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The in-car Internet system gets reviews: Autonet is packaging a car-oriented router that combines a cell data modem and subscription with a Wi-Fi gateway. The device costs $500 and plans are $30 per month for a measly 1 GB of data or $60 for 5 GB. The higher rate is precisely what you’d pay a carrier directly for such an item with a 2-year contract; Autonet requires just a 1-year commitment. Unlike portable cell routers that come with car-power adapters, Autonet’s device is installed in the trunk or back, and is wired into a car’s electrical system. Antennas are part of the unit, however.
Edward Baig of USA Today reminded potential buyers that a 3G connection requires a 3G cell network, and traveling in areas with spotty or no 3G coverage could be disappointing. Overall, he’s not unhappy with it. He concludes, “Having a rolling hot spot is an appealing, if expensive, service for a lot of families. Just keep your expectations — and those of your kids — in check.”
The Wall Street Journal’s elder tech statesman Walt Mossberg finds the service too slow for video beyond YouTube snippets, just as Baig does, but seems to agree that for the right person or family, having continuous Internet access is worth the cost.
I haven’t tested Autonet, but the router’s cost isn’t out of line with similar systems: Junxion, acquired recently by Sierra Wireless, sells its devices for $600 to $700 a pop, with discounts for quantity, because they’re aimed at corporate road warriors.
But I can’t see the benefit of getting a box with a sealed 3G card permanently installed in your car. For those who might find the Autonet a reasonable choice, the Kyocera KR2 ($220) coupled with the 3G EVDO card of your choice—including tethered handsets. The KR2 is portable, cheaper, and more flexible. The disadvantage is having to use a car-power adapter, an increased likelihood of theft if left in the car, and a unit that’s not designed to be as rugged.
Posted by Glennf at 3:23 PM | Comments (0)
What happens when everyone is running around with smartphones that are easy to use? The iPhone 3G is part of a leading trend: phones that have accessible, usable functions. Apple may be first and best, but the rest of the pack will eventually catch up. (If you’d like to refute me, launch the BlackBerry Web browser first, compare it with Safari on the iPhone, and now try to make a case for RIM surfing.)
Posted by Glennf at 4:25 PM | Comments (0)
TechRepublic notes some interesting features in IronKey’s secure USB drive: The IronKey is a seriously secure device, designed with a variety of physical, hardware, and software elements that make it as unhackable as possible: it’s got its own hardware encryption chip built in, uses robust flash memory, and can sense physical intrusion. But it’s got one more element that Selena Frye highlighted in a recent column: secure browsing.
IronKey runs its own network of secure, anonymous servers that mask your identity. You can choose to change your exit point with a click, and keep track of throughput in case a given link is slowing you down. The IronKey plug-in for Firefox, invoked with a click, also stores all settings and caches on the flash drive.
Like Frye, I have long wanted to recommend an option for people who already use SSL/TLS protection for their email service, and don’t need a VPN. IronKey appears to be the right recommendation.
IronKey works right now just with Windows XP and Vista, but their FAQ states they are are working on Mac and Linux components. IronKey comes in 1 GB, 2 GB, and 4GB configurations for $79, $109, and $149, respectively, including a year of “Internet protection,” which covers secure browsing and a few other features. There’s no information on the cost of the subscription fee after the first year, a notable omission.
Posted by Glennf at 2:26 PM | Comments (0)
Apple isn’t the only firm to offer inexpensive 802.11n, but their revised AirPort Express has a few extras: You can buy Draft N from other companies for under $100, but I’d point out that the new AirPort Express compact base station differs from those items. The new model, announced yesterday, is nearly identical to the one that Apple’s been selling since 2004. Unlike other inexpensive N base stations, it has a USB port to share one printer (Windows/Mac OS X), an audio output port for streaming from iTunes or via Rogue Amoeba’s AirFoil (Mac/Windows, analog/digital optical), and is dual band, supporting 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz 802.11a, b, g, and n.
The base station is compact, small enough for travel, with an integral 2-prong plug that can be directly hung from a wall socket, or removed to replace with a several-foot-long 3-prong cord; the extension cord is part of a $39 audio extension kit, and not sold separately from that kit.
While Linksys, D-Link, and others have sub-$100 802.11n base stations, there are differences. The main one is a detriment to the AirPort Express: it has just a single 10/100 Mbps Ethernet jack. That means it’s appropriate to directly connect to a larger network via Ethernet, where addresses are assigned out by another part of the network, or it can be plugged directly into a broadband modem and assign addresses out via DHCP and NAT (or a pool of routable addresses).
The Linksys WRT100 (about $80) isn’t Wi-Fi certified (yet) for Draft N, while the D-Link DIR-615 (about $60) is, as is the AirPort Express (although the Express isn’t yet listed in the Wi-Fi Alliance’s database). Both the Linksys and D-Link units have 4-port 10/100 Mbps Ethernet switches along with a 10/100 Mbps WAN Ethernet port. Both are single-band (2.4 GHz), omit USB sharing, and have no audio streaming. (If you know of better sub-$100 models to compare the AirPort Express to, drop a note in the comments.)
