the $499 Gateway 700 , plus new software, the Sputnik Agent NMS . 700 works with Sputnik Control Center or SputnikNet to handle user tracking and authentication at hotspots; NMS is a firmware upgrade for various Wi-Fi access points (including models from Asus, Buffalo, Linksys, Motorola and Siemens) to let them be run by Control Center it integrates with the popular DD-WRT firmware upgrade for Linux-based APs. Agent NMS lacks the user authentication found in the standard and pro versions, but it is free. Belden has announced a new WLAN system, the Belden Wireless Solution , using a "Channel Blanket" topology that allows use of almost all radio channels on each AP. The higher the traffic, the higher the throughput, they say. It fully complies with 802.11a/b/g and WPA2 for security. The line consists of switches (8- and 24-port) with Power over Ethernet (PoE), a 'thin' AP (model BWAP-200) that requires no configuration, and management software. Xirrus was issued a patent last month (United States Patent Number US D526,973 S) by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office that covers the design of the physical housing of its Wi-Fi Array, which can pack in 4, 8, or 16 radios with a Gigabit Switch in a ceiling mounted unit. That product, or specifically the XS-3x00 family, according to a report by the Tolly Group , provides 2.5x the range and 13x the throughput of TCP traffic of "leading enterprise access point tested." PePLink's latest is the Balance & Surf Combo, a wireless indoor bridge for citywide Wi-Fi networks and existing wired broadband. It comes with a Surf 200BG to connect to wireless via a 200mW radio and a Balance 30 unit to connect to Ethernet-based broadband. The Balance 30 combines the wired throughput with the wireless to boost the overall performance. The products are also sold separately, but you'll want to look for them through your local wireless broadband provider if you have one. September 13, 2006 Trusted Computing Group , the industry group backing the network access control (NAC) architecture called Trusted Network Connect (TNC), has new members -- including big wireless players like Meru Networks and Trapeze Networks. Meru will run TNC across all its products as a complement to its own Security Services Module. Trapeze says it's supporting TNC by working with the policy enforcement platform "and wireless access based on client's health or configuration." They don't mention numbers, but the CDMA Development Group (CDG) says more EV-DO modems have sold than were expected. EV-DO is the wireless wide area network (WWAN)/3G tech powering the data networks of Verizon Wireless and Sprint Nextel in various cities around the U.S. This is due to major notebook vendors like Dell, HP, Lenova, Panasonic and Toshiba embedding EV-DO support. Nevada-based AirTegrity Wireless has built support for 900 MHz and 4.9 GHz (for public safety) wireless into its products (APs, base stations and CPEs) for use by ISPs, adding to its established support for Wi-Fi under 2.4 and 5.8GHz. Units run at 400mW for increased power, and can scale up to support thousands of simultaneous users. September 12, 2006 Trade shows this week ( CTIA Wireless IT & Entertainment 2006 in Los Angeles and Fall 2006 VON in Boston) mean a slew of mostly unrelated announcements for a Tuesday: It's not a surprise, as the Wi-Fi Alliance said this was coming as long ago as April , but today it announced officially that it is working with CTIA - The Wireless Association on joint testing documents that ensure mobile technologies like GSM, CDMA, EV-DO and more work seamlessly with Wi-Fi (especially since more and more products are converging Wi-Fi with these technologies). CTIA says it will help carriers determine the best dual-mode phones to pick for use on their networks. The tests will cover transmit and emitted power and receive sensitivity of products and those products have to be Wi-Fi Certified and CTIA certified as well, of course. Paragon Wireless says it is ready to launch a SIP-based Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) phone that also supports quad-band GSM (850/900/1800/1900) and GPRS. The phone, called hipi-2200, will be licensed to OEMs and ODMs, and probably will debut in Europe first (it takes a SIM card). Paragon makes dual-mode voice tech that handles seamless hand-off between the two types of mobile networks. The phone runs Windows Mobile 5.0 and thus also supports Web browsing, music play and recording of voice or video. The reported battery life is 4 hours of talk and 100 hours in standby, even