Lisa Phifer

As enterprise WLANs expand to deliver coverage and support for business-critical applications, network and RF management have grown increasingly important—and complex.  Reliability and stability while operating in unlicensed spectrum is now the second biggest challenge facing large-scale WLAN deployment, according to this year’s WLAN State of the Market survey.   WLAN controllers automate tasks like […]

This year, faster WEP crackers and flawed anti-cracking strategies have shown that relying on WEP is still a bad idea.  But according to the 2007 WLAN State of the Market survey, just 38 percent of WLANs have upgraded to WPA.  Between compliance pressures and breach headlines, why do so many WLANs continue using WEP?   […]

When companies prepare to roll out 802.11n upgrades to support more demanding applications like VoFi multimedia streaming, they will require more capable and accurate WLAN planning tools.  With its new 5.0 Survey/Planner offering, AirMagnet hopes to facilitate those forklift upgrades.   “As wireless LANs become increasingly strategic to enterprises, the need to accurately plan, deploy, […]

This week, Renaissance Network Solutions announced a managed WLAN security service to help retailers comply with the Payment Card Industry (PCI) Data Security Standard (DSS).  The service, based on technology from Trapeze Networks and AirDefense, is designed for merchants and others that send cardholder data over Wi-Fi during payment transactions. PCI promise and peril In […]

This week, Aruba Networks was accused of infringing upon four WLAN patents held by Symbol Technologies and Wireless Valley Communications, both wholly-owned subsidiaries of Motorola.   The suit alleges that Aruba products infringe upon two WLAN switching patents issued to Symbol in February of this year.   U.S. patent #7,173,922, Multiple Wireless Local Area Networks […]

Wireless Access Points mounted on exposed ceilings or walls range from a tad obtrusive to downright ugly. But what if you could snuggle that AP inside your wall with minimal effort? The HD24613, an in-wall AP from HD Communications, can do just that. Clean and simple The HD24613 is a compact, CAT5-powered 802.11b/g AP, aimed […]

This week, Ruckus Wireless and AirTight Networks announced intent to jointly market their WLAN and WIPS products as a comprehensive secure wireless platform for small-to-medium enterprises.  While overlay vs. embedded Wireless Intrusion Prevention continues to be debated, this latest move illustrates how WLAN vendors are straddling that line through partnership and acquisition. Teaming up According […]

In the early days of Wi-Fi, 802.11b devices were effectively pushed into the workplace through the back door, riding on a wave of consumer popularity.  Now, a new study by ABI Research suggests that 802.11n may follow suit. Starting the next wave at home In its August 2007 research report entitled Wi-Fi in Consumer Electronics, […]

Unless you’ve been hiding in a cave for years, you know that everything sent over Wi-Fi is vulnerable to eavesdropping. A handful of hotspots now encrypt user data—usually with WPA—but the vast majority still expect customers to protect themselves. Sadly, many users continue to ignore even this simple threat. Those who know better often defend […]

For 14 summers, hackers have gathered in Las Vegas to describe, demonstrate, and debate a slew of security vulnerabilities and attacks methods. DEFCON 15, to be held August 4th through 6th, 2007, will offer a bevy of hacker activities and contests, from lock picking to ‘bot shootouts. Those keen on wireless can hone their skills […]

Shortly after the release of Apple’s Wi-Fi-powered eye candy, the infamous iPhone, reports surfaced of disruptions on Duke University’s WLAN.  After 10 days of industry speculation and furious troubleshooting, the culprit has now been fully identified.   According to Duke, “a Cisco-based network issue” caused “some minor and temporary disruptions in service.” Specifically, the way […]

Despite competition from 3G and WiMAX, the Wi-Fi hotspot market continues to grow, fueled by mobile worker demands for high-speed Internet access to both data and voice services. But, in many public access venues, network infrastructure costs and complexities make it hard to expand hotspot capacity and coverage. To simplify this, Colubris Networks recently added […]