Ed Sutherland

In an effort to reach the growing number of newcomers entering the home networking market, cable-giant Comcast is teaming up with Linksys to streamline the process. However, privacy concerns swirling around the company’s home networking program are causing the two companies to deny they are wireless snoops. The fears surround a little-known technical specification putting […]

Legoland, the Danish equivalent of Disneyland but built with small plastic block toys, is the test bed of a new Wi-Fi version of Radio Frequency ID (RFID) tags, the technology making converts everywhere from the halls of the U.S. Pentagon to the aisles of retail giant Wal-Mart. For retailers, like Wal-Mart, with millions of items […]

It’s not just the VoIP giants that are interested in using Wi-Fi hotspots, but folks in the epicenter of wireless activity. For example, take Portland, Ore.’s Personal Telco Project. Vonage “is completely locked-down,” scoffs Nigel Ballard, spokesman for the community-based Wi-Fi group which takes a more open approach — namely, that Wi-Fi (and thus voice-over-hotspots) […]

A storm is on the horizon. Wi-Fi advocates say its clouds have a silver lining however, that will lead to the return of wireless devices to the world’s largest enterprise: the U.S. Pentagon. After the Department of Defense (DoD) pulled the plug on allowing Wi-Fi laptops into government offices and networks, a trio of software […]

Thousands of Wi-Fi products already approved by the vendor-backed Wi-Fi Alliance face re-testing as the wireless industry makes another push at convincing enterprises WLANs can indeed be secure. In a move meant to ease enterprise concerns over security, the Wi-Fi Alliance has begun requiring products certify their use of Wireless Protected Access (WPA) in order […]

In order to survive a changing market, makers of consumer-oriented wireless equipment are shifting gears. While separate network interface cards, access points and other stand-alone Wi-Fi gadgets helped fuel the explosive growth of Wi-Fi, that rocket is going to run out of gas in 2007, according to a recent study. The Redwood City, Calif.-based Dell’Oro […]

Following reports that nearly a third of Wi-Fi products fail initial testing, the Wi-Fi Alliance has begun a pre-exam program making it easier for companies to obtain the industry consortium’s “Wi-Fi Certified” stamp of approval. The Wi-Fi Alliance “wants to make [the testing process] as easy as possible,” says Frank Hanzlik, managing director of the […]

Wi-Fi has become like electricity — employees expect to flip on the switch and have anytime network access. WLAN security and management vendor Vernier Networks is updating its network system suite of tools to version 4.0 to address the maturing enterprise wireless network. The new software for Vernier’s gateway equipment is designed as a new […]

Just when you thought you’d tweaked your company’s 802.11g network to blast 54Mbps to the desktop comes a veteran of the broadband wars talking of 2 Gigabit per second (Gbps) Wi-Fi connections. Wireless Gigabit to the Desktop (wGTTD) aims to make Ethernet in the enterprise obsolete. wGTTD, sometimes cutely referred to as ‘Gi-Fi’, opens up […]

Why are Wi-Fi vendors that are more accustom to unwiring databases for corporate number-crunchers interested in your Fifty-Cent CD and that Finding Nemo DVD? Cisco, Intel and others see Wi-Fi as the link between the digital home and a search for untapped markets. “Broadband connections can offer a whole lot more than just swifter data […]

Remember the dust-up during 2003 over companies releasing products based on WLAN standards yet to be approved? Little wonder Wi-Fi chipmaker Broadcom quickly denied a report it was working on chips based on a draft version of the 100Mbps 802.11n. “We don’t anticipate seeing any 802.11n products on the market from anyone in 2004,” Broadcom […]

When Wi-Fi vendors learned of China’s demand that devices sold to the world’s most populous nation adhere to a little-known security standard, the reaction was akin to waking on Christmas morning to find a lump of coal in your stocking. Although China is just a small piece of the $3 billion market of devices allowing […]