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January 2003 Archives

January 28, 2003

Slow Week

By Glenn Fleishman

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Cry me a river, I'm skiing: Wi-Fi takes a holiday, or at least my reporting on it, as I ski. Watch for a few news bits this week, and back in action next. Meanwhile, support the sponsors above.

Apple releases AirPort Extreme Base Station, new PowerMacs: Apple has apparently started shipping its 802.11g draft based AirPort Extreme Base Stations. And, today, they announced their updated PowerMac tower line which will support the AirPort Extreme mini-PCI-like card.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:10 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 26, 2003

News for 1/26/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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802.11g worthwhile, but maybe not just yet: A very sensible article by a UK-based ZDNet writer who points out that the future of 802.11g has a lot to do with moving multimedia around the house, not just data around an office. As more and more reports indicate, 802.11a may take traction in education and offices, where more bandwidth is useful, leaving 802.11g dominating home and hot spots.

Because of this split, we're sure to see almost universal deployment of dual-band PC Cards, with every other kind of device choosing: you don't need a dual-band PCI card, as desktop machines rarely move. You don't need a dual-band gateway or access point if you're deploying a single flavor.

The writer of this piece makes two arguable statements: first, the 802.11g devices on mixed b/g networks will drop down just ot 11 Mbps speeds -- this appears to be possible, but not entirely true. Depending on the amount of data involved, g devices should still get better throughput unless b devices saturate the network. Second, he mentions "tri-mode" a, b, and g devices. Unnecessary: 802.11g incorporates full 802.11b backwards support, so it's a/b or a/g, but not a/b/g (in that sense).

IBM includes dual a/b support in new ThinkPads: IBM understands the corporate market, and has thus included public (b) and early enterprise (a) support to hedge their bets. C'mon, it only costs a few bucks more for a dual chipset, and might as well not stagnate the model if the market swings to 802.11a.

The writer of this piece makes the same error (that Wi-Fi is just 802.11b) that many journalists have because of the Wi-Fi Alliance's shift in what Wi-Fi means: Wi-Fi is both 802.11a and b as of a few months ago. This is confusing. I constantly have to write around the problem to avoid misstating the case, even as people who know what Wi-Fi means still think of it generally incorrectly, too. See, the problem with a good brand.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:00 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 25, 2003

News for 1/25/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

Trepia -- your instant Wi-Fi community:
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Palm deploys enormous Bluetooth network; still doesn't quite know what it's for: In this balanced, technically accurate story, a reporter talks to Palm, Inc., which has just deployed what appears to be the largest Bluetooth network in the world. While Bluetooth has many complementary features to Wi-Fi, including quick access and teardown, there's an odd quote from an infrastructure engineer: "If I want to check my e-mail, it takes longer to get it on 802.11b because I have to boot up my laptop and that takes time. But with Bluetooth, I can get it right away on my Palm," says Mr. Stevenson. With a Wi-Fi card in your Palm, if such a thing existed, you could check it right away and faster, though. More sensibly, you could acquire permanent paired access to devices that allow you carry out brief, protocol-oriented tasks, like syncing.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:17 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 23, 2003

Tenzing Nor-Fi

By Glenn Fleishman

Trepia -- your instant Wi-Fi community:
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Everest base camp wireless: The grandson of the last living Sherpa who accompanied Hilary on his jaunt up Everest is bringing wireless relayed satellite network access to Everest's base camp, among other projects. This fine article, written by my friend and colleague Nancy Gohring, conveys the critical importance of communication. I love the sense of community also by Gordon Cook, Dave Hughes, et al., where their long association and their deep generosity provides this kind of outcome. (Just a sub-reference here: Tenzing Communications in Seattle, an airplane Intenet access system provider, named themselves after Tenzing Norge, another Hilary Sherpa, and the one who possibly stepped on the summit before Hilary.

Evoution Number Nine: EvDO cell data: The EvDO cell data system (horribly markety name of Evolution Data Only) provides high-speed, high-quality data over cellular systems. Several journalists I know have been favorably impressed by demonstrations, and this Washington Post writer is no exception. The only hitch is that deploying EvDO requires billions of dollars of tower equipment upgrades. The article also notes a good number for hot spots: 100,000 hot spots would provide about the same big-city ubiquity as current cell coverage. I'd buy that. If Vivato works out, that 100K number might go down substantially or be deployed more quickly. Alan Reiter brings his expert opinion to bear.

Open source mesh networking: People keep pointing me over the last few days to LocustWorld, a company using and creating open-source software and selling inexpensive boxes to perform mesh networking, which allows multiple routing paths for wireless data instead of single point-to-point or point-to-multipoint connections. I'm not sure why interest peaked again over the last week: they've been shipping software and hardware for months. Any community networking and neighborhood networking project should look into MeshAP as a cheap and interesting evolving solution.

