Wi-Fi Networking News
http://80211b.weblogger.com/xml/scriptingNews2.xml (10.10.2008 14:01:05)
Southwest Unveils Internet Trials
Southwest Airlines will try out Row 44's satellite-backed Internet service on one plane this year: The discount carrier plans to equip one 737-700 with Row 44's Ku-band satellite Internet service by the end of the year for a 2-to-3 month trial. In first quarter 2009, FlightGlobal reports, other 737-700s will be added, and a variety of flight durations will be tested. Row 44 continues to claim what seems to me to be an impossibly high speed: here, Southwest is saying 31 Mbps downstream. I will believe this when I see it. Ku-band transponders are capable of very high speed data transmissions, but I'm not convinced that this rate is sustainable to each plane and represents actual net throughput. We'll see. (The only other speed I've heard for Ku-band was 12 Mbps from Panasonic Avionics, when they were considering firing back up a network similar to Connexion by Boeing.) Southwest plans to filter. Yeah, let me know how that works out for you guys....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
03.10.2008 08:21:47 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Wee-Fi: Phila-Fi Developments, Cablevision Hires
Philadelphia network has 100,000 monthly sessions: NAC, which took over Phila.'s network from EarthLink, has assumed full control at the end of a 3-month transition period, Wi-Fi Planet reports. The company said that sessions average 4 hours. The new owners are looking to entice Phila. to have them build a wireless public-safety network and offer business services as well. While NAC's head Derek Pew say that EarthLink didn't focus on "municipal and commercial usage," I'd argue that the statement is half right: EarthLink's plan was to offer such service, and their networks were built with that in mind; they just didn't get enough traction, such as a complete and well-functioning network, that would have allowed them to take the next step. NAC estimates a full best-effort Wi-Fi network will be finished in 12 to 18 months. Cablevision announces Wi-Fi executives: I normally don't cover routine press releases that note that so-and-so has joined or left a certain company. But with Craig Plunkett, that's different. Craig has been doggedly building and running Wi-Fi networks in Long Island, Fire Island, and elsewhere in New York for several years, and co-developed the Wi-Fi on wheels system Wi-RAN. He's joining Cablevision, the folks with a $300m budget to build outdoor network for their cable data customers, as the VP of Wireless Market Development. Cablevision also snagged Tim Farrell (VP, Wireless Product Development), who had a similar role at Boingo Wireless. Craig and I have corresponded an enormous amount over the years, and he's the best person who could hired for this position, given his experience, especially specific to Long Island....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
03.10.2008 08:21:46 - Wi-Fi Networking News
New Credit Card Processing Rules Kill off WEP (in 2009)
The credit-card industry has finally revised rules to make WEP persona non grata: The PCI Security Standards Council was founded by Amex, Discover, JCB, Visa, and MasterCard, and each organization agreed to adopt the standards that the group decides on. The latest update of the Data Security Standard (DSS), drafted early this year, was adopted and released yesterday, and profoundly alters Wi-Fi security practices for any company that accepts any of major credit card. A summary can be downloaded under PCI DSS Summary of Changes. The new rules prohibit the use of the highly broken WEP (Wired Equivalent Privacy) standard as part of any credit-card processing--such as from a store terminal to a server--after 30-June-2010, and prohibit any new system from being installed that uses WEP after 31-March-2009. In practice, WEP has remained in relatively wide use among retailers as of last year because many individual and chain stores continue to use ancient point-of-sale gear. The supplier side changed slowly, too, with WEP still included as a standard feature long after WPA was widely available starting in 2004 in business and consumer Wi-Fi gear and computers. The use of WEP is what led to the TJ Maxx parent company network invasion. The DSS sets both security and audit standards: Merchants must conform to the document's guidelines, and if examined by their merchant card issuer, must be found to conform. If not, they could have the ability to process cards turned off, which makes it hard to be a retailer of any kind. An analysis of the changes in SearchSecurity states that 802.1X as being required, but I believe that may have been a typo. The SearchSecurity article notes that "802.1x" and "802.11x" are cited as examples of industry best practices in the summary document. However, in both the summary and full version of the DSS, I see "802.11i" listed, which is a generic way to refer to WPA2 with TKIP and AES keys. This would seem to indicate that the DSS would allow the use of WPA and WPA2 Personal, as is noted in Section 2.1.1. That same section, however, recommends the use of AES, which is only available in WPA2 compliant hardware. There doesn't seem to be any mention of 802.1X or WPA/WPA2 Enterprise elsewhere in the document or its summary....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
