Trying to set up a hotspot yourself? Buy this book: Eric Geier's Wi-Fi Hotspots from Cisco Press is a terrific introduction to setting up a public hotspot, aimed at people with relatively little technical knowledge. The book, which came out last October, and has been sitting on my desk staring at me to read until today, offers a number of scenarios to help someone decide to charge or offer service for free, and whether to go it alone (and how), or join a network. There are four chapters devoted one each to complete setup of different solutions, including a Linux-based option that's quite interesting. It's not comprehensive, but for under $40, it's a great investment, and might be the only book that you need to set up a location.
Veteran Mac writer likes AirPort Extreme Base Station, too: Mostly positive reviews of the Apple 802.11n router have been coming in, with provisos about slow and sometimes erratic USB hard driving sharing, Vista support problems, and occasionally basic functionality loss. I've only seen Vista problems, myself. Andy Inhatko, a legendary tech writer, notes in the Chicago Times that "given its ability to deliver a network that's not just faster but also far more useful, it sounds like a good investment in your network's future."
Nintendo announes Wii Wi-Fi title: Not a misprint. The first Wi-Fi enabled title for the Wii will be Pokemon Battle Revolution, due out this summer. DS users with Pokemon Diamond or Pearl can participate.
Sony offers first Wi-Fi camera: The Cybershot DSC-G1 has 2 GB of internal memory and 802.11g. Not much information about how the Wi-FI works yet, although it works with the Digital Living Network Alliance standard for transferring data among compliant devices, including PCs. Ships in April $600 with 3x zoom, 6 megapixel sensor.
Tropos upgrades MetroMesh software: Version 6 can better lock out ne'er-do-wells on the network edge, while throttling bandwidth and preventing or enabling behavior like peer-to-peer networking. Tiered service could be assigned specific bandwidth limits and data types with this update. The package also detects threats, like evil twins (networks alleging to be a valid network to snarf data from unsuspecting users).