It’s worth calling out Airfoil, mentioned above, a package from Rogue Amoeba for Mac OS X and Windows that lets you manage where audio goes over your network. Using Airfoil and its included Airfoil Speakers software, you can choose to play audio on one computer and target it to other computers on your network, as well as AirPort Express base stations and the Apple TV media adapter (using Apple’s AirTunes streaming protocol). Without Airfoil, you’re limited to iTunes streaming under Mac OS X and Windows to an AirPort Express or Apple TV.
I’ve written a book about 802.11n and Apple’s AirPort networking, Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Extreme Network, that covers all the issues in setting up secure networks using both Macs and Windows XP/Vista. You can buy the title with at a 30-percent discount ($7 instead of $10) by following the link or using coupon code CPN71005WNN at checkout.
Posted by Glennf at 11:52 AM | Comments (2)
iPass has released its latest semi-annual statistics: The company is looking for a little attention, of course, but they provide a relatively huge amount of data (relative to everyone else in the industry) that helps highlight trends in Wi-Fi hotspot and, new this time around, 3G usage worldwide. Their user base is largely corporations that integrate iPass into their networks to allow worldwide roaming at set or metered rates on Wi-Fi, mobile broadband (via laptop), and dial-up with a single corporate login and end-point policy enforcement. This gives them numbers that reflect usage among the mainstream corporate business traveler.
The company found that European usage is accelerating, with Europe now accounting for 40 percent of their sessions worldwide in the second half of 2007, up from 31 percent in the second half of 2006. (All contemporary numbers are from 2007’s second half.) North American usage dropped from 60 to 51 percent during that period as a percentage of the whole. As an increase, European usage jumped almost 150 percent while North American usage doubled: iPass saw nearly 2m sessions worldwide at Wi-Fi hotspots, up from just over 1m in the same period a year ago. Worldwide growth in total sessions year over year was 89 percent.
Rick Bilodeau, vice president of corporate and channel marketing, said that growth in Wi-Fi usage represented in part frustration with high 3G roaming costs in Europe. He said that European regulation has already forced a price drop for 3G roaming, however. It’s “coming down from the stratosphere; they’re going to drop into the 50,000-foot range. These drops still don’t make 3G roaming affordable. Your break-even is now 5 emails instead of 2,” he said, referring to the potential for emails to carry megabytes of attachments and 3G plans charging per-megabyte roaming fees.
European Wi-Fi prices still outpace North America’s, and Bilodeau said a drop in 3G roaming might “start to apply pressure to European Wi-Fi prices.”
iPass found big jumps in usage at venues outside of hotels (29 percent) and airport (45 percent): cafes, restaurants, transit, and other categories. Cafe usage grew modestly, from roughly 175,000 sessions to nearly 250,000 sessions, but restaurant usage jumped from 25,000 to about 80,000 sessions. “The restaurant growth is really driven by McDonald’s around the world,” Bilodeau said. The fast-food giant started marketing their Wi-Fi service more broadly in 2007. The service has been in place in some restaurants for three or more years in the U.S. iPass includes not just domestic McDonald’s stores, but has a total of 10,000 outlets worldwide in their roaming network.
London tops city usage, and experienced 156 percent year-over-year usage growth exclusive of London hotels and airports. Only 8 countries saw more usage than the metropolis of London.
With 2.5G and 3G usage, the company tracks just laptop users which have roaming and service agreements handled by iPass. The firm found that as users become more accustomed to mobile broadband, they start using more data, with established users (those with accounts before 2007) using significantly more data than users who started service in 2007. Both categories of users increased their monthly average usage by about 25 percent across the year, which comes in part from larger, more compelling downloadable content. (Read: YouTube.)
A stat that jumped out at me from their report was the breakdown of exclusive 2.5G, exclusive 3G, and mixed 2.5G/3G usage within a given month by their customers. Only 3 percent of users only used 2.5G, which isn’t unusual, as iPass is selling 3G service. But just 38 percent used 3G exclusively; 59 percent used a combination of 2.5G and 3G.
What interested me was that there was a group that was able to use just 3G—that’s tricky even in excellent coverage areas, as even a minor hiccup could downshift a user to a slower network offering. Bilodeau said that users adapt to where bandwidth is best, and that many users are “bumblebees,” an industry term referring to those who roam, but with predictable pattern.
“Where I work may be dictated by where I get a 2.5G or 3G connection,” he said. “You adapt your habits to fit your technology.”
iPass also found that just a tiny percentage of its 3G users were extremely heavy downloaders: just 0.5 percent topped 2 GB in a month, while 32 percent used 50 MB or less per month. Their 3G users are also regulars: more than 90 percent of 3G subscribers used the service in any given month. This makes sense, as the cost of 3G remains high enough that there’s little point in subscribing if you’re not making use of it; and using it justifies continuing to subscribe.
iPass makes available a variety of tables of this data on their Web site.
Posted by Glennf at 5:00 AM | Comments (0)
Canary Wireless hits another homer with latest Digital Hotspotter: About three and four years ago, the market became suddenly glutted with a variety of compact Wi-Fi detectors: relatively inexpensive devices designed to give you a snapshot of the radio frequency environment around you in the more common Wi-Fi band (2.4 gigahertz). Trouble is, most of them either worked poorly or provided too little information.
