Wi-Fi Alliance Confirms No Changes to Its Draft N Tests

The Wi-Fi Alliance won't modify its certification tests for the ratified version of 802.11n: Changes aren't needed, the group says. This was completely expected, but glad to put yet another check in a box. The 802.11n standard will finally move from draft to completed status in September, although a vote taken recently has already formally closed the process.

PC World notes, from a briefing with the alliance, that there are four optional elements to 802.11n that will be certified in the future. Those optional parts were where changes took place after the mandatory elements were settled more or less in January 2007.

802.11n Moves Closer to Ratification

Verizon Limits Free Wi-Fi to Laptops

The fine print is now available on Verizon's free Wi-Fi deal for its broadband customers: Only laptop Windows XP/Vista (32-bit only) users need apply. Which seems insane to me, but it's also in line with Verizon's remarkable micro-management of its users and usage. The "how to get it" page explaining how to obtain free Wi-Fi notes, "Verizon Wi-Fi is not available for PDAs, phones, desktop PCs or Macs."

I can reason that the PDA and phone issue is that the company hasn't figured out which smartphones and others to add the service to and whether to charge for it. AT&T offers iPhone and some BlackBerry owners free Wi-Fi on its home network of 20,000 hotspots (mostly McDonald's and Starbucks locations); Verizon, however, operates no Wi-Fi network, so additional users mean additional costs. Smartphone users are extremely heavy Wi-Fi data consumers, and if Verizon's deal with Boingo isn't flat-rate per user, then that might explain the hesitation.

The limit to laptops is sort of ridiculous. Desktop PC owners won't easily be able to access laptops, and you have to do be a broadband Verizon customer already, so it's not like you'd be using a Wi-Fi hotspot as your primary Internet connection, would you? There's a story here that's not being told.

The lack of Mac support is simply absurd. Boingo supports Windows and Mac OS X, and Verizon has long had excellent software and tech support for its 3G hardware for Mac OS X.

But wait! There's more. As I noted in a revised version of the story yesterday, IDG News Service noted and a spot check reveals that Verizon isn't offering McDonald's stores, which Boingo resells from AT&T's network. The reason there might be that the McDonald's contract is organized differently. Wayport signed up McD years ago, and structured its arrangement to offer flat-rate resale fees per user in a network, instead of session fees. With that ostensibly still in place even after AT&T's acquisition of Wayport, Verizon might not want to pay the associated fees to offer McDonald's access. This plus Verizon's awful hotspot finder rips some of the heart out of the ubiquity of Boingo's U.S. network.

Finally, Verizon limits this free offer to higher-tiered DSL and fiber (FiOS) subscribers. Existing 3 Mbps DSL or faster and 20 Mbps FiOS or faster customers are the only ones who qualify. Further, only new FiOS customers who buy 25 Mbps or faster connections will qualify.

This is all shooting itself in the foot; penny wise, pound foolish. If you're going to make an extra add-on attractive, you can't dangle a bright shiny ball at all your customers, and then snatch it away from what's likely 25 to 40 percent of them, based on market research.

Atlanta Airport Considers Free Wi-Fi, But Can’t Yet Afford It

Sprint Buys Virgin Mobile, the Last MVNO

Sprint Nextel will acquire the majority stake in Virgin Mobile USA that it doesn't own: Virgin Mobile was the last major mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), a cellular company type that owns customers not cell towers. While there have been attempts to create large MVNOs, only Virgin Mobile has remained viable, although not wildly profitable. Sprint was an investor in Virgin Mobile, and many said that was what gave the MVNO staying power. Most recently Virgin Mobile absorbed Helio, an MVNO started by SK Telecom and EarthLink to bring advanced phones from South Korea to the U.S. market and target services at younger folk.

Virgin Mobile concentrates on prepaid phone service, which is distinct from the postpaid contract offerings that require long commitments. With prepaid service, you pay in advance for minutes or no-contract subscriptions, and wind up paying substantially less. Virgin Mobile has a $50/mo unlimited talk plan, which contrasts with postpaid plans that are twice as much. (Virgin Mobile requires 2-year commitments on smartphones under the Helio brand, however.)

