Wi-Fi - Articles - Zimbio

Wi-Fi Defense 1.0.21

Sun, 17 Nov 2008 10:17:00 GMT

posted by creativeworkforce

Wireless networking, or Wi-Fi is expanding. Notebooks are coming with wireless connections build-in. Families are buying more than one computer and using wireless routers for networking. According to one survey 52% of households with computers are using wireless to link them. Mostly because it is easier than trying to run Ethernet wire through the walls and ceiling. For me it is fear of my wife catching me drill holes in the wall. Yet surveys have shown over half of the people do not bother setting up any security setting for it.

Is your home Wi-Fi signal offering neighbors free access to your network, allowing them to assume your identity for their own purpose? Wi-Fi Defense is a tool for your home wireless network.

Detect intruders, kick them off, and prevent future intrusions.

Wi-Fi Defense talks to your router or access point and configures your security settings to lock down your wireless network

Download

Why Did AT&T Buy Wayport?

Thu, 7 Nov 2008 04:19:27 GMT

posted by pivotmedia

The acquisition news of the day is that AT&T will buy Wayport for $275 million. The move adds 20K U.S. Wi-Fi hotspots to AT&T’s network and access to 80K globally. Wayport Wi-Fi hotspots include McDonalds restaurants, Marriott Vacation Club resorts, and Four Seasons hotels. So why is AT&T so interested in Wi-Fi that they’re dropping a cool quarter of a billion for an expanded Wi-Fi footprint. Here’s my multiple takes – pick one and add your own opinion with the comment feature below:

Silence the iPhone Whiners - The popularity of the 3G iPhone (2.4 million activations last quarter alone) is overwhelming AT&T’s 3G network, and the iPhone masses are pissed. By expanding their Wi-Fi network, AT&T is hoping to offload more iPhone generated broadband wireless traffic from their 3G network and hopefully quiet the whiners.

Wi-Fi Is Still “Where It’s At” - Despite all the hype of WiMAX (courtesy of XOHM/Clearwire) and pending 4G networks, Wi-Fi will still be the dominant broadband wireless option for many more moons. There are, oh I don’t know, hundreds of millions of Wi-Fi enabled devices in the marketplace today. Contrast that with the ten or so WiMAX devices, and you can only imagine the amount of time it will take WiMAX and other technologies to catch Wi-Fi. AT&T just became the largest facilities based Wi-Fi operator in the country (and maybe the world).

AT&T is Pre-Empting Cable - AT&T offers access to its Wi-Fi network for free to its premium broadband, iPhone, and BlackBerry Bold customers. This strategy adds value to AT&T broadband subscriptions. Value that AT&T hopes builds competitive advantage over cable companies, who will soon offer a broadband wireless option of their own.

Free Wi-Fi at StarBucks (Again) and Apple Still Working on MobileMe

Mon, 4 Nov 2008 14:38:46 GMT

posted by bluebadger

This summer Apple released the 3G iPhone and relaunched its mobile website renamed MobileMe. At the same time, AT&T joined with Starbucks to offer Wi-Fi service to coffee drinkers. As launches usually go, it takes some time to iron the kinks out of the new processes. Surprisingly, everyone seems to be straightening everything out at the same time.

AT&T Offers Free Wi-Fi Access To iPhone Owners

by Dan Moren, Macworld US

“After months of back and forth, AT&T has finally made official its plan to offer free Wi-Fi access to iPhone owners. The deal, which applies to thousands of AT&T hot spots in the US, also includes company-owned Starbucks locations that offer Wi-Fi access.

To take advantage of the access, iPhone owners must join the “attwifi” wireless network at a participating location, then enter their ten digit mobile phone number into a Web form. They’ll then be sent a free text message with a hyperlink; tapping on that link will begin the session. AT&T says free access is renewable every 24 hours, but the process must be completed separately for each different location.

AT&T’s free WiFi plan has a checkered history: the service first appeared last May only to disappear shortly thereafter; some speculated that this was because it was a simple matter to have other WiFi clients pretend to be iPhones, netting free access to a service that AT&T normally charges for. The following week AT&T’s site said that hotspot access was included in iPhone plans, a reference which was quickly removed. In July, information on free WiFi access once again appeared on AT&T’s site, only to be once again removed.

Our counterparts in the US have tried out the service at a local Starbucks, and an AT&T spokesperson confirmed to Macworld that the launch is official this time.”

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Apple Updates MobileMe With Over 25 Fixes

by Jim Dalrymple, Macworld.com

“Apple has been working on its MobileMe syncing service since it was launched in July. The company revealed this week 27 changes that were made late last month.
There is no software you have to download to get the updates. Since MobileMe is a hosted service, Apple made all of the changes on the servers and applications without affecting customers. The changes affect all of the components within the service.

MobileMe Mail received the most updates, fixing problems like keyboard shortcuts not behaving as expected; messages not being removed from the Drafts folder after being sent; improved performance when Junk Mail Filtering is enabled; and improved performance when first logging into MobileMe Mail.

The Calendar application improved performance in several areas and resolved an issue where event editors would partially display in some browsers. The ability to export contacts as vCards has been re-enabled and the experience of viewing MobileMe Galleries has been improved.