The original Digital Hotspotter and a combination detector/adapter from Zyxel were my two favorite devices for the amount of information they provided. A detector, to be useful, must show enough network information that it prevents you from having to open up a laptop; or enough information to help you find a stronger signal or troubleshoot what’s wrong with a network.
The Digital Hotspotter (model HS-20, $59.95, on sale 15-Feb-08) really does shine, partly because it now includes support for detecting 802.11n networks, and reveals the network’s top speed based on packets it’s sniffing. The device has three buttons now instead of one, all along one side. The top button is the power button: hold it down to turn it on or turn it off; press it while it’s on to rescan the environment. Previous and next buttons let you scan through the available networks. See this YouTube video I shot for a live demonstration.
The display now shows the network name, whether it’s secured, its form of encryption, the type of 802.11 network (B, G, or N), the top speed based on it’s network settings, and the channel on which it’s operating. My only real complaint with the device is that it turns off its backlighting a little too quickly while I’m still trying to read the scrolling information about network speed and other parameters.
The price is a little high for the casual user, but a road warrior, network administrator, or those desiring to find open and free networks should find this a bargain.
(For the historical record, I reviewed the SmartID WFS-1 in 2004, a device with a single button and a few LEDs, which showed all 2.4 GHz activity; the Chrysalis WiFi Seeker, which looked just for 802.11b/g, showing activity with LEDs, in early 2004; the first Canary Wireless Digital Hotspotter, which had no back/forth buttons, but had an LCD to show network status, in late 2004; and Zyxel’s combination USB Wi-Fi adapter and LCD display network detector in 2005.)
Posted by Glennf at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The New York Thruway has free Wi-Fi at 27 travel plazas: The growth of Wi-Fi (free and paid) at highway stopover locations has run in fits and starts, with some states announcing and then canceling plans, and others just tootling along and suddenly announcing a major deployment. The service is intended for indoor use, it sounds like, but I expect enterprising truckers may use high-gain adapters.
Posted by Glennf at 12:46 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
A small spate of announcements from remote access firm iPass: The company resells access to 75,000 hotspots worldwide and countless dial-up lines, and has added EVDO Rev. A access and satellite roaming via Inmarsat’s BGAN service. EVDO Rev. A reportedly runs at 450 to 800 Kbps downstream and 300 to 400 Kbps upstream; testers have found much higher downstream rates but often much lower upstream rates. iPass also said they will support Windows Vista in the second quarter.
While they don’t identify which EVDO provider is which, it’s easy to guess that iPass is offering service from both Verizon and Sprint, since there are two networks they offer and two providers of such in the U.S. They call them Network A and Network B, and require separate subscriptions for each network. It’s likely that the EVDO Rev. A addition is from Sprint. The new offering costs $60 per month for unlimited use and volume discounts can reduce that further. Adapters are extra. This is one of the few cases in which iPass has a recurring per user fee, and I imagine that if the cell operators ever offer a pay-as-you-go system, iPass will be one of the first to provide it. They were T-Mobile’s first roaming partner, too.
Inmarsat hasn’t to date offered a simplified access structure for their fourth-generation satellite network known as the Broadband Global Area Network (BGAN). Various companies resell terminals and access, but iPass will have the clearest and most transparent model for a company that may deploy a few terminals and have various employees using the network. BGAN can operate up to 492 Kbps, and charges are levied per megabyte.
Via email, an iPass spokesperson explained that the satellite service will come with two pricing models. A usage-based model will cost $60 per month per user and $7 per megabyte. This can be canceled at any time. More favorable to large corporations is a pooled model which carries a 1-year commitment and must include at least 10 users. The pricing is per user per month with 10 users at 20 MB each costing $120 per month up to 750 MB each for $3,000 per month. Terminals are sold separately and range from $2,000 to $4,500 with most falling in the $2,400 to $2,800 range, iPass said.
(Recall that OnAir and Aeromobile are planning to launch in-flight data services using BGAN eventually—in-flight cell may launch any day now on limited airlines in Europe and Asia—but you can see that the per MB cost on a corporate level makes it impossible for unlimited in-flight satellite-based Internet use. Connexion by Boeing relied on a different set of satellites that carried largely fixed costs, but those costs required millions of sessions a year to produce enough revenue to break even.)
iPass sells mostly to the corporate market where rather than have each roaming employee set up their own accounts with recurring fees, iPass can meter access or provide negotiated monthly rates across an entire organization.
Posted by Glennf at 4:44 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Washington Post’s Rob Pegoraro, IDG’s Nancy Gohring are sucked in by cordless power: Pegoraro describes spotting two wireless power firms that he describes as more plugless than wireless. Powercast can “broadcast” power over three feet to circuits that could be integrated into existing electronics. Fulton’s eCoupled, by contrast, uses charging surface: an equipped device, when it touches an otherwise safe charging surface, trickles in power.
My good friend Nancy, meanwhile, arrives at the end of 17-hour trip from Ireland to Las Vegas, and finds one missing charging cable and one broken one. She offers more detail about eCoupled. The company expects travelers could bring a small pad with them that plugs into AC power and then place their various devices on top, avoiding the need to bring cables of any kind. Motorola, Visteon, and Herman Miller are all working with eCoupled, though no products are announced.