The company also has the only pay-as-you-go mobile broadband service. You have to pay upfront for a $150 USB 3G modem--sold exclusively by Best Buy for Virgin Mobile--and then service has no commitment. You buy pools of expiring bandwidth. $10 gets you 100 MB over 10 days; $20, $40, and $60 get you 250 MB, 600 MB, and 1 GB over 30 days. If you need more bandwidth, you buy another pool--no sneaky $50/MB overage fees.

While the broadband prices are high compared to Wi-Fi (Boingo with $10/mo unlimited North American hotspot access, for instance), they are extremely favorable when looking at major carrier 3G plans, which are $60 per month with a required 2-year commitment. Those plans, however, top out at 5 GB of use per month.

The biggest segment of growth for Sprint is prepaid plans, but it's sold such plans on its iDEN network, the old Nextel technology that will some day fade away. Virgin Mobile uses regular old CDMA, and brings over 5 million customers.

Cheryl Cole will not work with Chris BrownWhen It’s Too Good To Be True: Zer01

US Airways Trials In-Flight Internet

US Airways becomes the latest airline to add Wi-Fi: The airline has over 300 mainline aircraft, but will start in early 2010 with just a few dozen, all Airbus A321s, to see how it goes.

AirTran Finishes Internet Install

When It's Too Good To Be True: Zer01

My pal Nancy Gohring wrote a long feature exploring the unlimited cell offering from Zer01: Is investigative technology journalism dead? Not at IDG News Service, at least. Zer01 has been on my radar since last year, when the firm started talking about an unlimited flat-rate cellular voice and data plan. Each time I heard more about the service, the details had changed, and the offer had expanded to sweep in more and more features, like text messaging.

Let's just be straightforward here. Even before Nancy had run down the specifics of Zer01, its CEO, and its affiliates and partners' history, it was clear that there was no way for the firm to be able to do what it claims. Nancy ran down a lot of other warning flags, too. (I don't link to Zer01 because I don't want to add to its link score on Google.)

The company has said all along it was using GSM. Only two operators, T-Mobile and AT&T, have substantial enough U.S. footprints to provide the roaming Zer01 would need. Neither firm could possibly wholesale enough bytes at a low-enough cost to Zer01 to allow unlimited service. Zer01 keeps claiming that it is not a mobile virtual network operator (MVNO), like Virgin Mobile (one of the last standing), but every aspect of how it works requires that it acts as an MVNO.

The firm told Nancy that it had its own fiber-optic network terminated at cell operator equipment so that the cost of transit charged by the carriers would be nil. But it also said outright that carriers' cost for the wireless component of the network was essentially nothing, which is simply ridiculous.

Nancy was able to get AT&T and T-Mobile to state on the record that they have no business relationship with Zer01, which puts the icing on the cake.

There's no such thing as unlimited, except when the cost to a user to obtain unlimited is high enough to restrain use, or the cost to a carrier averages out to low enough that it can make a buck. If you read the fine print on VoIP contracts, almost all have a "fair use" or "reasonable use" number that's high (thousands of minutes), but not infinite.

The bandwidth caps that ISPs are putting on their networks, like Comcast's 250 GB/mo limit, are too low (1 TB would be more reasonable), but it's an attempt to block the 99th percentile users that turn a profitable service into a loss.

Given that the three major 3G carriers have 5 GB/mo caps on usage (T-Mobile doesn't yet have national coverage for 3G), it's impossible to see how their networks could be used by a reseller for unlimited data.

Add to that the promise of unlimited voice minutes and text messages. Even with VoIP, calls to another network require settlement fees, typically per-minute termination fees for landlines, and other rates for cell connections. Text messaging is settled across networks as well using peering contracts or clearinghouse services.

If the major carriers are paying per minute and per message to each other, how can a startup relying on their networks have no cap?

Atlanta First Big Move for New Clearwire

Plastic Logic Puts Wi-Fi in Reader

Plastic Logic equips book reader with 3G, Wi-Fi: Some sense at last from Plastic Logic, a future competitor to Sony and Amazon for electronic book reading. The company's reader is due out next year, and AT&T will be the backend for a 3G connection. But the device will also have a Wi-Fi radio, which may reveal something of the business model. Amazon built a Sprint modem into each Kindle, and apparently bundles Sprint's download fee into the price of each book.