with both Wi-Fi and GSM radios turned on. Wi-Fi tester Azimuth Systems is ready to check on Wi-Fi handsets. On October 10, the company will make available a new test suite for testing VoWi-Fi handset power use, battery life, voice quality, signal range and roaming performance (using motion emulation). It runs on the Azimuth W-Series platform in radio-signal proof enclosures, as do all Azimuth scripts. If you wanted to enter the contest to build an application that uses the Wi-Fi Positioning System (WPS) set up by Skyhook Wireless , well, you're too late. The company announced three finalists today (the winner gets a Segway Human Transporter). The products include a game that builds in location data called Plundr that mimics marauding pirates but in real-world locations; an auto-location extension for the Firefox and Minimo browsers (Skyhook already makes a Firefox toolbar called Loki); and a location stamp that will work with the future Eye-Fi cards that will wirelessly enable digital cameras. Xirrus says it is offering new enclosures for its Wi-Fi Array products, including a new outdoor box suitable for campus or metropolitan deployments the XE-4000, which looks like a street light. The array can deliver a half-mile range with aggregate wireless capacity of 648 Megabits per second. The new tamper-proof XE-2000 is for indoors, and mounts on a ceiling where you'd find a drop-down ceiling tile measuring 2x2 feet. Broadcom revealed today that its AirForce One 54g Wi-Fi and VoIP phone chips are in new small business and consumer phones from Samsung. The models are the SMT-W5100 for businesses and the SMT-W6100 for consumers (used by Net2Phone ), out now in North America. England's CSR has launched a VoIP phone called UniVox that uses its own UniFi-1 Portable Wi-Fi chip, which CSR will license to manufacturers the cost to build it could be as low as $35. The design can supposedly do 20 hours talk time and 400 hours in standby from a single charge. Production-ready units won't arrive until end of 2006. After a few months as vaporware, Netgear said today that it is now shipping the Netgear Wi-Fi Phone for Skype. The SPH101 which has been pre-selling for a while on sites like Amazon, with numbers Netgear calls "impressive," will cost $250 MSRP and doesn't need a computer to make a Skype call, just an open Wi-Fi connection for the phone. It will be available overseas in October. Kineto Wireless , one of the big providers of the Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA) technology powering networks with seamless roaming from cellular 2G and 3G networks to Wi-Fi networks and back again, is teaming with Ubiquisys in the UK to make low-cost femtocell access point products supporting the UMA standard as outlined by the 3GPP. It will be something operators around the world can use to build UMA networks. Ubiquisys makes the ZoneGate femtocell system, and they say this will let operators "fully realize the coverage, capacity and cost benefits of femtocells." September 7, 2006 The TV dream a digital video recorder (DVR) that will stream content to other sets in your house using Wi-Fi is not a dream any more, if you live in the Netherlands. CanalDigital satellite TV providers will be offering a Caton V2O Wireless Home Media Network set-top box soon that has an Airgo Networks True MIMO Media chip inside. Get a couple of "slave" boxes to hook to other TVs in the house, and you're watching pre-recorded shows anywhere without stringing wires. Select CanalDigital customers can get the box later this year as part of a trial run. AirMagnet's Enterprise Analyzer is now ready to troubleshoot networks running the Aruba Mobility software version 2.5.3, using Aruba's own APs when in either AP mode or air monitoring mode. The former provides a data feed about a single Wi-Fi channel, while the latter allows complete analysis. Cost for the integrated AirMagnet Analyzer is $9,995. September 6, 2006 AirMagnet's Survey product made the jump to version 4.0 this week and brought with it a new product called AirMagnet Planner to help businesses decide where to place nodes for an indoor WLAN. Planner is also available as a separate, standalone product that sells for $2,000 ($1,000 as an upgrade for Survey users). Survey already integrates with the AirMagnet Spectrum Analyzer 2.0 and works with Microsoft MapPoint; the latest version will integrate with AirMagnet Laptop Analyzer and build in support for maps from Google Earth, all the better for planning an outdoor network. The product can take GPS information and drill down to the street level