Posted by Glennf at 8:31 PM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
Avis will apparently offer a cell-to-Wi-Fi bridge to car renters: The Autonet Mobile bridge, which receives signals from a 3G cellular network and routes them to a Wi-Fi gateway, isn’t unique. Kyocera, Linksys, and Junxion, among others, sell such devices; the former two firms aim at consumers and small businesses, while the latter looks to corporate and fleet deployments. But the deal with Avis would be unique. The bridge would be provided with an DC auto adapter for use in the car.
The New York Times reports that while the deal isn’t yet announced, pricing would be $11 per day. The company will also sell its device separately to what it envisions as a mini-van or SUV crowd—parents and kids traveling together—for $400 with a $50 per month service fee. There’s no mention of how much bandwidth is included with that fee, which is $10 less than comparable retail 3G offerings from Cingular, Sprint Nextel, and Verizon, which require a voice plan and a two-year commitment.
It’s hard to pick the kind of road warrior that would pay $11 per day for the service but wouldn’t otherwise already have a cellular data connection that they would use. Traveling groups might be more inclined because of the ease of sharing, but then they might already own some other cellular bridge. However, because it’s essentially a Wi-Fi hotspot without any cellular configuration, it might appeal to users who otherwise would find a cell network’s configuration daunting. And to those who lack a PC Card slot on their laptop.
While the article notes the legality of Wi-Fi’ing while traveling—“Avis would require rents to agree not to hold it liable for accidents resulting from irresponsible use”—it doesn’t mention that the cell operators have a varying amount of interest in allowing bridged Internet connections. Cingular and Sprint Nextel resell some bridges themselves, and their resellers offer bridges, too. Verizon has stated that they don’t support their use on their network at all.
Posted by Glennf at 10:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
The New York Times builds a story out of anecdotes that rings all too true: There aren’t any numbers in this piece about how frequent business travelers find gaining Internet access a hit-and-miss proposition—do 50 percent of travelers surveyed by firm X have trouble in most stays? We don’t know. But the stories presented are quite familiar. Although I haven’t traveled much in the last couple of years, I’ve found that regardless of what a hotel promises, the truth is often sketchier. Two of my officemates, who produce book events, spent a couple of hours on the phone in a four-star Manhattan hotel recently trying to get online with the in-room service. They wound up at a Starbucks close by, instead.
It’s odd that Wi-Fi is singled out; marginal connections are often an issue, but the problems I see are in authentication and network operation, not in signal strength or physical medium issues. The reporter also claims, “most large hotel chains work with dozens of Internet service providers, some of them small local operations, leading to an inconsistent service experience for guests.” That’s news to me, but it could be accurate. Hotels that manage their own access, such as chains that offer free service in their budget and medium-range properties, may be turning to local providers instead of building their own operations or working with a national services firm, like arms of Motorola, IBM, or HP, or with an hotspot infrastructure builder like iBahn (mentioned) or Wayport.
Posted by Glennf at 11:05 AM | Comments (3) | TrackBack
The socket seekers heads an article about the need for travelers to find juice, not just Internet service: Yes, people are power mad in airports as they carry more devices they need recharging before and between flights. Used to be that you’d see one or two laptop owners near convenient plugs. Now, the well-equipped traveler brings a power strip with them to make friends. (Hey, now that spawns a lot of new pick-up—or plug-in—lines.) There’s now a connection between the increased use of Wi-Fi and the corresponding pre-flight battery drain.
This New York Times article notes the cost of adding outlets during construction—about $150 to $200 a pop, commensurate with in-building wiring—but that it costs thousands to add electrical sockets after a terminal is built. Some airports are getting clever, such as Chattanooga, pulling pay phones to put in electrical circuits.
The article also notes that travelers don’t make too much of a fuss about outlets, because they’re not sure they are allowed to use them; they generally are, apparently. I recall years ago that I was a bit nervous to plug in, because outlets were sometimes embedded in the floor for cleaners to use.
Companies like PowerSquid should get clever and produce a lightweight travel edition of their clever extension system (pictured). Or maybe CyberGuys could retool its Liberator line for the road?
Posted by Glennf at 11:10 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
EarthLink/SK Telecom joint venture Helio releases EVDO card, software with one-rate plan: The company, which was founded to bring fancy handsets from South Korea into the hands of hip youngsters, has released a product that should appeal to we old-timers, too. The Helio Hybird package includes a 3G EVDO PC Card and a software package that enables access to unlimited EVDO and unlimited Wi-Fi for $85 per month. The package costs nothing if you commit to two years’ service. (Windows only at this point.)
Helio is an MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), which means that they buy their cell minutes and cell data from established operators. Those operators tend to charge $60 per month for unmetered EVDO with a voice plan and a two-year commitment. (That’s changing to just a two-year commitment and no voice plan.) Boingo Wireless, which is the enabler of the Wi-Fi part of Helio Hybrid, charges $22 per month for unlimited North American Wi-Fi and a combination of unlimited and metered worldwide Wi-Fi. So combine those two plans, and you get $82 per month, right?