With Plastic Logic, the inclusion of Wi-Fi implies that delivery fees may vary depending on method. And Plastic Logic's partners will likely offer tons of free books, which doesn't make sense for the company to subsidize by paying AT&T something. Barnes & Noble just unveiled its ebook library and reading software (Mac, Windows, iPhone, and BlackBerry), and said it will sell books for Plastic Logic, but potentially other devices, too.

Comcast Starts Offering Clearwire WiMax Service

Wee-Fi: New York Public Library Glory, Cape Cod Unescape

The New York Public Library opens a room for technology users: The grand anchor of the city's public library system has opened its special-occasion room, the Edna Barnes Salomon Room, as a "wireless Internet reading and study room." Starting yesterday, the Beaux-Arts style room will offer seating for 128 patrons. The library will also loan out laptops. The room is 4,500 sq ft, and gorgeous. It sports "16 custom made, solid black walnut tables and dark brown leather chairs that will match the rooms' dark maple wood floor." Wi-Fi is free, as it has been at the library and adjoining Bryant park (operated separately) for some time.

Cape Cod vacationers can't unplug, un-unwire: The Boston Globe writes of the plight of those have jobs, take vacations, and aren't able to stop working on Cape Cod. Okay, let's not cry too much for those that get Cape vacations; it's a marvelous place. But it is sad that a function of modern life and the economy is that people are hunting out free Wi-Fi at 10 pm at night in the parking lots of libraries.

Guinness celebrate 250 years with Tom JonesVenice Unwires

We-Fi: Skype Access, Google Asks, Police Patrols, Toyota Flowers, Cablevision Expands

Skype 2.8 for Mac adds per-minute hotspot access: Skype calls this feature "still in beta," and it's been available for months in pre-release versions. The Skype Access feature ties into 100,000 hotspots worldwide, and requires a per minute fee of €0.16 or US 22 (including tax/VAT). While that's high, it's cheaper than an international call from a cell phone in most markets, and cheaper than paying $4 to $12 for a daypass when you need a few minutes. At $13.20/hr, it's egregiously high for routine use, even in expensive Wi-Fi markets, so I'm not confident this will catch on. It seems more of a nifty demo. Boingo's mobile price is just US$7.95/mo with no contract, although it works only with mobile phones; the global plan (with 2,000 minutes per month) is $59. The Skype Access feature is Mac only at present.

Google asks public about its Mountain View service: The Los Altos, Calif., paper says that Google will have a public forum tonight at 7 pm to discuss what it's learned from a running a Wi-Fi network across Mountain View, and ask for feedback. The service has been in operation since 2006. Punters speculated back then that this was part of a national free Wi-Fi network Google would built out; I was mostly skeptical. About 19,000 users access the network, which consists of 500 access points, each month.

Australian police patrol for open hotspots: Should some volunteer wardrivers do this work, instead? The Queensland police will patrol for open hotspots and then advise residents. The police are concerned about crime happening over open Wi-Fi networks. A detective superintendent says "crooks were now sharing information on satellite maps showing vulnerable areas with large numbers of unsecured networks." Remember a decade or so ago, when police were convinced that millions of Satanists were conducting secret rituals? Community education forums and an explanation of how to notice and report network misuse would probably be time better spent.

Wi-Flowers from Toyota: The car firm has giant flowers--apparently solar powered--that have power outlets and Wi-Fi signals. Toyota is touring the 18-foot-tall "flowers" in Boston, New York, Chicago, Seattle, San Francisco, and Los Angeles from July to October. Pictures.

Cablevision expands Wi-Fi in parts of New York: The service, only available and at no cost to its cable broadband subscribers, is now active in Orange and Rockland counties in New York.

Atlanta Airport Considers Free Wi-Fi, But Can’t Yet Afford It

802.11n Moves Closer to Ratification

The 802.11n spec celebrates its seventh anniversary without ratification: The gears at the IEEE grind but slowly, and 802.11n is still not actually a ratified and published standard even though its been built (in "draft" form) into tens of millions of devices, and has a certification standard (Draft N, natch) at the Wi-Fi Alliance. (The alliance is separate from the IEEE, developing standards for testing interoperability of commercially produced devices using the IEEE standards as the basis.)