to check for good wireless coverage. Survey 4.0 will control roaming in active surveys, taking control of the client's Wi-Fi driver and forcing it to roam as needed (most cards stick with the strongest signal even when not appropriate). Survey costs $1,995 for the standard edition or $3,695 for the PRO version. UTStarcom's latest Wi-Fi handset, the F3000, is now available in Europe. The clamshell phone comes in black or gold, each with a 1.8-inch full-color LCD screen, polyphonic ringtones, talk time of three hours or 75 hours of standby without recharge. It supports SIP (it will store info on three different SIP accounts), SDP, RTP/RTCP and RFC 2833/inband DTMF, and utilizes ITU codecs G.711 and G.729 on 802.11b/g networks, with security including WPA support. It will auto-search for a Wi-Fi network and store profiles on those you want to use most often. Garderos Software Innovations has released new software for wireless broadband providers to enhance Wi-Fi support and offer WiMax as well. Its C-OSS platform (carrier operational support software) will allow secure authentication of users, including those using SIM card modules. Its RADIUS access controller supports VLANs and zones. The new Multi-Protocol Access Controller (MPAC) will let WiMax operators allow subscriber authentication right at the base station. Airgo Networks' True MIMO Media chips are part of the power behind a new reference design called SimpleWare Home. Along with chips from STMicroelectronics and software from Universal Electronics Inc . (UEI), the chips allow for wireless playback and centralized management of all the DVDs, CDs, and digitial video, audio and photos on home entertainment systems. The tech is on display at the IFA Conference in Germany this week. If you're planning on taking the CWNA Exam for wireless network administration any time soon, be aware that the exam has been updated to reflect current terminology set by the IEEE. The CWNA courseware has the update, but CWNP will not be publishing a new study guide including changes. You'll have to read the full list online . They include such things as Power over Ethernet, referred to at 802.2-2005, clause 33 (instead of the old 802.3af). September 5, 2006 What state loves their Wi-Fi? Perhaps Rhode Island most of all. CDW Government, a subsidiary of CDW, today announced their second State & Local Government Technology Investment Curve (TIC) to see which government since 2000 has purchased the most Wi-Fi equipment (this doesn't mean they've deployed the most, just bought it for different things, not all of which may be public -- it's quantity, not connectivity). RI has an investment profile of 147% over the average. Ohio, Colorado, Utah, California, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming follow, all well above the average. CDW-G says the more public-private partnerships a government has, the more it invests in wireless. Symbol Technologies will provide the Wi-Fi and other parts that will be used in a new handheld gaming/gambling on demand system for casinos to be made by Sona Mobile Holdings and Shuffle Master. Symbol will apparently help the company get regulatory permission to get the device out into the wild. Xirrus says it can extend the Quality of Service (QoS) for voice and video traffic found on wired networks to its Wi-Fi Array. The array will support the Wi-Fi QoS standard of 802.11e, plus will tag wireless packets with 802.1Q virtual LAN and 802.1p prioritization when sourced on the wired network. The company says tagging and prioritization will extend wired QoS to Wi-Fi, and that previous switched WLANs couldn't tag or prioritize packets moving from the AP to the wiring closet. Techworld is reporting on a transceiverprints , a technology under investigation that could transform wireless security. Researchers at Carleton University in Ottawa say they could tell the difference between signals from different devices even if they were from the same manufacturer. Each signal could be recognized as matching a pre-recorded transceiverprint from the product. It could be just what the doctor ordered to keep networks locked just to approved devices, MAC address spoofed or not. Internet.com Corp. Copyright 2003 Jupitermedia Corp. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Jupitermeida Corp. content is Expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Jupitermedia Corp.. Jupitermedia Corp., shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the Content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. Copyright 2006 Jupitermedia Corp. |