But you can’t get a single bill at that rate from any cellular operator. If you sign up with Verizon Wireless or Sprint Nextel for EVDO or Cingular for UMTS/HSDPA, you don’t get a good Wi-Fi plan along with it. T-Mobile does offer a great plan—$30 per month as a voice package add-on for unlimited Wi-Fi and GPRS/EDGE—but even EDGE runs at just-above-modem speeds, and at a fraction of EVDO/HSDPA downstream.
Helio Hybrid thus does have the advantage of giving you everything in one place with one bill and one price. And the fact that they throw in the 3G card, that’s just another cost advantage, along with the integrated software package designed by Tartara Systems.
Because these folks are an MVNO, they pay for every bit or minute to their operator partners. Because this is an EVDO service, only Sprint Nextel and Verizon Wireless can be the partners on the network. Verizon has onerous restrictions on usage, sending out nastygrams and cancellation notices to customers who exceed what they now define as five gigabytes of data transfer per month (an hour a day at 400 Kbps!). Sprint Nextel has not been quite as heavy handed.
The point, though, is that Wi-Fi should be the preferred connection method whenever it’s available, because Wi-Fi on Boingo’s aggregated network should be universally faster than EVDO whenever Wi-Fi is available. That motivation is coupled with what appears to be a setting to alert the user that there’s a better wireless network available—meaning that Helio should be pushing users to swap over onto Wi-Fi whenever they can.
There’s no terms of service online yet for the Hybrid plan; I’ll be curious what they define as legitimate usage.
Posted by Glennf at 10:32 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
WA hops on rest stop bandwagon: The state is offering Wi-Fi at 28 of 42 rest stops with free access to road conditions and travel information. Internet access is $1.99 for 20 minutes, $3.99 per day, $7.99 per week, and $29.99 per month. Service just launched to be ready for coming Labor Day weekend. The state has a rather complicated map that uses a big no-no in using icons to convey meaning. They have four logos that convey one implicit piece of information and two explicit addenda. The presence of the icon indicates a rest stop, so that’s implicit: the icon appears wherever that’s available.
The two addenda are whether the rest stop has an RV dump site or just wireless. This produces four icons: rest area only, rest area with dump site, rest area with wireless, rest area with dump and wireless. The wireless icon thus varies in size and color, and appears in two different forms in the list of amenities below the map, too.
Posted by Glennf at 8:51 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
At 50 to 60 rest stops on I95 and elsewhere, pull in for free Wi-Fi: The service won’t cost the state a penny, as provide Coach Connect will use ads to support it. Part of the deal allows Coach to put 40-inch plasma screens up showing travel information, and I expect the advertising on those screens will go a lot further than ads inserted into Wi-Fi browsing. It’s limited to 30 minutes of free use. The state may install some computers for use by travelers, though goodness knows how they’ll secure them.
Posted by Glennf at 7:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
The Washington Post rounds up local hotspots, the Journal covers travel tips and Wi-Fi woes (sub. req.): The Washington Post looks into D.C. and environs hotspots, providing a detailed review of the quality of the location, its food, and other notes. These types of stories have become less common as Wi-Fi turns into a component expected without comment, like an appropriate nitrogen/oxygen mix in a cafe’s air or tap water on demand.
The Journal looks briefly into what makes one hotspot reliable and another not—I disagree with their conclusion that it’s free versus fee, of course. And Jim Carlton files a column on traveling tips, quoting me at the end, and a few colleagues. My friend and colleague Adam Engst apparently carries a PowerSquid with him, which could provoke a number of ribald comments, but let’s just say, a PowerSquid is a good way to make friends in an airport.
Posted by Glennf at 10:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
David Pogue writes about three of the increasingly large number of cellular data to Wi-Fi gateways: He praises the notion of pairing the ubiquitousness of 2.5G and 3G cell data networks in the US with the affordability and utility of Wi-Fi adapters found in every device. He notes how a mobile router that combines WWAN and WLAN (and Ethernet LAN in Junxion and Top Global’s boxes) is ideal for traveling workgroups. The Kyocera gateway works with just Verizon and Sprint’s cards; the other two handle a wide range.
Pogue notes that despite protestations from companies like Verizon over the inadvisability of violating one’s terms of service by sharing a 3G connection, it’s inevitable that this kind of sharing will simply be part of the contract. He writes a propos of DSL and cable firms wanting to charge per computer on a home broadband network, “In the end, of course, common sense won, the cable companies lost, and now just about every home D.S.L. or cable modem signal is shared among two or more computers.”
Posted by Glennf at 8:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
At Mobile Pipeline today, I write about Google’s broad mobile plans into which Wi-Fi fits as a piece: Google’s Wi-Fi bid for San Francisco has been billed as a one-off, and after speaking to their business-development guy responsible for it, I’m convinced it is. What he said quite openly—and that he said many reporters haven’t been very interested in—is that Google would use SF as a place to assemble a platform of services for municipal networks that would have revenue on the back end. This set of services could be offered to companies like EarthLink—with which they have lines of communications—a way to generate revenue immediately beyond subscriber revenue.