FatPort opens its first Whistler, BC, location: FatPort, a Canadian wireless ISP, has opened a hot spot at the Westin in Whistler, BC. Whistler is one of the greatest ski resorts on the planet -- I've been there, but not to every other resort...this is hearsay -- and I had some long talks with a Net cafe owner when up last April about Wi-Fi. There are three other companies that also either already have or plant to be rolling out more extensive Whistler access. Captive audience of thousands of people already paying roughly $40 per day to ski? Not a bad market.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:13 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 22, 2003

News for 1/22/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

Trepia -- your instant Wi-Fi community:
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Anchordesk finds trouble in Wi-Fi compatibility: Daniel Miller hits every problem one can with trying to use a Wi-Fi card with enterprise and VPN systems. It's a cautionary tale, as it shows how what seems to be a simple proposition becomes out of control when you layer reasonable security through encrypted on top of it. I come out in the article for WPA, which would solve all his troubles, except, possibly the VPN tunneling on untrusted networks, but it should at least make LEAP no longer his network's standard.

Utah's CTO explains Wi-Fi total cost of ownership (TCO): For a concise and real-world, hard-won explanation of the total expenses involved in deploying Wi-Fi networks in a large organization, read Phil Windley's essay. His comment on VPNs is interesting, of course, as I predict (based on many more involved people's opinions than mine) that 802.1x/EAP plus a secured form of EAP will allow enterprises to abandon local VPN requirements by offering security as robust as a VPN without the expense and overhead. In fact 802.1x/EAP might be an excellent supplement or sidecar to encrypted VLANs, which already use something very much like it.

Airshare and Enjoy: Airshare.org is a site dedicated to educating people about the use of wireless networks. I like how the site is divided, and its focus on helpful how-to projects. They've posted Adam Engst and my 802.11g/AirPort Extreme article, and have discussion forums and other points of interest for anyone learning about or trying to teach others about wireless networking. You can also contribute content of interest to them to better spread the word.

InStat/MDR estimates 1,500-1,800 wireless ISPs: A new report from InStat/MDR using data from the Broadband Wireless Exchange suggests a robust mom-and-pop-sized wISP market. The high-tech market research firm estimates that there are 1,500 - 1,800 license-exempt WISPs in the US and worldwide end user revenues generated from infrastructure in the license-exempt WISP market are forecasted to be $265.2 million for 2002. The report costs $2,500.

Nashville Wi-Fi: Another regional story about Wi-Fi in the local market. The reporter repeats something mentioned in the New York Times article about Long Beach without mentioning the source or that in the original article it was a speculative based on reports that the article didn't mention: That's why Seattle, San Francisco, San Diego, San Jose and other tech-savvy cities have committed to creating ''hot zones'' in their downtowns. Although community wireless projects in at least some of these cities are bringing in wireless in larger areas, none of those four cities have municipally supported projects that I'm aware of.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 7:52 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 21, 2003

News for 1/21/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

Trepia -- your instant Wi-Fi community:
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Europe get hot spot jones: Interestingly, some real market numbers in this article. 16K European Wi-Fi hot spot payers with 4K regular subscribers. US: 65K paying users, Asia 20K (no subscriber numbers, though). The source of these figures? Unknown. InStat and Yankee are quoted on units shipped later in the same paragraph. The article quotes my favorite Swede, Carlo Cassisa, on Telia's 500 hot spot operation, and notes that European operators are waking up. [via Alan Reiter, of course -- read his commentary, too.]

Linksys exits 802.11a-only product business: I missed this part of Henry Norr's column yesterday, which SmallNetBuilder confirmed: Linksys is dropping their new 802.11a-only devices in favor of g and a+g dual-band products.

T-Mobile expands UK Starbucks presence: Only four more stores for a total of six, but still shows that they're moving forward. [via TechDirt]

Tim Higgins's exhaustive review of Buffalo's 802.11g equipment: I've just discovered the magnitude of Tim's reviews (see yesterday's entry, too), and I recommend following his writing.

Tim Higgins's Linksys WSB24 review: In this review, Tim disassembles the unit to show us the innards, and figures out what it's actually offering.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 11:24 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified | 1 Comment

January 20, 2003

Eight oh two dot em oh you ess eeeeee

By Glenn Fleishman

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The state of IEEE standards for 802.11 et al.: Dewayne Hendricks forwarded a post from a Cisco staffer who attended the Ft. Lauderdale meeting of the 802.11, .15, .18, .19, and .20 committee last week. His report is on the status of several existing and new standards. I don't know what all the procedural detail means, like as "will ad hoc." My notes are in square brackets [].
 
Leaving base camp
High Throughput Study Group Letter Ballot on PAR and Five Criteria
802.11m Maintenance Task Group will start in March
802.11k Radio Resource Measurement may have first draft in July
[getting the physical layer of the radio to report accurate details up to the network layers for management purposes]
802.11j 4.9GHz and 5GHz in Japan will have first draft in March [Modifications to get 802.11a working in Japan]
 
Measure twice, cut once
802.11e MAC QoS received 1173 technical comments, answered 193, will ad hoc in Portland Feb 24-27
802.11i Security received 2000+ comments, will ad hoc in Seattle Feb 19-21
 
Closing Letter Ballot
802.11g Higher rate 2.45GHz will recirculate LB, and might Sponsor Ballot before March plenary
 
