Lisa Phifer

Holidays are supposed to be a time for good tidings and good cheer. But hackers and hucksters don’t take breaks. eSecurity Planet offers 10 online security tips to ensure you and your data enjoy a safe holiday season. Cyber-safety shouldn’t take a break when heading home for the holidays. Between free time, new toys, and […]

Motorola DROID from VzWirelessPrice: $199.99 after rebate, with 2-year planPros:   Big screen, physical keyboard, navigation, voice-driven apps, Android 2.0, 3G coverageCons: Clunkier than iPhone or HTC, hard-to-use keys, tap-to-zoom, sometimes goes AWOL We have to commend VzWireless: its “iDon’t DROID does” ad campaign sparked plenty of buzz about the Motorola DROID—arguably the first business-targeted Android […]

Price: $179.99 after rebate, with 2-year plan Pros: Personalized “scenes,” sexy multi-touch UI, integrated messaging/contacts, extensible Cons: Size-limited virtual keyboard, not-so-speedy Wi-Fi, can’t yet run latest Android The much-anticipated HTC Hero is a top contender in today’s exploding touchscreen smartphone line-up. At Sprint, the HTC Hero is now battling the Samsung Moment for Android supremacy, […]

Aerohive makes HiveAPs more attractive to SMEs by offering an entry-level HiveAP 120 and a pay-as-you-go “Express Mode” HiveManager Online service. Earlier this year, Aerohive HiveUI cut the cost of WLAN management for small businesses using fewer than ten HiveAPs [read our review here]. But SMEs with ten to thirty HiveAPs were still caught between […]

For many, purchasing an Apple iPhone from AT&T Wireless just isn’t feasible. Maybe you (like me) already have a personal or employer cellular contract with another carrier. Maybe you (like me) don’t have decent AT&T coverage where you live, work, and play. Or maybe you (like me) simply don’t like carrier-exclusive deals that impose multi-year […]

As promised, the Wi-Fi Alliance announced its Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n test program this week without upsetting the industry’s artfully-balanced apple cart. Maintaining 802.11n draft 2.0 requirements as Wi-Fi CERTIFIED n “core technology” made it possible to auto-promote hundreds of previously-tested products, Wi-Fi Alliance executive director Edgar Figueroa told Wi-Fi Planet. As a result, consumers can […]

Norman Elton, network engineer at the College of William & Mary, is really looking forward to Performance Sentinel, a continuous service level compliance monitoring feature included in Aerohive‘s upcoming HiveOS 3.4. “When we have thousands of students show up in one weekend, we don’t really have any way of knowing whether they’re all getting good […]

WLAN vendors have long relied on VeriWave for both closed (chambered) and open air (lab or field) tests, ranging from early development and QA verification to small proof-of-concepts and RFP bake-offs. However, as 802.11n becomes a mainstream technology, a more daunting demand has emerged: large-scale, real-world-loaded, in-situ interoperability testing by enterprises and their solution providers. […]

Aruba Networks RAP-2WG and RAP-5WN Price: RAP-2WG ($99) or RAP-5WN ($395), plus RN-licensed Aruba controllerPros:  Business-grade WLAN security and QoS without pre-provisioning or on-site IT Cons: Zero-touch requires 3000/6000 controller, awkward end-user help, $99 only buys 11b/g     Highly-distributed businesses have long faced a choice of evils: ship skilled staff out to install pricey enterprise […]

Aerohive HiveOS 3.2 Dynamic Airtime Scheduling  Pros:  Fully automated, protocol independent, optimizes downlink without penalizing anyoneCons: Little visible improvement on uplink, cannot be enabled through HiveUI In Part 1 of our review, we used Aerohive’s Web-based HiveUI and 300 Series HiveAPs to create a cooperative wireless “hive.” Here in Part 2, we use Aerohive’s HiveManager to […]

Novatel Wireless MiFi 2200 for CDMA 1x EV-DO Networkswww.novatelwireless.com Price: $99.99 after rebate, plus mobile broadband service Pros:  Compact and clean; fuss-free mobile Internet for five Wi-Fi devices Cons: Constrained by 3G coverage; short battery life in multi-user scenarios We anxiously awaited the MiFi “intelligent mobile hotspot” ever since Novatel Wireless announced it last December. This elegant […]

Ekahau HeatMapper     Price: FreePros:  Great way to map small WLANs, relatively accurate, can’t beat the price (free!)Cons: 15 minute survey limit, no pan/zoom, no result save (beyond snapshots), XP/Vista only   Large WLANs are best designed and mapped using sophisticated planning and site survey tools. But most home and small business WLANs are “plug and pray”—install one […]