In the article, I also cover Google’s phone strategy, which, while not unique and not as broad a portfolio as Yahoo and not as deep as some independent firms, is part and parcel of their overall approach.
Posted by Glennf at 11:07 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
A Gartner report suggests the majority of business travelers remain unware of and uninterested in ground, air Wi-Fi: The press release for this report doesn’t offer historical information, so the fact that 25 percent of US and 17 percent of UK travelers (in a sample of 2,000) said they’re using Wi-Fi on the road seems quite high to me. All the numbers from the hotspot industry show usage growing at a remarkable pace over the last year.
The report summary seems to mix up answers about in-flight usage and on-the-ground use, and airport terminal versus other use. It’s a little hard to figure out what questions were asked from how they wrote this up.
Essentially, they’re identifying a huge additional market potential, not a dearth of growth.
Posted by Glennf at 10:25 AM | Comments (2) | TrackBack
Toshiba’s MyConnect service looked until today like just another branded GoRemote offering: But Toshiba has upped the ante in competing with other aggregators and service providers by adding a $3.95 per hour option for on-demand use. Because GoRemote has tens of thousands of hotspots, wired locations, and dial-up numbers, this is an interesting option for travelers who want on-demand service and aren’t part of a larger negotiated network offering provided by GoRemote, iPass, or FiberLink to a corporate employer.
Toshiba’s MyConnect has several service plan offerings, with the $9.99 activation charge and $3.95 per hour (rounded to nearest hour) option being the cheapest and least to manage. They also offer recurring and prepaid plans. The $39.95 per month unlimited usage plan—across dial-up, wired, and wireless—has no cancellation penalty.
The $39.95 option including dial-up contrasts nicely with Boingo Wireless’s larger hotspot footprint (but few wired hotel rooms and no dial-up) offering at $21.95 per month unlimited usage, and FreedomLink’s retail $19.95 per month offering for Wi-Fi on their home network only. FreedomLink and Wayport locations are included in the GoRemote network that Toshiba is reselling.
All service plans offer a $4.95 per hour surcharged (and rounded up to nearest hour) toll free dial-up offering, which is not a bad last-resort option, as I’ve found on many trips.
Posted by Glennf at 11:02 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
My friends at Wirelesstrips.com have added a hotspot finder for recreational vehicle travelers: The rag-tag band of two parents and four kids and some pets roam the country from their base in Maine, and run their various electronic businesses while on the road. Internet access for the Adair-Hoy clan is critical. Richard has used Google Maps open interface to build a mapped directory that shows locations that have Wi-Fi and can handle RVs.
He’s working on checking out locations and accepts submissions. His goal is for a directory of places that are really equipped to handle both RVs and offer Wi-Fi, not just those who say they’re RV friendly but you can’t drive through (a key need) or get Wi-Fi unless you’re at the central facility doing your laundry.
There’s an alternative interface to the site that lets you specify a start and end point and see all the stops along the way.
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Belkin introduces a $60 WI-Fi adapter/router designed for travels: The compact 802.11g device will ship at the end of August, and is designed to share connections. It can be used as either a Wi-Fi adapter or as a gateway. This joins an increasingly large family of compact routers, but it’s one of the least expensive. One step better would be USB as an option for power or even batteries to avoid an AC adapter altogether.
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Long-time tech report Rafe Needleman editorializes in favor of sensibly free Wi-Fi: He’s not asking for a gift, but rather describes a set of strategies in which more free Wi-Fi could be made available to travelers and the public, and how to convince hospitality operators like hotels to include Wi-Fi in their amenities budget so that it’s just plain free.
I’m not so convinced that Wi-Fi needs to be free everywhere: rather, I would argue that roaming needs to be universal with a single login and that pricing needs to drop to the natural bottom, which is about $20 per month. When you can get consistent, reliable, supported service everywhere you go as a business traveler for $20 per month it’s worth the price. When you have to traverse several networks and a melange of free and fee networks all of which offer a differ set of costs and promises for availability, it’s not worth the price. Free can cost you money if you can’t use it and there’s no promise you can.
In fact, I still believe that some locations may offer both free and fee usage: for free, you get bandwidth limits, limits by service, time limits, and no support. For fee, you get full bandwidth, no service limits, and full tech support, plus secure login over 802.1X. Having two separate network names would aid this, of course: “Use Us Free” and “Use Us Fee.”
Rafe notes that municipalities may provide Wi-Fi soon, but I’d caution him to believe that it’ll be free. Most of the plans—and all of the sensible ones—that would roll out metropolitan Wi-Fi involve charging end users in homes and businesses but offering some or extensive free hotspot service in parks, city buildings, libraries, downtown areas, and other public places.
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Every few months, there’s another gas station chain adds Wi-Fi story: Estonia apparently was the first to pioneer this, and a colleague recently returned from there described the country as scary-wired. They’re pretty hip. But the rest of the world has taken a while to catch on, possibly because of quantity. With most chains, you want to make sure that people can consistently obtain the same services. This is what took McDonald’s so long to sign onto Wi-Fi: more than a year of testing with multiple partners led them to their current extensive plan.
