Wireless

Airspan Networks, a US-based provider of broadband wireless access networks, has demonstrated an uninterrupted handover from one frequency band on a mobile WiMAX network to another frequency band

A handover is the terminology used to define the seamless transfer of a wireless device from one base station to another without loss or interruption of service. A handover would be conducted when a user device is moving away from the area covered by one base station and entering the area covered by another.

Hey dufus, put your hands down. Why are you celebrating all of this airplane Wi-Fi internet access? Oh, right. Now I remember. You're my boss. And now I must do your bidding from anywhere in the world at any time. Thanks a lot, airlines! I'll never be able to dodge work again.

In their paper, Practical attacks against WEP and WPAPDF, Martin Beck and Erik Tews have published details about their attacks on WPA secured networks. The attack is essentially a variant of the chopchop attack used against WEP secured networks, which surfaced in early 2005. The name "chopchop attack" is a nod to the KoreK-developed chopchop tool, which allows the user to decrypt an arbitrary encrypted data packet without having to know the WEP key.

Two researchers from the Technical University of Darmstadt, Germany, have discovered a method of bypassing the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption used by many wireless routers.

Employees want anywhere, anytime access and IT departments now have more wireless choices than ever to give them just that. Which should you choose? We gathered representatives of each of the three major mobile broadband technologies into a live chat room and asked. Our shoot-out panel was led by Network World Wireless Alert Newsletter writer and analyst Joanie Wexler. The participants were Edgar Figueroa, executive director of the Wi-Fi Alliance; Dan Warren, director of technology of the GSM Association; and Dr. Mohammad Shakouri, vice president of marketing of the WiMAX Forum.

Insecure WiFi systems installed at hotels across the UK could be hacked.

Following its claims that WiFi is no longer a secure method of connection last week, Global Secure Systems has warned that insecure WiFi systems installed at hotels across the UK could be hacked with embarrassing consequences, as has happened with the high-end Thompson hotel chain in the US.

Global Secure Systems has said that a Russian's firm's use of the latest NVidia graphics cards to accelerate WiFi ‘password recovery' times by up to an astonishing 10,000 per cent proves that WiFi's WPA and WPA2 encryption systems are no longer enough to protect wireless data.

David Hobson, managing director of GSS, claimed that companies can no longer view standards-based WiFi transmission as sufficiently secure against eavesdropping to be used with impunity. He also said that the use of VPNs is arguably now mandatory for companies wanting to comply with the Data Protection Act.

A study conducted by Wakefield Research for the Wi-Fi Alliance (go figure) indicates that college students now feel that wi-fi is nearly indispensible for their coursework. The most unbelievable finding of the survey was that nearly 1/2 of respondents said they would give up beer before giving up wi-fi. Oh, come on!

Some of the findings from the study:

* 90% of U.S. college students in the United States say Wi-Fi access is as essential to education as classrooms and computers.

* Nearly 60% say they wouldn’t go to a college that doesn’t have free Wi-Fi

Looking at the state of broadband Internet access globally, the WiMax Forum believes it is sitting pretty.

In general numbers, out of 6 billion people on Earth, about 3 billion now use mobile phones and a billion or so are connected to the Internet. But only 400 million people have a high-speed Internet connection, meaning that WiMax wireless broadband has a big opportunity to "capture a big chunk of the market," said Ron Resnick, president of the WiMax Forum.

You've done the hard work of optimizing your Wi-Fi network, and it reliably beams high-speed data to every nook and cranny of your home or office. Now, it's time to take it to the next level by connecting more than just computers.