Wireless

The IEEE working group that is putting the finishing touches on the 802.11n 100Mbps wireless LAN standard is about to launch a new project, for a 1Gbps WLAN standard. That would mean gigabit Wi-Fi.

Last year, group members formed the Very High Throughput Study Group to explore changes to the 802.11 WLAN standard to support gigabit capacity. The study group is looking at doing so in two frequency bands, high-frequency 60GHz for relatively short ranges and under-6GHz for ranges similar to that today’s WLANs in the 5GHz band, 802.11a and 11n.

Fixed-mobile convergence (FMC) start-up Agito Networks Monday plans to announce voice-over-Wi-Fi encryption and other features for its RoamAnywhere Mobility Router.

The RoamAnywhere router is customer-premises equipment (CPE) that extends PBX policy and dialing plans across Wi-Fi and cellular networks to smart phones running RoamAnywhere client software. It enables location-based, seamless roaming between both types of wireless networks so that sessions aren’t interrupted when mobile users cross wireless network borders.

NEC of Japan said it got the first known real contract to build and operate a WiMAX network in Thailand; it will install the system for the more than 20 hospitals of the Crown Prince Hospital Foundation, centred in Chiang Khong district of Chiang Rai; NEC was so excited it forgot to say how much it was getting for the job, which must give wireless broadband communications for 5km; if successful, the system will allow constant contact between hospitals and clinics, and vastly increase efficiency of patient treatment.

Partnering with other companies, Google hopes to keep free WiFi alive in one California town

The communications network EarthLink was for a time seen as a messiah of sorts for the free wireless movement. After spending millions to build several free networks in cities across the country, its efforts collapsed, and it went from messiah to pariah for its failed claims. The bad part was that EarthLink’s customers were suddenly faced with severance.

Malaysian WiMax operator Packet One Networks began commercial services Tuesday, marking another step in the ongoing rollout of the broadband wireless technology.

"Our plan is to target 100,000 subscribers in the next 12 months," said Michael Lai, Packet One's CEO, in a telephone interview. To achieve that goal, Packet One is pricing WiMax access just below the combined cost of an ADSL (asynchronous digital subscriber line) connection and a fixed-line telephone.

One thing you can depend on these days is that the claims made for wireless routers, like 300Mbit/sec. throughput and 1,000-foot range, are nothing more than digital pipe dreams. The plain and simple truth is that these speeds and distances just aren't going to happen in your home, office or any place on this planet.

Don't look now, but the short, bald guy reclining with a laptop in his beat-up white Oldsmobile may not be surfing for reviews of "The Dark Knight." He might be hacking into a nearby store's database of debit and credit card numbers — and if he's really high-tech, he doesn't even have to leave the parking lot to do it.

Rick Hill won't say where he launched his "wardriving" balloon on Friday, but he will tell you that it got a pretty good look at about 370 wireless networks, while scanning up and down the Las Vegas Strip.

Hidden in the back of a 22 foot (6.7 meters) moving truck, Hill and his team of about a dozen volunteers launched the balloon Friday morning, sending it 150 feet into the air for about 20 minutes to use special antennas and scanning software to scope out the Las Vegas skyline for unsecured wireless networks, an activity Hill calls "warballooning."

Every day, millions of Americans access the Internet from Wi-Fi hot spots, including more than 50 restaurants and coffee shops in Columbus.

Several months ago, WBNS-TV (Channel 10) set up an experiment at Cafe Brioso, 14 E. Gay St., to determine how easy it is intercept the information that Wi-Fi users send and receive. Those who took part in the test found out that digital-security experts armed with laptops and readily available software had no trouble eavesdropping on their transactions.

Delta Air Lines said Tuesday that it would offer broadband wireless Internet access on its entire domestic mainline fleet by next summer. Continental Airlines had previously announced plans to offer similar service across a majority of its mainline fleet.