Now part of Michigan has its Speedway and SuperAmerica stations unwired. FreedomNet Solutions is providing the service. They hope to strike gold in the way that apparently truck stops have. Truckers and mobile professionals alike need Wi-Fi on the road. It’s just plain easier to remain in the car or grab a bite and commute while still staying on top of deadlines and changes.
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Jiwire reviews the Hawking Hi-Gain PC Card: Becky Waring finds that the $40 card equals the coverage range of a Belkin Pre-N MIMO PC Card at a third the price through the use of a high-gain antenna.
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Colligo offers software for secure, ad hoc workgroups: The software avoids the need for a central server for collaboration over Wi-Fi. Version 4.0, available later in February for $99 per user, secures transactions via IPsec, and offers the kind of group tools for chatting, file exchange, and white-board brainstorming. It can also work as an ad-hoc bridge to connect a group through one user’s Internet access.
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SenForce’s latest end-point security product restricts adapter, WLAN networks, standards based on policy: The options for protecting computers through intelligence at different points in the network is really blossoming. You can use anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software on individual computers and in mail servers and dedicated boxes at the corporate network edge, deploy 802.1X to restrict network access (wired and wireless) until a machine’s integrity has been checked, and, now, control end-point security through policies set for individual machines for a host of parameters.
SenForce’s version 3.0 of their Endpoint Mobile Security Manager (EMSM) is a stateful packet firewall that prevents pattern attacks among other advanced features; location-based security policies; adapter-based policies (like, you can’t put a Wi-Fi card in that thing or at least not one from that vendor); restricted WLAN network visibility; integrity checking; and external storage control.
On the Wi-Fi side, this means that a network manager can make sure that only approved cards and types are installed in laptops (or even desktops), that a user has access only to certain networks, and that minimum network security is required, such as only allowing connections to WPA-enabled networks.
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Journal tests NetGear, D-Link portable gateways: This category is starting to expand as manufacturers realize that once someone tastes Wi-Fi, they don’t want to back to no-Fi. Jesse Drucker, subbing for Walt Mossberg, writes in The Wall Street Journal about testing two different gateways on the road and at home. As is typical, the basic functions are fine and security settings are a bear.
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My Business 2.0 feature on the best places for business travelers to hit the Internet is now mobile: Business 2.0 has repackaged the content from its print-like form into a format compatible with mobile browsers, like PocketPCs. It’s also accessible free, and includes all 20 cities that I researched; only 12 fit into print.
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This piece profiles a trucker who is better connected on the road than most people are in their homes: He subscribes to a Wi-Fi service for Internet access at truck stops, Sprint PCS for data access where Wi-Fi isn’t available as well as for voice services, and XM Satellite radio. He’s also an amateur photographer and so he maintains a blog of his photos while he’s on the road. His monthly fees run pretty high but if most of the subscriptions replace subscriptions such as DSL at home, it must make sense.
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Boingo partners with ICOA, expands to 75 airports: The battle for road warriors hearts and minds starts and ends in the airport. Boingo now has a roaming deal for all six of Icoa’s airports, and 69 others worldwide. The other day, I noted that SBC had signed up to resell access at or operate service in many of the U.S. airports that offer service. If they broker a few more deals, they could have the only comprehensive airport service plan.
A colleague of mine, a technology writer who travels frequently, says he rarely sees people working on laptops in airports. I don’t know how that’s possible, with the gate areas full of laptop users before flights furtively plugged into power. He’s fallen in love with a Treo, which allowed him to skip opening his laptop on a recent trip.
I still wonder how many applications people actually need. Does Blackberry’s success show that low-speed email is the primary application and that everything else is a distant second? I doubt it every time I see a plane full of cramped business people desperately typing away, reviewing Acrobat documents, building PowerPoint presentations, running Excel spreadsheets, and using proprietary software.
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SMC has thrown the kitchen sink into its traveler’s access point, a street price $99 device that has the full complement of Wi-Fi options: The AirPort Express ($129) from Apple may be cute and small, but the SMC has four modes versus AirPort Express’s 2 1/2. Express can act as a client (for streaming music and USB only), a WDS relay or remote (to Apple or compatible gateways only), or a standalone 802.11g/WPA gateway. I count Apple’s client mode as 1/2 since it can’t handle traffic over its Ethernet port as a bridge in that mode, apparently.
The SMC—trippingly off the tongue call it EZ Connect™ g 2.4GHz 802.11g Wireless Traveler’s Kit (SMCWTK-G)—can act as an access point, an Ethernet bridge (so full MAC masquerading onto any network), Ethernet bridge, repeater, and point-to-point or point-to-multipoint bridge. (Those last two are similar WDS modes, so I won’t count them separately.)
SMC doesn’t mention weight or the size of the power cord. The Express has an integral power plug, but you can get an extension cord as part of an audio/power kit for $39. The SMC unit can draw power over USB, too. [link via Tom’s Networking]
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The Washington State Ferries are leading the rush to bring wireless Internet service to regular commuters: I contributed a couple of stories to the Thursday New York Times Circuits section about commuter-Fi: Internet access available by Wi-Fi relayed from cellular, satellite, and fixed or mobile land services. The Washington ferries will soon have the largest service by orders by magnitude that serves commuters: potentially, they could have 10,000 users a day by fall. The next biggest in the U.S. with regular service is Altamount Commuter Express (ACE), which I write about in the article as well, but which has just 45 to 60 users on an average day.