Peak is in sight
802.11h 5Ghz in Europe resolved all Sponsor Ballot comments received, waiting to recirculate
[Europeans modifications for 802.11a]
802.15.2 PAN and LAN coexistance resolved all Sponsor Ballot comments received, but did not convert enough NO voters to YES to recirculate [Standard allows better co-existence with Bluetooth/802.15.1-2002 devices and 2.4 GHz 802.11 devices]
802.11f Inter Access Point Protocol Recommended Practice resolved: all NO comments, and converted all NO voters to YES, will Sponsor Ballot recirculate
802.11 1999 (reaffirm 2003) will Sponsor Ballot recirculate and be complete in March

Other News

Henry Norr tears 802.11g a new one: Sorry for the coarse euphemism, but there's no other way to put it. Norr tries out a variety of 802.11g gear, and finds poor performance and poor interoperability. If someone as tech savvy as him is having these problems with early gear, what can consumers expect? I'd like to see more information about the throughput issues: he was seeing lower throughput on 802.11g than b (using homogeneous equipment), but I wonder if he'd locked them into "g only" mode?

Long, deep comparison of Linksys and Buffalo 802.11g gear: The results aren't surprising, but they're well documented with good methodology. Pure 802.11g equipment can top 20 Mbps, but once you add clients or mix in 802.11b or even other chipsets, you start seeing degradation that's asymmetrical. The article is long, but worth examining closely! [via The Shifted Librarian]

The unique, the visionary, the immortal Dave Hughes: A nice profile of a guy who has fairly selflessly spread a message of community through connectivity. I like his plan for immortality near the end. But, Dave, surely not until the sun burns out -- you can fix entropy, can'tcha?

Why use T-Mobile when in a Starbucks? Competitors abound: This excellent piece of analysis describes the trouble in hegemony: with T-Mobile charging a relatively high rate for access in their 2,000+ locations, how can they compete with free or cheaper from nearby signals to the Starbucks outlets? Starbucks are, practically by definition, found in dense and hip areas which are the same places you'll find Surf and Sip and community networks. The head of Surf and Sip has long played a game of finding locations where he can see several coffee shops and restaurants, not just one partner. [via TechDirt]

See the USA with a Wi-Fi array: I'm trying to hard to fit the jingle to the story, but automotive Wi-Fi may take off, with units in the car talking to mobile components to transfer music, misc. Imagine having a gateway in your car that provides an Car Area Network (CAN). Imagine bridging the CAN to GSM/GPRS as needed. Imagine bridging the CAN to a hot spot location when you're near one. Imagine that you can do that today with...a Macintosh running OS X or a Windows XP box with the right hoo-ha. But in-car, permanent components would be better. [via TechDirt]

WirelessDevNet prepares hot spot directory: The folks at WirelessDevNet have launched a form to submit hot spot information in the hopes of creating a comprehensive directory. There are other directories, but none of them appears to be entirely exhaustive. Hopefully, someone will be smart enough to avoid forms in the future and create an XML DTD + Schema that can be used to prepare uniform hot spot listings which could be downloaded via a regular ping from the WISP sites and then just integrated into directories. Anybody want to launch this very simple effort and then convince the wISPr committee at the Wi-Fi Alliance to take up that uniform listing format idea?

Proxim a/b certification: Proxim pushed out a press release today noting that their a/b card has achieved certification, among the first 802.11a products approved by the Wi-Fi Alliance.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:04 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 18, 2003

Wireless & tv interference

By Glenn Fleishman

Glenn,
This may sound weird, but is it possible for an Apple Base station to interfere with a tv? A tv near where I usually use my iBook has a strange problem. The volume goes up and down without anyone touching the remote. We took it in (it was still under warranty), but they said there was nothing wrong. The problem comes and goes, but I can't see a strong connection with my surfing and the tv problem. This morning, however, just as I started to use my computer my wife yelled that the volume on the tv in our bedroom on 2nd floor went down by itself. Do you think there is any connection or should I call in an exorcist?

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 5:42 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

Do Not Call for Whom the Chalk Tolls

By Glenn Fleishman

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How Warchalking Died: A Modest Proposal or a Serious Syllogism?: I can't tell whether this is tongue in cheek or absolutely serious, but I fear that latter. What's interesting is that the author appears to have swallowed the big business pill. Warchalking isn't a movement, it's an idea. There's no formal organization. He sees this as a weakness: This is a grassroots effort. Many grassroots movements die or are self-limiting. How will this grow and what is the motivation?

In fact, the point is precisely the opposite: ideas that spread like wildfire may or may not have staying power (hula hoop, pet rock, democracy). But individuals decide through their own processes whether or not the idea will succeed. Warchalking doesn't require lots of people. A few thousand dedicated loonies would have more impact than 200,000 interested occasional participants. A few million people who knew about it could perpetuate the meme indefinitely.

The writer also puts too much faith in the Wi-Fi Zone program. It's a paid program that will require certification, even though the first year is free. Larger comapnies will participate, sure, and spread this new meme, but the Wi-Fi Zone is a marketing meme, not a grassroots/blog meme, and thus has a much harder and more expensive row to hoe. It's guaranteed that business travelers will seek out brands, but it's hard to know whether this brand will rise or fall. It hasn't been tested in the crucible of the marketplace or the memeplace yet.

Having just read the tipping point, it's clear to me that group behavior has more to do with how new ideas are spread, rather than the validity or utility of the new ideas. Baggy pants on youths, anyone?

