Author: RenderMan

802.11n seems not to be getting the warm reception that was expected. Reviews of pre-n gear is luke warm to negative. Lack of compatibility, bandwidth drop off at a distance and questions of future interoperability are burning many early adopters. Unless you have a real need for 802.11n now, it's best to wait unit things...

Skyhook i trying to attract developers to thier WiFi positioning system (WPS). The alternative to GPS uses data from wardriving to locate a user based on the access points they are near. In urban areas where GPS can fail, WPS is supposed to be able to work. The company seems to be targeting developers of...

Dell is jumping on the Pre-802.11n bandwagon and has announced plans to put Pre-n in the third quarter of 2006. The hope that the equipment will be upgradable to the final 802.11n spec when it is released in 12-18 months, but there is nothing certain. Via [arstechnica.com]

The dream of municipal WiFi always seems to have one problem; how do you pay for it. Google and Earthlink seem to think that in San Francisco, they can support it through advertising. However in Sacramento, Mobilepro, the company that brought wireless to Tempe, Arizona, seems to think they can't. The trouble seems to stem...

Getting hold of doctors in an emergency has for years been done through pagers. With the ubiquity of wireless networks in hospitals, Vocera communications has come up with thier Vocera Communication System. It's akin to the communicator in Star Trek, featuring voice commands to talk to specific people, groups of people, or to locate and...

Motorola is releasing a new wireless card, but not one meant for ordinary consumers. The Card operates as a normal 2.4 Ghz 802.11b/g card but also operates on the licensed 4.9Ghz public safety spectrum. This combo card allows for alot of flexibility for emergency personnel and first responders to setup networks without having to compete...

As any wardriver could tell you, the sales of wireless networking gear is on the rise. $639 million dollars worth of gear was sold in the first quarter of 2006 alone. WiMax also is on the rise, with sales expected to top 1.7 Billion by 2009. That's alot of gear. Via [networks.silicon.com]

WiMax and 3G are destined to compete in the Austrlian market. Unfortunatly WiMax has a mobility problem, it's limited to fixed location installations right now. 3G on the other hand has mobility. The future won't be decided till 2009, but content seems to be a big factor in which will win. Via [pcworld.idg.com.au]

China is crying foul over the IEEE's rejection of the Chinese backed WAPI system back in March. The IEEE chose the widely used and favored 802.11i standard instead. The Chinese are claiming a conspiracy by the US to have thier own proposed standards accepted. Via [seattlepi.nwsource.com]

Wireless chip maker Airgo has tweaked MIMO wireless chips to handle up to 240 mbps in thier test home. This is enough bandwidth for up to 3 high definition IPTV channels. The problem they are trying to solve is one of the IPTV last mile. Most homes are not wired up for ethernet, so wireless...

There are limited WiMax installations around the UK right now for various reasons. It's getting some serious competition from 3G and alot of potential providers are taking wait and see approach. When will we see WiMax hit it big in the UK. Who knows? Via [vnunet.com]

Once again, RSA security took a wardrive through downtown London and found open access points belonging to businesses. This is the 5th year they have done this survey and the number of detected networks went from 1,751 to 2,747 with 26 percent wide open. Still not a very complete survey, but it certainly mirrors statistics...

The 802.11n draft drama continues. Netgear is pressing forward, releasing a WiFi ADSL modem based on the non ratified draft 802.11n spec. USR on the other had has decided to hold off on thier pre-n offerings until later in the year when the standard should be more or less ratified. Which one will gain and...

Identifying rogue accesspoints is not aneasy task. It is easier though when your orginization has a no-wireless policy. Network Chemistry has released a couple new products for rogue hunting. 2 fairly expensivehardware units, but also an opensource tool that analyses the wired network hosts, looking for access points. A fairly useful tool for the wireless...

George Ou covers how to do a WLAN site survey with a number of tools, including Netstumbler and Airmagnet survey. He also covers the proper usage and importance of a spectrum analyzer to a proper WLAN survey. In the end you get what you pay for. The commercial software is easy to use and has...