So you have a remote office and you are thinking of connectivity options - wired or wireless? Wireless sounds impressive but does it really work? Is it truly cost effective? Do you need a wired backup (just in case)?
Network Computing has a column addressing the same questions. They have presented a case study - put out the options and now asking for opinions.
Few things that I noticed in the article as advantages of going wireless over wired are:
- Productivity (pretty obvious)
- Ease of deployments (no cables or jacks)
- Cost effectiveness (really)
- Security (No, I am not kidding. Wireless networks can be secured. Period.)
There are two more points I would like to add to that list:
- Scalability. (Increase employee count? Just add laptops and maybe one more access point!)
- Management (including users, performance, configuration etc.)
There are also various options in deployment i.e. thick or thin. Unified switches are also in the market.
If you would like to know more about wireless deployments, security or management, send me a line here - wifi [at] adventnet [dot] com
Wow! That would be exciting, right? Mr. Shen of Sprint said, ?We believe the Internet will be like air, something you want everywhere you go,? at the Samsung 4G conference.
Available wherever you go. Wireless as fast as the fastest broadband. Is it really possible. Well it already is. There was a NY Times article today on "Wireless Networking May Soon Get Faster. Will Anyone Care?". They already have a prototype being tested in Korea. There are various players involved in this too - Motorola, Samsung, Intel, NTT DoCoMo, Qualcomm, Ericsson and the likes.
Something must come of it. WiMAX or 4G, maybe both... With the kind of money that is going to research for the two, there is no way, any of them is backing down now.
The telecom giant, Motorola is buying Symbol Technologies. Symbol is into enterprise mobility - including wireless infrastructure, RFID and the likes.
You can read more about the takeover here:
http://www.symbol.com/category.php?fileName=Motorola_to_acquire_Symbol.xml
http://www.cellular-news.com/story/19435.php
http://searchmobilecomputing.techtarget.com/
WiFi Manager supports 5 different models from Symbol Technologies - 4111, 4131, 4121, 3020, 3021. That means we can configure, monitor and upgrade firmware on these models. Check out the whole list here: http://ap.wifimanager.com.
I wonder if we can claim that we support Motorola now!
We are taking part in the New York version of Interop.
At Jacob K. Javits Center from September 18 - 22, 2006.
Come and check us out at Booth 561. Ask for more information or demo of WiFi Manager.
https://secure.interop.com/fall2006/catalog/displayExhibitor.do?ID=1003
See you there!
Last Friday (15 September), we took part in a wireless conference held in India -
Wireless Tech India 2006 - 3rd International Conference at the Le Meridien, New Delhi
Three of us from AdventNet attended the conference - Sudhakar, Mohan and me. Our partners from Delhi region also joined us there. Our product manager, IC was supposed to speak at the event. But he fell sick and I substituted. Our topic - "WiFi & the Enterprise - Are they ready yet?"
It was great meeting you all there and we hope to meet you more often.
Various topics were covered including spectrum, WiMax, Zigbee, RFID etc. There was a lot of talk on Wimax and how it can even facilitate rural development. Lot of enlightening... did you know that there are hundred different deployments of WiMax in India already?
The conference was arranged by Bharat Exhibitions
Author: Nithya Chandar
Security threats can take many forms and the most common of them is Intrusion.
It can take many forms , typically as Spoof of MACaddress, an airjack, Constant traffic or it may be even a client sending spurious traffic to threaten WLAN security.
I will explain a few of them here and how WiFi Manager can help you in securing your WLAN:
Beware of spoofing.. an attacker tries and alters the MAC address to that of an authorized device's MAC and keeps sending repeat packets into the WLAN.
Another typical Intrusion Attack is Airjack, All that is required to carry out this attack is a Linux laptop, wireless client adapter based on prism II chipset and the Air Jack driver, using which raw 802.11 frames can be injected into the wireless LAN.
What happens when there is constant traffic attack, sometimes, inorder to deliberate overloading the AP , attackers may inject a lot of packets using wireless clients. This may cause non-availability of bandwidth for the other users in the wifi.
What you can do in WiFi Manager to be aware and listening to your network, is real simple. You can configure alarms to be generated in case of these intrusions just in a few clicks and instruct the method of notification. And there, you get alarms which can save your network from a whole lot of insecurities.
To know more about the other types of attacks wifimanager can handle, pitch into our free edition at www.wifimanager.com or mail to us about anything specific you want to ask at support@wifimanager.com.
Author: elumalais
This time, we made sure that the upgrade patch is also available with the release. That means you can upgrade your installation of WiFi Manager using the Upgrade Patch. Click here to access the patch.
(Please note that this patch works for upgrading from 4.3 to 4.5. If you are running 4.2 build, you will have to upgrade first to 4.3 and then to 4.5)
Sanity Testing is something I understood today... This is what Wikipedia says, "A sanity test or "smoke test" is a brief run-through of the main functionality of a computer program or other product. It gives a measure of confidence that the system works as expected prior to a more exhaustive round of testing." (The link here)
What does that have to do with this post?
Well we just released WiFi Manager 4.5 after all the testings - stress, performance, detailed, .....sanity included. 
And now it is 3.50 in the morning and if I don't go to bed soon, I may just about lose mine! :shock: Thank God for coffee machines!
You may want to try out the new WiFi Manager. Download it here. Highly recommended!
Author: Nithya Chandar
It looks like the 802.11n is now somewhere, everywhere but nowhere. While it is not yet officially declared as the final word, the last few months seem to have had enough grapewines buzzing about the IEEE 's 802.11n! The 802.11 legacy had techniques defined by b,a, and g as amendments to the original standard, and it was later enhanced with 802.11i. Other standards in the family (c?f, h?j, ) are service enhancements to previous specifications.
In 802.11n, data throughput is estimated to reach a 540M bit and estimated to be 10 times speedier than the earlier a' or g' standards. More promises to support all platforms like consumer electronics/personal computing etc in all environments like hotspots, enterprises or the homeusers are what 802.11n seem to have in store.
While the latest addition to the Pre-802.11n market are Linksys with their broadband routers and wireless notebook adapters, who will closely follow Buffaloe Technologies, Netgear,Dlink in the list are still a hot prediction as everybody seems to be waiting for the standard to settle into the real world. Any futurists out there...?
WiFi Manager 4.3 supports more than 70 models of access points from 17 vendors. If you would like to check whether your model is supported, go to
We have segregated the level of support that WiFi Manager provides for the various models -
1. Monitoring
2. Configuration
3. Firmware Upgrade
The ticks confirm that WiFi Manager supports all three features for those models of APs. The crosses against certain access points (for configuration and Firmware Upgrade) means that those access points do not support those features. WiFi Manager, in most cases, is limited to the extent to which the device allows it.
We are also adding support for newer models of access points daily. If you would like to add your device to that list, you can use the "Request New AP Support" link from the Support tab in WiFi Manager.
Corp