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:51 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 17, 2003

News for 1/17/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Get the 411 on 802.11g, especially AirPort Extreme: My book co-author Adam Engst and I have co-written a 3,000-word article on the state of 802.11g equipment including an enormous amount of detail about AirPort Extreme: both the Base Station and the AirPort Extreme Card. This article will be available next week as a downloadable PDF with illustrations and photos, too. (And remember: we launched an Apple AirPort-specific blog earlier this week, too, for all your AirPort needs and questions.)

100th anniversary of Marconi's first US to Great Britain transmission: Celebrations tomorrow of the first trans-Atlantic message using Marconi's wireless system. A short message, but it got there.

Use electrical power to spread your network's reach: Richard Giles mentions the increasingly cool electrical power networking system that allows you to span areas of a home with Ethernet. It's good to note that Siemens now offers a Wi-Fi-to-power converter, too, so you can add a HomePlug/PowerLine Wi-Fi access point and use an Ethernet-to-power converter in another part of the house where your Internet access lives. It's cheap, too: about $90 for the Wi-Fi adapter, according to a Walt Mossberg column a few weeks ago.

Hotspotzz offers Sundance festival service, overstates own importance: They had me at Sundance. I thought, what a great press release: they're offering Wi-Fi service for one of the premier film events, and it's both a great opportunity for them to show off what they're doing and get some nice promotion. But then they threw in this phrase: These hot spots comprise a significant percentage of the U.S. public wireless Wi-Fi hot spots in the United States. Forget the tautology. Their 110 hot spots represent less than 1/2 of one percentage point, and probably less than 1/4 or 1/8 at this point. Let's be realistic, folks: 110 hot spots scattered across a bunch of cities is great, but it's only the seed of something that must be much, much larger.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 3:57 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 16, 2003

Neunundneunzig Luft-bits-pro-Sekunde

By Glenn Fleishman

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Seattle reporter files story from Lufthansa/Boeing data trial flight: A Seattle Post-Intelligencer reporter tested out the new Frankfurt-Washington, D.C. Lufthansa flight that features wired and wireless access to a 128 Kbps up/3 Mbps down satellite link. The system supplied by Boeing division Connexion can be used only with a single Wi-Fi card at the moment, but general approval is being sought. Boeing's Seattle rival Tenzing, which had originally planned an SAS/Telia trial for in-flight Wi-Fi almost two years ago, scoffed at Connexion's cost structure; Tenzing has put lower-speed service into nearly 40 planes. Lufthansa plans to charge about $30 per flight for access to the service. Wired plugs and electrical outlets are available only in first and business class. More planes will probably not be added after this 3-month test until 2004. [via several readers and Wireless-World list]

Other News

My new AirPort blog!: As if you didn't get enough of me already, Adam Engst and I have launched a new Apple AirPort Weblog to cover Apple-specific wireless issues, focused on its AirPort networking system. We felt that there were enough detailed issues of no interest to non-Apple users that a dedicated blog would provoke more news, tips, and discussion.

First 802.11a products certified by Wi-Fi Alliance: InfoWorld documents the Wi-Fi Alliance's first seven 802.11a-certified Wi-Fi devices. Remember that in November, the Wi-Fi trademark was expanded to include 5 GHz devices. The article notes that it takes 6 to 12 months to develop a certification process for a new standard, which would put 802.11g certification at the end of 2003 at the very earliest, assuming a stable draft finalization before ratification over summer.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 3:25 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 15, 2003

News for 1/15/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Can you feel it? The long simmering pot of Wi-Fi is reaching its keening boil. Many of us thought this was already underway as long as a year ago, but judging by the fever pitch of articles, investment, and hardware, we're reaching the top. According to Gartner's hype model, the next stage is the trough of disillusionment, but it's possible that Wi-Fi will avoid a deep trough given the "show-me" nature of most of the deployments. There's not a lot of Wi-Fi speculation; there's a lot of deployment, shipping products, and real use.

Sens. Allen, Boxer: Jumpstart Broadband Bill: This bill requires the reallocation of at least 255 MHz of spectrum below 5 GHz. It's very smart of these senators to want this, but this particular legislation may not be the right course. There is no national spectrum policy coordination in the United States. Congress proposes, the FCC disposes. The executive branch gets involved. Private industry lobbies.

But there's no uber-agency or uber-organization to which the powers of harmonization and allocation have been delegated to deal with the inevitable conflicts and greed and lack of technical knowledge.

In Europe and elsewhere, the World Radio Congress acts as a central body and each country needs to adopt its recommendations -- not a WTO "you must adopt" situation -- which is why Europe and Asia have much more coordination in how they use spectrum.

Boxer and Allen's bill, if passed, reopens the 1997, 1999, and 2000 budget bill acts which required a few hundred MHz to be reallocated mostly to balance the budget. In Boxer and Allen's favor, no money can change hands in unlicensed spectrum, so they must have a social policy goal. Still, the previous reallocations mostly failed; digital TV is stalled; and the military is fighting back on the long-allocated 5 GHz ranges.