Wi-Fi guru Matthew Gast, author of 802.11 Wireless Networks: the Definitive Guide (foreword by yours truly), writes on his marvelously named blog that 802.11n has moved up a few rungs of the IEEE hierarchical process towards shedding its draft label.

The 802.11n spec was developed in a process that started with the High Throughput Study Group, which was turned into Task Group N within the 802.11 Working Group, which specializes in wireless LAN protocols. Matthew writes that the working group has now passed the spec upwards to higher-level groups, starting with the IEEE review committee, which meets 11-September-2009. Matthew notes that's exactly 7 years after the first meeting of the high-throughput group.

In practical terms, this is all institutional process, rather than anything that will result in changes. As far as I can tell, there have been no substantive changes to 802.11n in years, and the less-important changes occur on the driver side, Matthew said via email. It's also important to note that no device has appeared that implements all the optional parts of 802.11n, and some monkeying around has occurred in those areas.

The draft label should come off in September.

iPhone in China Gets Wi-Fi-ectomy?Guinness celebrate 250 years with Tom Jones

Gogo Adds Day Pass, Short Hop, Monthly Prices for In-Flight Broadband

Gogo goes baroque with additional pricing options on its Internet offering: Aircell has long told me that it expected to have a variety of pricing options, including subscriptions, for its in-flight Internet service, Gogo. The firm added three new options today, although availability varies by airline.

For short hops, about 1.5 hours or less, Gogo now charges $6 on all its affiliated airlines (American, AirTran, Delta, and Virgin America); previously, you would have paid the $10 3-hour-or-shorter fee. Flight of more than 3 hours remain priced at $13.

Gogo has also added a 24-Hour Pass, allowing multiple sessions during that period for fliers making multiple hops or a roundtrip. Initially, this option is only available for Delta and AirTran.

Finally, a 30-Day Pass runs just $50, and works on a single airline; only American has opted out of this, possibly because it doesn't yet have enough planes unwired to make it something that they want to offer to customers.

$50 for someone who takes a flight a week starts to approach a very reasonable deal. Next, Aircell needs to get corporate rates and iPass/Boingo roaming rates to tie in a larger universe of customers that are heavy users, but also expect something better than what everyone else gets because of ease of billing and collection.

AirTran Finishes Internet Install

AirTran Finishes Internet Install

Remarkably, AirTran is already unwired: The small national airline said today that it's got all 136 of its craft set up with Aircell's Gogo Inflight Internet service. AirTran has just two models of Boeing aircraft, which makes the unwiring simpler. The airline joins Virgin America (with about 28 planes) in having full-flight Internet.

AirTran announced its plan just two months ago.

Christina Milian gets engagedLufthansa Will Bring Back Broadband in Air

Schumer Wants Wi-Fi on LIRR

Sen. Charles Schumer is pushing the Long Island Railroad (LIRR) to get Internet service on board: Unfortunately, the numbers thrown out ($1,000 per train car) are nothing like the cost unless each train car simply had a cell gateway stapled on top. That cost would exclude installation, maintenance, bandwidth, and network operations. The railroad will issue an RFP later this year.

Also, in this Newsday piece and elsewhere, Sen. Schumer seems to think that there are similar and inexpensive systems running all over the U.S. There are now a number of production systems in the U.S. (and elsewhere) on trains, but there isn't anything running on the scale of LIRR. The closest is the MTBA (Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority), which is either in the process of or finished with a rollout across 13 commuter lines after a successful test on a Worcester line.

Other rail-Fi projects are much smaller in scale, often involving (as in Utah and elsewhere) new projects that were designed from the start to have Internet service in stations and on board.

In the Bay Area, the BART system has a contractor in place (Wi-Fi Rail) which is ostensibly in the process of setting up systemwide Internet access as we speak. If Wi0Fi Rail is successful as it rolls out in the Bay Area, it's likely that the company's approach will be useful in other metro areas that are otherwise quite expensive to get backhaul and signals through.

Lufthansa Will Bring Back Broadband in Air

Lufthansa Will Bring Back Broadband in Air

A Lufthansa exec said the airline will reintroduce in-flight broadband using Connection by Boeing antennas still installed: The executive made these remarks today at an airline association meeting near a Boeing assembly plant in Washington state. Lufthansa will have an announcement about specifics next month. FlightGlobal's Air Transport Intelligence news service says that talks between Lufthansa and a consortium including T-Mobile have ended, and Lufthansa may be pairing with Panasonic Avionics.

