Eric Griffith

Sampling to customers today — but months from production or actual products — Atheros Communications announced this week a new chip targeting products that will transport multimedia and video over wireless. It’s also the company’s first chip to use smart antenna technology. According to Atheros, the AR5005VA chipset will be capable of sustaining several DVD-quality […]

Remember a while back when chipmakers Broadcom and Atheros had a little tiff about some interference issues, allegedly caused by proprietary speed boost options that aren’t part of the 802.11 specifications? Well the Wi-Fi Alliance apparently remembers. Back in February, it said that it would investigate the claims, and today it had an answer for […]

The security problems for corporate wireless LANs appear to be fully addressed, now that 802.11i is finalized and a slew of intrusion detection and user authentication solutions are well established. Still, security continues to be an enterprise bugaboo. In a recent survey, Sage Research pegs security overall as the number one “pain” for organizations today. […]

Two years ago, EarthLink got into the wireless business, offering hotspot access across the US via its EarthLink Wireless High Speed services. The service was powered by the virtual hotspot network of aggregator Boingo Wireless . This week, the two companies entered a new multi-year agreement that means the Boingo Roaming System will continue to […]

This week in Portland, Oregon is the IEEE 802 Plenary Session, which includes a meeting of the 802.11 Working Group (WG) to define all the various Wi-Fi standards. Among the many Task Groups within 802.11 that will be meeting at the show, there’s perhaps no standard more eagerly anticipated than 802.11n. Task Group N (TGn), […]

You can never be too fast or too small in the computer world. That goes for chips, too — the products can’t get smaller until the chips are smaller. And they’ve always got to get faster. Thus the constant game of one-up-manship between the Wi-Fi chip vendors, as a new “single-chip” solution is announced or […]

So what if 802.11i/WPA2 is finalized? That doesn’t mean the security headaches for big businesses are over. Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) will continue to be a necessary factor as companies try to be proactive in knowing who’s on the network — and who’s trying to be on the network. Network Chemistry, which got its launch […]

The IEEE ratified the 802.11i security standard for wireless LANs yesterday in a standards committee meeting in Piscataway, N.J. 802.11i is the long-awaited security standard for Wi-Fi networks that upgrades the former “official” wireless security standard, the much-maligned wired equivalent privacy (WEP). WEP was found to be easy to crack by those with the right […]

Wi-LAN, a Canadian company that makes broadband wireless equipment, is trying to make a name for itself for the future WiMax market. It may also end up making just as big a name for itself in the courts. The company said today that it is suing network giant Cisco Systems in Canada for patent infringement. […]

Last month, Santa Clara, Calif.-based chip-making giant Intel introduced three new core processors used in Centrino chipsets. Today the company added two more CPUs to the collection that formerly was codenamed Dothan. This comes on the heels of news that the next generation of desktop chips that shipped this week won’t include Wi-Fi as previously […]

After quietly working on a consulting basis with customers on a few metropolitan-sized wireless LANs, Cisco Systems said today that it has seen enough interest in this segment of the market to make its outdoor wireless program official. Thus is born the Cisco Metropolitan Mobile Network solution (MMNS). Key in Cisco’s offering — which is […]

Next week at SUPERCOMM 2004 in Chicago, four year old SkyPilot Networks of Belmont, Calif., will unveil its new outdoor long range wireless system designed for carriers and enterprises. CEO Mark Johnson says long-distance wireless, especially for carriers, is “an economic problem, not a technology problem. How can you enable a 24 dollar per month […]