03.10.2008 08:21:45 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Post Your Questions for Philadelphia Wireless Panelists
Organizers of day-long discussion about ubiquitous mobile broadband want to know what you want to ask: In Philadelphia on 22-Sept-2008, panelists from AT&T, Comcast, Sprint XOHM, The Wharton School, and Network Acquisition Corporation (the folks who will be operating the former EarthLink network in Phila.) will be on one stage at 6 pm at The Franklin Institute's Planetarium (free, $5 contribution requested, advance registration recommended). The panel will discuss fourth-generation (4G) networks, including both LTE and WiMax, and discuss what these networks might deliver, as well as how Wi-Fi networks fit into this future. One of the organizers asked if I'd solicit questions--you can post them below--which they'll try to ask during the panel. The group would then write up responses which could posted in turn here. The powerhouse that is Kevin Werbach, a professor at The Wharton School, is moderating the event. Werbach has been part of interesting thinking about spectrum for many years, a former editor of Release 1.0, and a former FCC staffer. He'll share the stage with a fairly high-powered crowd, including AT&T's enterprise architect for mobility, the president of NAC, and senior people from Comcast and Sprint Xohm. The event is part of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter series called MobileMonday, an interesting business group that's trying to provoke discussion and development around mobile technology and access. This particular event is sponsored by local business development organization Select Greater Philadelphia....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:04 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Meraki Extends SF, Gives Shine to Newsom
Despite the failed effort to build city-wide Wi-Fi in San Francisco, Gavin Newsom can still borrow credit: Meraki's SF Free the Net effort, which has them paying a hunk of the cost of building a grassroots Wi-Fi network across swaths of the city, continues to be coattailed (with the company's full encouragement) by Mayor Newsom. Today's announcement sees Meraki nicely footing the bill for extending their service into neighborhood affordable housing, municipal-speak for low-income housing that's subsidized typically through government efforts and funds. Meraki will install networks at 12 buildings in the Tenderloin, known as San Francisco's roughest neighborhood, now going on many decades with that designation. Meraki claims a "presence" in 42 of 52 major neighborhoods in the city, although their map tells a very different story about how usage is clustered in areas in which it would make perfect sense that usage was seen. Meraki has engaged in a very interesting public project, and likes the imprimatur of San Francisco, even as they don't really need the city; the city, in contrast, needs them (or Newsom particularly) to salvage something from years of planning that blew up in their faces. Anyway, SF's EarthLink network would never have been built; or, having been underway, would never have been completed. Forgive my snark tone and cynicism: Meraki has put a lot of resources into building a publicly accessible network across a hunk of SF that wouldn't otherwise exist....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:04 - Wi-Fi Networking News
AT&T Extends Free Wi-Fi to Cheapest DSL Plans
AT&T seems to have added free Wi-Fi for its lowest-priced DSL customers: The Atlanta Journal-Constitution is the only one with this story, and they've garbled a few of the details, but checking AT&T's public sites seems to confirm it. Previously, AT&T customers had to either have a fiber-optic U-Verse subscription, or a DSL line running at 1.5 Mbps downstream or faster to get free Wi-Fi Basic. The Basic pool covers most of the 17,000 U.S. hotspots, excluding some hotels and premium locations. AT&T now says that any "FastConnect" subscription, even its DSL Lite offering of 768 Kbps down/128 Kbps up, qualifies for Wi-Fi Basic. The new statement reads: "AT&T Wi-Fi Basic service is FREE and already included if you subscribe to AT&T High Speed Internet, AT&T U-verseSM High Speed Internet, or AT&T FastAccess DSL—all speed plans included. There's still a $10 per month fee to upgrade to Wi-Fi Premier, which includes over 70,000 locations worldwide, along with the missing U.S. hotspots, but their Web site says that you have to have a 1.5 Mbps or faster connection to get the $10 per month upgrade. That may be out of date. That ordering page also says you need 1.5 Mbps or faster for free Wi-Fi, so that tends to confirm it hasn't been fixed. (It's even hosted at sbc.com, so perhaps that's part of the vestige of an older system, harder to update.) Please note that iPhone subscribers still don't get free Wi-Fi on AT&T's Basic network....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:04 - Wi-Fi Networking News
In-Flight VoIP Ban: Against FCC Rules? Highly Desirable?