My proposal is, of course, to rethink the 2.5 GHz ITU/MMDS band which was sold through sublicenses from nonprofits and educational institutions to Sprint and Worldcom. These license should be written off, redeemed, and reallocated with different power rules, and we'd have more than 100 MHz in the sweet spot already used in a way that could accommodate current users indefinitely.

Other News

Intersil offers results of real-world a vs. g test: In this detailed technical article, Intersil offers several interesting pieces of information, including a clear reason why OFDM works better than CCK, and the average throughput of 802.11a and 802.11g (compared against 22 Mbps PBCC from Texas Instruments, to boot). In the real-world environment they tested, 802.11g beat the crud out of 802.11a. The article includes excellent illustrations of average speed in the test environment overlaid on a map of the space.

North Carolina paper explores mom-and-pop-Fi: Another article on the growing trend of small entrepreneurs setting up efficient, high-speed, targeted wireless networks in areas underserved or not served at all by DSL and cable modems. The demand is there, but a patchwork of small providers may be better equipped to handle the particular demands of the community through trust (it's a neighbor) and small investments.

More detail on Lufthansa's in-flight data service: InfoWorld offers up much more detail about Lufthansa's upcoming test of Wi-Fi and Ethernet access to the Internet while in flight. For instance, Lufthansa will be using Cisco Wi-Fi equipment. Not mentioned is the FAA or other airline regulatory bodies' opinions of 2.4 GHz in-flight transmissions.

Everett, Washington, has plenty of Wi-Fi hot spots: Even smaller towns, such as this exurb of Seattle, has plenty of locations for free and fee Wi-Fi, with the level of interest high enough that more should explode soon.

Patrick Houston rounds up commercial Wi-Fi at Anchordesk: Patrick finds access while watching his son ice skate at a local rink, and rounds up what kind of commercial hot spot service is available and on the way.

Discussing Wi-Fi in a forum: Don't forget that I started up a forum to talk about any Wi-Fi issues (hot spots, operating systems, etc.) at the Wireless Networking Starter Kit site. The system allows simple threaded Web-based discussions. Join now!

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:05 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 14, 2003

News for 1/14/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Catch my TechTV appearance: My six minutes on TechTV's The Screen Savers show is now available in low but watchable QuickTime fidelity. I wave my hands too much, but I was able to talk for quite a while about 802.11g, WPA, and AirPort Extreme. I had a blast -- a great show and I wish I could get it on my local cable system.

Hitachi unveils Wi-Fi-equipped projectors: These are pretty high-end suckers including digital connectors (DVI): $11,000 and $13,000 plus $1,500 for the wireless module.

Lufthansa, Boeing to offer high-speed in-air trial: Although the article doesn't mention intra-plane Wi-Fi as an option, this was discussed in articles last summer about Lufthansa's goals. The service that Boeing can offer is 20 Mbps down and 1 Mbps up inflight for possibly $35 per flight. The test is being run from Frankfurt to Washington, D.C., a long enough flight that for the right people, $35 is a trivial amount. Voice over IP? Videoconferencing? Another way to annoy your neighbors.

Motorola, Proxim, Avaya to stitch seamless wireless network: The New York Times reports on today's expected announcement -- which was made -- about these three firms' efforts to stitch together different forms of wireless networking into a seamless whole to allow roaming across several kinds of networks, like cell and Wi-Fi hot spots.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:29 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 13, 2003

News for 1/13/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Honda to introduce Wi-Fi legislation: Wi-Fi isn't really the same thing as unlicensed networking, but still -- Rep. Michael M. Honda (D., Calif.) today said he would introduce a House version of promised Senate legislation allocating 255 megahertz of spectrum below 5 GHz to Wi-Fi and other wireless Internet applications. A spokesman said Mr. Honda was likely to introduce the bill as soon as the House came back into session in two weeks. Sens. George Allen (R., Va.) and Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.) previously promised to introduce the Wi-Fi bill early in the Congress (TRDaily, Nov. 20. 2002). [via Dewayne-Net]

Belkin to ship 802.11g products Jan. 15: Belkin's announced its whole line of 54g (Broadcom based) 802.11g products, including a wireless gateway ($150), an access point ($140), a PC Card ($80), and a PCI card ($80).

Slew of 802.11g devices: PC Magazine rounds up the many already announced 802.11g devices using chips from Broadcom and Intersil.

Hams build Hinternet: Amateur radio operators (hams) are using a Part 97 variation on 802.11b to build the Hinternet, or a ham-oriented licensed band network. Hams operate under Part 97, which allows higher-powered and priority uses of parts of the 2.4 GHz band. Conflicts could arise, but it also opens up the potential for Wi-Fi fans to become hams as well in a boon for free community networks. Part 97 can't be used commercially, is my understanding, where Part 15 doesn't have that precise restriction.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:06 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 12, 2003

Enterprise Authentication Roadmap

By Glenn Fleishman

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The roadmap for wireless network authentication in WPA and 802.11i: The result of weeks of research, my InfoWorld article on 802.1x/EAP, EAP-TLS, EAP-TTLS, and PEAP will hopefully distill a lot of confusing acronyms into a clear path for how we get from disparate solutions today to a single secure method in the future of logging wireless users onto a corporate network without a VPN.