Commuter Internet access is potentially the single largest concentrated market for data users. While six million people commute to work via public transportation on an average day in the U.S., only a tiny fraction have access to any live Internet signal at any stage in their journey at any price. I don’t have the percentage of those commuters who carry laptops or handhelds, but specific routes already have a significant percentage of passengers already using their laptops en route. (More staggeringly, by the way: 75 million trips are taken each average weekday on some form of public transportation on an average weekday, with 66.5 million of those trips by bus.)
This is a market that cellular data operators would love to tap into, but there are two limiting factors: cell data isn’t ideally equipped for people riding at high speeds inside metal containers; and many of the commuters who might use a free service (in exchange for looking at advertising) or pay $20 to $30 per month for high-speed access wouldn’t pony up $350 for a PC Card and $80 per month for the comparable cellular service if they don’t need it outside their commute. That is, you have plenty of commuters who don’t meet the road warrior profile, but have every bit as much need for data access during their daily shuttling.
The main article focuses on the various efforts that are well underway in the U.S., and mentions a few international projects, such as GNER’s recent rail launch, the Linx train service in Sweden/Denmark, and Paris’s bus project. The meat of the story looks at the Washington States Ferries use of a government grant to test the ways by which high-speed service could be offered continuously. The Port Townsend company that’s building out the test system says they could offer well over 10 Mbps with their configuration if it’s called for. (That firm actually specializes in military applications; the ferry system project is a rare case in which civilian work will pay back in military projects.) I was stunned to learn that the Washington ferries represent nearly half of all ferry trips in the U.S. each year.
The ferry system’s test uses fixed antennas to provide bandwidth. The other transportation operators I spoke to are either trying or planning to try cellular data or cellular and satellite. The illustration (thumbnailed above) that accompanies the article shows how PointShot, a rail Internet access builder, uses cell, satellite, and caching servers to provide continuous service.
In a sidebar, I cover the options in the Northeast, which are scant. You can get low-speed but good service on a shuttle from Manhattan to Boston or Long Island, but the MTA (which operates the rail lines around the city) has no plans, and Amtrak doesn’t think the technology is ready, although it did allow AT&T Wireless to install Wi-Fi in six Northeast train stations.
I took a day trip to Port Townsend to test out the currently only unwired ferry in the fleet; you can see some of my photos here.
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NetGear’s WGR101 lacks a fancy name, but its compact size might make it a good companion: NetGear hops on the underexploited portable access point market with its sub-$90 802.11g portable device. Its unique feature is an external switch for changing between a single user mode, multi-user shared mode, and configuration. It lacks WPA at the moment, but support is promised. The price and features compare favorably with Apple’s upcoming AirPort Express, which retails for $129 and includes USB printer sharing and streaming music, which aren’t critical features for a road warrior.
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Texas Department of Transportation puts Wi-Fi into all of its rest stops: The service was put into trial in the panhandle at three locations. It’s now soliciting bids for 84 rest areas and 12 information centers. The service will be free, and they hope to have Internet kiosks that will charge a small fee for use. Part of the thinking is that providing this service will encourage travelers to make more frequent stops which could reduce the incidence of accidents due to fatigue.
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AirPort Express from Apple puts audio, print spooler, bridging, and Ethernet in one tiny package: Apple has released a seven-ounce home Wi-Fi gateway that’s barely larger than a power adapter. The AirPort Express works with any Wi-Fi device, but it particularly supports streaming music through a built-in analog and digital audio jack and USB printer spooling through a built-in USB port on certain later release of Mac OS X and Windows XP and 2000.
The small device runs 802.11g with full WPA support, and handles bridging via Wireless Distribution System (WDS). Apple guarantees WDS will work only with its own devices. The AirPort Express can act as an access point and bridge at the same time. Apple’s free iTunes software for Mac and Windows will have a small update this week to handle choosing a particular AirPort Express base station’s attached stereo or powered speakers.
The AirPort Express raises the bar on features, as it combines print spooling, audio streaming, and WDS in one form factor. Similar features are available from many other manufacturers, but typically only as a single device (audio/photo/MPEG streaming only) or with limitations, like Linksys’s WRT54G which can either bridge or be an AP, but not both.
It remains to be seen whether Apple can find a broader audience for its product with a $129 price tag when it ships in July, but its combination of portability and plugs might push it into the forefront of both the home market and the roaming traveler’s world.
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It’s not a truck stop, it’s a travel center, and its 150-plus locations will be wireless by July: Travel Centers combine truck stop features with RV and auto drivers needs, and they’ll add Wi-Fi to the mix—it’s a must have for any place in its category now. The 40 company-owned stores are already unwired; the franchisees will be ready to go by July 3. Service will cost $1.49 for an hour, $4.49 for 24 hours starting at the time of purchase, $22.49 for two months, and $169.99 per year. These longer plans are designed truckers to ensure brand loyalty. Diesel-fuel buyers can cash in RoadKing Club points they earn from buying gas against the Wi-Fi service.
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