The MobileMe launch was fraught with problems from the very beginning. Shortly after its launch, Apple apologized for the continuing problems and offered members a 30-day addition.

Another extension, this time for 60-days, was offered in August when Steve Jobs said in a memo to employees that the service “not up to Apple’s standards.” Jobs also said that Eddy Cue, Apple’s vice president of iTunes, was taking over management of the service.

A complete list of changes for the latest MobileMe update are available from Apple’s Web site.”

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Games A Runaway Hit on iPhone and iPod Touch

By Alex Pham, LATimes, November 3, 2008

“Within days of buying his iPhone, John Furrier discovered that his 13-year-old son, Alec, was sneaking off with the device and downloading games. To reclaim his phone, Furrier had to buy his son an iPod Touch, which Alec quickly filled up with Pac-Man, Magic 8 Ball and dozens of other games.

“When he’s not playing on his Xbox 360, he’s playing on the iPod,” said Furrier, a 43-year-old entrepreneur and blogger in Palo Alto.

Apple Inc.’s iPhone is a cellphone, Web-surfing gadget and digital media player rolled into one. The iPod Touch is the same, minus the cellphone. But to many people’s surprise, one of the devices’ most popular uses is as a hand-held video game system.

Games have become the fastest-growing and most popular type of application for iPhone and iPod Touch owners, outpacing all other categories available on Apple’s App Store. As of Friday evening, 7 of the top 10 selling applications for the devices were games. “This was an amazing surprise to us to see how much games have taken off,” said Stan Ng, Apple’s senior director of product marketing.

Game developers have taken to the platform, creating nearly 1,700 games since the online App Store launched in June. That’s more than twice the number available in the store’s second-largest category, entertainment, which includes music and video.

Neil Young liked his iPhone so much that, in June, the 43-year-old gave up a lucrative job as a senior executive of Electronic Arts Inc. to start a small company that develops games for the iPhone and iPod Touch.

“I found that my iPhone was never very far away from me,” Young said. “I was constantly checking e-mail, downloading apps, playing games, browsing the Internet. My personal usage was measurably different from any phone or game machine I’ve ever had before. It led me to think that there was a dramatically new market opportunity for gaming on a unique mobile device.”

With funding from Maples Investments and Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Young founded Ngmoco:) Inc. in San Francisco. The strangely named start-up recently launched two games and is developing a dozen others. Its two titles, MazeFinger and Topple, are among the App Store’s 10 most-downloaded applications.

It’s not just independent developers drawn to the iPhone. Companies such as Electronic Arts, the world’s largest game publisher, are also jumping on the bandwagon. EA’s Spore Origins game, which sells at the App Store for $9.99, uses the iPhone’s accelerometer — a built-in mechanism for detecting motion — and its touch screen to let players navigate a virtual primordial soup. They tilt the phone and tap on the screen to guide their creatures in search of food.

Spore Origins’ graphics are lush and realistic, making other cellphone games look primitive by comparison. “The iPhone is essentially a computer in your pocket,” said Tim Bajarin, president of Creative Strategies, a technology consulting firm in Campbell, Calif. “Developers like it because it has the same operating system as a Mac, which makes it easy to program.”

They also like the business model. For a 30% cut of each sale, Apple distributes games and other third-party applications through the App Store, which consumers can browse and download on a computer or directly on their device via Wi-Fi.

About 1 in 4 iPhone owners has downloaded games, compared with about 6% of all cellphone users, according to a study in July by Nielsen Mobile.

“The biggest impact is the App Store,” said Barry Cottle, general manager of EA Mobile. “That was a real breakthrough in people’s eyes. The store has beautiful screen shots, lots of room for descriptions and demos. That’s making an impact for the industry, and it’s creating renewed interest in gaming among mobile users.”

Technorati Tags:
Apple Products, AT&T, iPhone, iPod, iTouch, Technology, Video Games, Wi-Fi

Wi-Fi Security - How to secure your Wi-Fi Network

Wed, 23 Oct 2008 03:45:59 GMT

posted by aboutonlinetips

Greener wi-fi, coming your way

Mon, 23 Sep 2008 08:51:04 GMT

posted by Greenbang

A new wireless standard is set to introduce power saving features that will “green up” wi-fi networks. That’s according to wireless expert Matthew Gast, principal engineer at Trapeze Networks and chair of the Wi-Fi Alliance wireless network management and security technical taks groups.

Known by the catchy name of 802.11v, the IEEE standard will include:

Wireless Network Management Sleep Mode: a further extension to base 802.11 power savings that will allow for longer power-off times for 802.11 radios. It will be used in conjunction with new Traffic Filtering Service to enable access points to deliver only specified frame types.

“Wake on WLAN” capabilities that let network managers “wake up” wireless computers and other appliances.

Proxy ARP that will let an access point respond to ARP requests enabling stations to power down for longer periods.

TIM Broadcast that will distribute traffic indication maps so stations do not need to receive every beacon frame.

The IEEE standards group is set to have a final version of 802.11v ready in 2010.