Think-tank wonders whether banning in-flight VoIP constitutes a violation of FCC rules about blocking services: The Progress and Freedom Foundation's Barbara Espin uses the ban on in-flight VoIP by American Airlines (facilitated by provider Aircell) to make a broader argument about what she calls the FCC's "ad hoc approach to broadband network management issues." It's clever. American discloses that calling isn't allowed, and VoIP isn't even technically within the FAA or FCC's purview, as far as I can determine. The FAA could choose to regulate it as a safety issue. PFF generally tilts anti-regulation, and has as what it calls its "supporters" a broad area of multiple system cable operators and telecom firms, including Comcast, which was singled out and fined by the FCC for its undisclosed network disruption of P2P connections. Espin references Joe Sharkey's excellent column on in-flight calling in Sunday's New York Times: Sharkey, a veteran travel writer, who survived a mid-air collision over the Brazilian Amazon a few years ago, looks at varying attitudes about calls made during flights. He quotes Aircell's Jack Blumenstein saying what I've telling folks for months: Aircell has a lot of techniques to block VoIP calls already, and "as we identify new ways that people are trying to do voice calls on the airplane, we just kind of zero in and knock those off." Many geeks have assumed Aircell is a bunch of unsavvy folks who wouldn't be able to figure out how to disrupt their clever workarounds for making VoIP. (I keep noting that introducing jitter for suspicious data connections wouldn't disrupt legitimate applications, but would destroy VoIP call quality.)...
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:04 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Sorry, Qantas, No Unfettered Broadband
Qantas backs off from earlier plans, changes provider for in-flight broadband: The Sydney Morning Herald somewhat erratically and incompletely reports that Qantas has delayed and modified its in-flight broadband plans. Aeromobile was the provider when the service was tested in second quarter 2007, but OnAir is now described as the airline's partner. This was noted by colleague Fabio Zambelli, who emailed me the news, and has his own account at setteB.IT (in Italian). OnAir has so far tested their calling/texting-only service on two aircraft--one operated by Air France, one by TAP Portugal--even though RyanAir announced plans that its planes would started being unwired with the service by late 2007. Still no word on that fleet progress. Qantas will apparently launch cached Web browsing and limited Web email (probably through a proxy) along with instant messaging, with full Internet service coming "later in 2009." This is clearly due to a lack of satellite coverage that was just remediated a few weeks ago (see below). The first plane with limited service, a new A380, should be in flight 20-October-2008. I hate in-flightbroadbandTo Qantas' credit, note that each seat on the plane will have a laptop power socket, a USB port, and a multimedia system that can show 100 movies and 500 TV show episodes, play the contents of 1,000 CDs and 20 radio stations, and offer 80 games. The Morning Herald seems to overstate the importance and scope of a complaint filed by the union representing American Airlines' flight attendants. The detailed coverage in the U.S. had more to do with the potential for issues, and likely attendants lack of interest in policing yet another media on the plane. Filtering doesn't work, the attendants probably already know, and this may just be a negotiating point with the airline. On why Qantas is waiting until late 2009? This requires unwinding how OnAir gets its signal. Aeromobile and OnAir both rely on Inmarsat satellites for their service. Both companies had several years ago staked their futures on the fourth-generation network Inmarsat was to inaugurate with three satellites that would use beamforming to allow precise delivery of nearly 500 Kbps per receiver, with hundreds or thousands of regions being able to be targeted from a single satellite. Inmarsat's third-gen network--don't confuse this with 3G cellular ground-based networks--can