Sniffing with a credit card-sized device: This small card detects the presence of a Wi-Fi network. [via Gizmodo]

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:49 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 9, 2003

News for 1/9/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Linksys 802.11g gateway for $134 from Amazon.com: Linksys is shipping their Broadcom-based 54G draft 802.11g gateway for a low low price.

Cory Doctorow debunks war-plus-suffix Wi-Fi fears in InternetWeek: Cory says a lot of very sensible, logical things about why the fears raised about warspamming, wardriving, and other problems are fearmongering and misdirection.

SanDisk introduces Compact Flash Wi-Fi: Alan Reiter writes up SanDisk's announcement at CES of their Cmopact Flash-based Wi-Fi cards that are available in configurations with 128 Mb and 256 Mb or no memory. The memory plus Wi-Fi combination is particularly useful because in cameras that could be upgraded to handle Wi-Fi networking support, for instance, it would require much more engineering to add double Compact Flash slots.

No card update for older Apple AirPort users to Extreme: The head of Apple's hardware products confirmed for me yesterday that there will be no possibility of an AirPort "Classic" update to the new 802.11g draft compatible AirPort Extreme standard. He said that the bus through which the older AirPort cards work -- practically identical to the older PC Card bus -- does not have the capacity to handle much more than the 11 Mbps of 802.11b, and thus an update would have no improvement on performance.

Wi-Fi Alliance announces terms of Wi-Fi Zone program: The chairman of the Wi-Fi Alliance told an 802.11 Planet keynote audience that this program was coming, and today's announcement allows wireless ISP to apply for free involvement until the end of March good until the end of March 2004. The program requires basic service standards to be met. Nomadix has already announced their support for the program.

Actiontec announces full 802.11g line: At the CES consumer electronics show in Las Vegas, Actiontec revealed that they'll be selling a whole line of 802.11g gear, including an ADSL gateway with wireless networking.

Avaya software access point in new drivers: I can't find the confirmation of this in the release notes, but reader Tarmo Kaljumäe in Estonia writes to say that the Avaya PC Card update can turn a computer into a software access point.

Free Wi-Fi newsletter from Pyramid Research: Analysis firm Pyramid Research offers a free e-mail Wi-Fi newsletter that starts Jan. 29. [via Alan Reiter

Yamaha Wi-Fi-based audio system: For over $2,000, you can get an 80 Gb music server with CD-R that can broadcast via Wi-Fi to a receiver (included) that has its own 20-watt amplifier and support for external speakers. Extra receivers are $800.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:31 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 8, 2003

Apple's Extreme Answers

By Glenn Fleishman

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More on Apple Extreme's details: I'm at Macworld Expo all this week, and had the opportunity to speak directly with Greg Joswiak, Apple's VP of hardware products, about the specifics of Apple Extreme.

Joswiak wouldn't discuss the chip supplier for Apple's new 802.11g devices, but it's clear that it's Broadcom, given that Agere, Apple's continuing partner on the older AirPort cards, doesn't have an 802.11g solution, and Broadcom is the only chipmaker shipping 802.11g chips. In the short run, this is good news, because with Apple, Linksys, D-Link, and others commanding an early "g" lead, later companies will be said to "not be compatible" rather than all devices describes as "not interoperable." This remains a huge difficulty with deploying a draft standard, but Joswiak was confident that firmware upgrades and the Wi-Fi Alliance would bring together the pieces quickly to keep compatibility among g devices.

The new Apple Extreme Base Station supports access point and bridge mode simultaneously. Deploying several base stations is now a simple solution for smaller networks that need more client access is different places.

Apple worked with Dr. Bott to handle the development and marketing of the antennas that are available only for the $249 base station model. Joswiak said that Apple didn't want to get into the business of antennas, but Dr. Bott's antennas are fully FCC certified to work as a system with Apple's base station.

Joswiak said that Apple continues to look at WPA (Wi-Fi Protected Access) without having made a decision about support yet. However, since the chipset they're using will likely have a simple firmware upgrade to WPA, Joswiak acknowledged that Apple would follow trends in the marketplace if WPA becomes widely desired or used.

Other News

Apple's move to dismiss 802.11a is not unique: Microsoft and others are also dubious about 802.11a's future versus 802.11g's rapid availability and compatibility.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 1:23 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 7, 2003

Wi-Fi -- to the Extreme!

By Glenn Fleishman

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Apple announces support for 802.11g as AirPort Extreme: Apple announced today that they would be offering 54 Mbps 802.11g draft standard support in their new AirPort Extreme products, which include a new card (with a new form factor, thus not working with older Macs) and a new Base Station. Although CEO Steve Jobs said that 802.11g was a standard, as readers of this site know, the IEEE won't ratify 802.11g until fall 2003 at earliest, and the Wi-Fi Alliance's plans to create certification for draft g devices is entirely unknown. Interoperability among different chipmakers and firmware is also an unknown, even though it's likely, and worst case is that incompatible draft g devices talk at 802.11b speeds.

Apple's new card only works in the largest and smallest PowerBooks ever made: their 12-inch and 17-inch PowerBook G4 models. The 17-inch model comes with the card as part of its basic configuration, and both units have built-in Bluetooth as well. No word yet on how they've solved Bluetooth/Wi-Fi interference issues, but it's possible they chose a chipset that has the right characteristics for avoidance.

The new base station is now $199 or $249, and adds USB printer sharing. The $249 units have built-in modems and an external antenna option, and Dr. Bott seems to be selling that antenna. Both LAN and WAN ports are 10/100 Mbps Ethernet, which makes sense for a 54 Mbps (raw) technology.

It supports an access point plus bridge mode, unique among all non-enterprise equipment. The closest option for this kind of connectivity otherwise involves Linksys WAP11s or a WET11 and a variety of technology compromises that generally work, but involve more equipment and complexity. The AirPort Base Station could become an option even in non-Mac environments because of this feature.

Steve Jobs declared that 802.11a was dead, which probably forestalls future dual-band products from the company, which was my prediction for the next AirPort refresh.

I have a briefing with Apple tomorrow and will get some additional detail, including, hopefully, the chipmaker's name.

Other News

HomeRF Working Group disbands: The writing was on the wall with the elevation of Angela Champness to general manager of Proxim's LAN division that HomeRF would be heading finally out the door. HomeRF had a set of excellent features, but it's lack of enterprise support and its late start at higher speeds kept it from catching fire.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 5:38 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 6, 2003

News for 1/6/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Bowing to the obvious: a name change: You can note in the upper-left corner of the browser that this site is no longer the 802.11b Networking News site, but the more sensibly inclusive Wi-Fi Networking News site. As Wi-Fi has broadened to include 802.11a, 802.11b, and an interim security protocol, it makes sense to change the name. You can now reach the site at its current URL, but also via wi-fi.weblogger.com. (Note: We have no affiliation with the Wi-Fi Alliance, which owns the trademark to and runs the certification program for Wi-Fi.)

Get the "a" out of here!: Analysts suggest that 802.11a's physical limitations and newness may turn 802.11g into the real next-generation flavor. Of course, the article doesn't note that 802.11g's final, compatible, certified, interoperable version won't be available until late 2003, thus meaning that businesses would be choosing potentially incompatible draft versions of 802.11g over 802.11a. That seems unlikely to me, given the conservative nature of most companies. The CEO of RadioLAN has an odd paraphrase in the article about his 802.11a bridging products: Companies don't want 802.11b gear to sniff out their wireless data. This isn't a direct quote, but it's oddly naive if it's what he meant. The ease of using 802.11a to sniff traffic isn't higher than 802.11b. Security through obscurity isn't a solution; better security is.

Local reporting on Long Beach downtown Wi-Fi rollout: The article notes a few interesting points not raised in today's New York Times: downtown users will be limited to an hour a day to avoid annoying merchants with cybersquatters, and much of the equipment was donated, which doesn't make this a precise model to follow for future rollouts.

Meet me at Macworld in San Francisco, Jan. 7 to 10: I and Adam Engst, my co-author on The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, will be signing books and talking to attendees all around the Macworld Exposition show floor next week:

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 10:20 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 5, 2003

News for 1/5/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Municipalities plan free wireless access: The New York Times's John Markoff reports that several municipalities are looking into deploying free wireless networks as glue for businesses and people. Long Beach, Calif., is one of the first larger cities (their details), but more are on the way. Tim Pozar, a microwave and Wi-Fi expert, also announces in the article the availability this week of a strong signal from San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco.

Meet me at Macworld in San Francisco, Jan. 7 to 10: I and Adam Engst, my co-author on The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, will be signing books and talking to attendees all around the Macworld Exposition show floor next week:

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 9:03 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

News for 1/5/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Municipalities plan free wireless access: The New York Times's John Markoff reports that several municipalities are looking into deploying free wireless networks as glue for businesses and people. Long Beach, Calif., is one of the first larger ciites, but more are on the way. Tim Pozar, a microwave and Wi-Fi expert, also announces in the article the availability this week of a strong signal from San Bruno Mountain south of San Francisco.

Meet me at Macworld in San Francisco, Jan. 7 to 10: I and Adam Engst, my co-author on The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, will be signing books and talking to attendees all around the Macworld Exposition show floor next week:

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 8:55 PM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 3, 2003

News for 1/3/2003

By Glenn Fleishman

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Meet me at Macworld in San Francisco: I and Adam Engst, my co-author on The Wireless Networking Starter Kit, will be signing books and talking to attendees all around the Macworld Exposition show floor next week: Jan. 7 (Tues), 3-4 p.m., Aladdin booth (#1407); Jan. 8 (Wed.), 3-4 p.m., DevDepot (#3761); and Jan. 9 (Thurs.), 5-6 p.m., Peachpit Press (#2029). Macwireless.com (#1646) will be selling autographed copies alongside a power over Ethernet system for Apple AirPort Base Stations. We'll also be appearing on Jan. 10 (Fri.) around 4 pm on the cable channel TechTV.

Intersil has WPA upgrade ready: The article doesn't make it clear to whom Intersil, the dominant Wi-Fi chipmaker, is providing its Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) upgrade -- consumers? OEMs? firmware developers? But it's good to see it's already ready to go. WPA is the Wi-Fi Alliance's standard to fix security an interim basis.