deliver about 64 Kbps per channel. Now, unfortunately, Inmarsat was three years late on launching its trans-Pacific bird. While the company claims 85 percent coverage of the earth and 98 percent coverage of population, there's a big gap over the Pacific that also prevents them from having good overlap between the U.S. and Japan/China/Korea, as well as the southern Pacific, covering Australia. Since the biggest market for long-haul flights would likely be Australia, Japan, and China, traveling trans-Pacific or trans-hemispheric routes, that gap is rather large. Aeromobile opted to build out a service, deployed only by Emirates airline as far as I can tell, that uses the 3G service since it was available, and most necessary equipment is already installed on most over-water planes. OnAir was waiting for 4G, which has necessitated a long wait, but allowed them to launch in Europe with a seemingly next-generation service. Given that OnAir is controlled by an airline-owned integration firm, SITA, and by Airbus, they're not going anywhere. Inmarsat finally lofted its third satellite on Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan on 19-August-2008, and the launch and separation was reported as successful. Previously, the company has needed up to a year to verify and deploy its 4G satellites. (You can read extremely close coverage of the launch at a Web site devoted to space enthusiasm.) However, the dirty little secret about Inmarsat's BGAN is that it costs a fortune to heft bandwidth across it. Thus, in-flight broadband over BGAN, if it's ever available, is going to be changed on an extremely high per-MB rate. None of the providers want to say this. This is in contrast to Row 44 (and, once, Connexion by Boeing), which relies on leased Ku-band transponders where they can fix costs and they require high volumes to keep per-bit costs efffectively low. OnAir's launch of calling on Air France's service involves paying a few euros per minute for calls, which might help you understand what data costs could ultimately run....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:03 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Lexar Sells Branded Eye-Fi
I'm running a link to this story solely to avoid confusion among readers: Eye-Fi signed a partnership deal with Lexar several months ago that should lead to Eye-Fi technology being embedded in Lexar cards. Lexar works closely with so many camera makers and others that it was a smart move for Eye-Fi to link up, as Eye-Fi is selling its smarts as the value-add, not so much the hardware that the smarts are embedded in for now. Obviously, as a practical stage one, Lexar is selling a private-label Eye-Fi Share as the Lexar Shoot-n-Sync using. Same price, same features. What I'm waiting for, which will likely take into 2009, is for Lexar and Eye-Fi to announce partnerships with a major camera maker or two that will allow the Lexar or Eye-Fi card to talk directly to the camera to control battery savings mode, as well as other details. Conceivably, a camera that supports an external GPS (like the new Nikon D90) could allow the Eye-Fi to retrieve coordinates and perform assistive GPS using its Wi-Fi positioning software, and so forth. There's a lot of potential....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:41:01 - Wi-Fi Networking News
Sprint May Launch WiMax in Baltimore 6-October
DSLReports has a tip that Sprint will launch its WiMax service in its first commercially available market on 6-Oct-2008: The site for the service should go live on 26-Sept, allowing sign ups. Pricing will likely be sub-$50. Speeds will likely be advertised as 2 to 4 Mbps with higher bursts. Long-time market watcher Karl Bode writes that backhaul issues appear to be sorted out, with Sprint having signed a number of new deals to ensure that their high-bandwidth WiMax sites can be fed with enough bites. Baltimore is one of what I believe are still three test markets that will go into commercial availability, albeit as much as a year after initial plans, and then months delayed after revised plans were announced. Still 2 to 4 Mbps is far above the level that current cell technology can achieve as a consistent range....