Wi-Fi by land to the sea: A company has quietly installed $5 million worth of Wi-Fi gear pointing outwards from major coastal areas to serve private boating and the cruise ship industry. This is remarkably clever, as physics tells us that a tower not very high up on the coast can have a direct line of sight to a huge swath of sea within its range. The company, Wheat Wireless Services's TeleSea division, says that they cover the coast from Baltimore to the Florida Keys, Puget Sound, San Francisco Bay, Long Island Sound, Southern California, and Hawaii. Their source of financing isn't mentioned. How did they submarine this deployment, no joke intended? [via TechDirt]

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 7:30 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 2, 2003

An Agora Blooms in Laos

By Glenn Fleishman

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Inexpensive Laotian computing, networking to improve market and community connections: Danny O'Brien writes eloquently about Lee Felsenstein who has created a people-oriented computing and networking system for villages in Laos (which will obviously be applicable elsewhere) with concrete purposes behind it. The equipment is bicycle powered and ruggedized.

What are the intents? Using it, villages that currently have no electricity, telephone or decent roads can monitor the prices of crops, negotiate group purchases with other villages, and make business deals without spending days away from the farm. And with email and built-in VoIP, the families will be able to make direct contact for the first time with the Laotian Diaspora - the relatives who left the war-torn zone to earn money in the capital and beyond.

Felsenstein is seeking donations of a few dollars up to $25,000 to fund the project before the heavy rains come. This is one of the greatest seed ideas I've ever heard for transforming subsistent remote living into connected, improved quality of life that I've ever heard. Connectivity must be a tool, not an end in itself, when you reach out to hardscrabble rural areas.

Pay Attention to the Person in Front of the Blackboard

Stop playing networked Doom, already (in class): Any of us who have attended conferences lately in which both power and Wi-Fi are readily available can vouch for the experiences cited in classrooms in this article in which ubiquitous computing and networking leads to a loss of focus and attention.

In the article, professors state their irritation, and one went so far as to bring in a ladder and disconnect an access point. He was ordered to reconnect it by the university, but he'd made his point. (This reminds me vaguely of the destruction and later repair of the soft-drink machine in a Kurt Vonnegut novel the title of which escapes me.)

At the Supernova 2002 conference a few weeks ago, the entire room was set up with power strips and Wi-Fi, and if I recall correctly, one attendee described the constant sound of typing like a light hail falling.

Meanwhile, from reading Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, I discover that small children can play, watch television, and divert attention to other activities as well, by breaking their attention into tiny pieces. But we lose multitasking as we get older, regardless of the common wisdom. I have the not-so-unique talent of being able to remember what's said when I'm not listening. Beyond irritating my wife with this parlor trick, it's another example of the brain's attempt to compensate for the constant demand for attention in contemporary life. Or my lack of appropriate focus.

The article was slashdotted.

Extending Range

Powerline extends Wi-Fi: Walt Mossberg writes in the Wall Street Journal about a nice confluence of two technologies: Powerline, which offers Wi-Fi speeds over house electrical wiring, and Wi-Fi itself. Siemens SpeedStream division has released a Powerline Wi-Fi gateway for $99. Instead of dealing with repeaters and wires, you could use Powerline to extend a network in a home or small business, and treat the SpeedStream gateway as a pass-through: run DHCP and other services off a full-featured gateway connected to the Internet elsewhere on the network.

Linksys booster: Mossberg also mentions in passing the Linksys WSB11, which is an external antenna in the same shape and size as the WAP11 plain access point and BEFW11S4 EtherFast switch/gateway. It's about $80, and only boosts the signal of these two devices by a relatively small amount. Still, it's a prefabricated solution that works, and is actually legal as opposed to add-on antennas purchased from third parties.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 6:39 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

January 1, 2003

Happy G Year

By Glenn Fleishman

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Happy New Year and peace throughout the world. I would suggest that in our small niche of the world, unlicensed wireless might be one of the tools for individuals to talk to individuals, unmediated by governments or other highly charged entities. But to quote the late, great Douglas Adam, his universe's universal translation fish, by effectively removing all barriers to communication between different races and cultures, has caused more and bloodier wars than anything else in the history of creation. Let's hope in the long run that more communication results in better understanding.

G, it's great to live in the future: Linksys and Buffalo squeak out their New Year's Resolutions by shipping equipment based on the draft of the high-speed 802.11g standard using Broadcom chips.

My 2003 predictions: The Wi-Fi Alliance fast tracks inclusion of 802.11g and possibly 802.11i into the Wi-Fi certification program to avoid consumer confusion. 802.11g equipment becomes the minimum standard by summer, even in draft form. Apple ships AirPort 3.0 by summer incorporating 802.11a and g standards. US hot spot count tops 25,000 by year's end, including 25 of the top 35 metro airports. PC Cards offer GSM and 802.11a/g roaming on a single bill from cell operators by year's end. Equipment prices continue to fall, with a $35 PC Card for 802.11g being a typical price before 2004. More extensive certified antenna options become a standard part of consumer Wi-Fi gear. Limited in-plane Wi-Fi will be approved by the FCC in combination with one or more in-flight data services.

Posted by Glenn Fleishman at 5:46 AM | Permanent Link | Categories: Unclassified

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