Copyright 2008 Glenn Fleishman. All rights reserved. Please notify us if you find this content anywhere but at wifinetnews.com or wimaxnetnews.com. Reproduction of full articles from RSS feeds is prohibited without permission.
29.09.2008 15:40:59 - Wi-Fi Networking News
RSS sources
Your own sources
Your own RSS you can add after registration
Public sources
- CNN.com Recently Published/Updated
- BBC News | News Front Page | World Edition
- http://news.google.com/?output=atom
- MSNBC.com: Top MSNBC Headlines
- IMDb News
- NEWS.com.au | Breaking News
- MySpace News
- FOXNews.com
- New Scientist - Latest Headlines
- NPR Topics: News
- ABC News : Just In
- Telegraph News | Top News
- ZDNet News - News Page One
- Latest financial news - CNNMoney.com
- MobileTechNews
- MobileBurn.com
- http://mobilementalism.com/feed/atom/
- IntoMobile
- http://mobilementalism.com/feed/atom/
- Seo News & Tips
- Modern SEO News Blog
- http://www.increased-online-traffic.com/atom.xml
- Search Engine Guide : Small Business Search Marketing
- SEO News
- http://www.seomegacorp.com/blog/feed/atom/
- Search Engine Optimization, Google Optimization - RSS Feeds
- SEOslap
- http://www.seo-herald.com/atom.xml
- http://seonewsupdate.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/d...
- Slashdot
- UITS News
- CNET News.com
- BBC News | Health | World Edition
- Yahoo! News: Health News
- NYT > Health
- BBC News | Health | World Edition
- Health News from Medical News Today
- Health News
- Healthnews.com - More Natural Health
- http://www.ajax-blog.com/feed/atom/
- Ajax Lessons
- http://www.ajax-blog.com/feed/atom/
- Latest News from AJAXWORLD MAGAZINE
- Ajax Alliance
- PHP Ajax scripts and software / Published News
- Scripting News
- Christian Science Monitor | Top Stories
- Yahoo! News: Technology News
- Fool.com: The Motley Fool
- BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition
- BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition
- Fool.com: The Motley Fool
- washingtonpost.com - Technology
- washingtonpost.com - Business
- Wired: Top Stories
- washingtonpost.com - Technology
- washingtonpost.com - Business
- Dictionary.com Word of the Day
- Tomalak's Realm
- The Register
- Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
- Tomalak's Realm
- The Register
- Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
- Scobleizer: Microsoft Geek Blogger
- NYT > Technology
- washingtonpost.com - Politics
- CURRY.COM
- washingtonpost.com - Terry Neal Reports
- Workbench
- Fool.com: The Motley Fool
- Computerworld Breaking News
- NYT > Technology
- CNET News.com
- Dave Winer: Radio UserLand
- NYT > NYTimes.com Home
- NYT > Business
- NYT > Health
- The Register
- washingtonpost.com - Technology
- Jon Udell
- washingtonpost.com - Business
- NYT > NYTimes.com Home
- The Shifted Librarian
- Wired: Top Stories
- NYT > Education
- BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition
- kuro5hin.org
- BBC News | News Front Page | UK Edition
- TidBITS
- BBC News | Technology | UK Edition
- Scientific American
- NYT > Health
- Salon
- Joel on Software
- Slashdot
- Wi-Fi Networking News
- UserLand Product News
- Slashdot
- hello! Blogger
- Edu news
- Technorati Sports Channel
- Technorati Technology Channel
- Technorati Politics Channel
- Technorati Politics Channel
- Technorati Entertainment Channel
- Technorati Business Channel
- Technorati Front Page
- Military Top Stories Center
- Military Army News Center
- Military Navy News Center
- Military Air Force News Center
- Military Coast Guard News Center
- Military News Center
- Military Iraq News Center
- Military Opinions Center