Back in 2006, Panasonic tried to get enough planes on board to transition Connexion customers to a new offering. The group wanted 500 aircraft committed to launch its own Ku-band service, using geostationary satellites like Boeing, but with a far lower cost structure and lighter-weight antennas and interior gear. (Here's my interview with a Panasonic exec back in Sept. 2006.)

Lufthansa equipped about 60 of its long-haul planes, and reportedly had high uptake by its passengers, who could expect that every long flight would include the service. Lufthansa had at least three times as many planes equipped with Connexion as the next airline before Boeing shut the wildly unprofitable service down in 2006.

For its part, ATI reports that Panasonic says it has five airlines signed for eXConnect, its branded Internet service.

Row 44, the only Ku-band provider currently offering service--trials with Alaska and Southwest airlines, with an Alaska rollout seemingly confirmed--is operating only over the US and over sea in its current phase. Aircell, which has air-to-ground operations in the U.S. with an exclusive license, has been talking for months about extending its market via Ku-band service, but that could be through a partner, like Panasonic.

Comcast Starts Offering Clearwire WiMax Service

Atlanta Airport Considers Free Wi-Fi, But Can't Yet Afford It

Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson airport (ATL) would like to offer its passengers free Wi-Fi: Economic conditions don't allow that switchover, however. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says the airport sees 25,000 to 40,000 connections each month, which brings in $1m. If that were the airport's share, that's $2-$3 per connection, which seems rather high since many travelers are using roaming systems based on other numbers I've seen. Some percentage is paying $8 for a daypass, sure, but that shouldn't be half.

ATL renewed contracts until 1-August-2011 with three providers, which include Boingo and T-Mobile based on the network's splash page. A hybrid system is under consideration, where service would be free to casual users, but corporate users would have access to for-fee networks to which they had plan access. The free network would display ads.

Atlanta is the busiest airport in the world, and would be only the second very-large airport, following Denver, that opened its network for ad-supported, free use. Most other free airport networks are in second- and third-tier markets that carry plenty of passengers, but use free Wi-Fi as an amenity to attract travelers away from first-tier hubs.

Latest Version of Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network

Not All Camera Makers Are Clueless about Wi-Fi and Eye-Fi

I complained the other day that camera manufacturers weren't integrating support for Eye-Fi's Wi-Fi SD cards: But that's not quite right: a few camera makers have the religion. Eye-Fi is the only generic solution to moving images (and now video) from a camera to a computer or photo-sharing service via Wi-Fi. The market seems to me huge, and Eye-Fi continues to expand models, features, and distribution channels, as well as upload partners. This makes me think the market is robust, too.

However, no competing product has entered the field. Eye-Fi is a startup, and you might expect another firm--a memory-card maker, certainly--would add up the potential and try to compete. It has not happened after nearly 2 years of product in the market.

Camera makers should thus wake up: if they can't properly integrate Wi-Fi into the firmware and hardware of their cameras--and I'd argue no Wi-Fi equipped camera below the expensive professional level has yet done so--then the only reasonable partner is Eye-Fi.

Eye-Fi has two limitations in operating as a separately functioning computer-on-a-card independent of the camera's gear. First, a camera's standard power-down operation will remove the power to the card before all uploads have completed in many cases. I upgraded my Wi-Fi network by moving to 802.11n, and that reduced congestion and seems to make the Eye-Fi cards I use--which have 802.11g built in--more efficient at uploading.

Second, the camera can't alert the user that the uploads have completed. Eye-Fi gets around this with notification services via email or SMS that you can set up for each card. But a ding or dialog would go a lot further.

Eye-Fi has a page at its site that I was unaware of that lists all the camera models that have Eye-Fi integration. This includes 5 recent Casio models that signal whether an Eye-Fi is inserted, allow Wi-Fi to be turned on or off, that stay powered up until uploads are completed, and which indicate transfers in process.

I expect it's a multi-year process for Eye-Fi to convince cameramakers that the company will be around in the long term, that it is sui generis for Wi-Fi digital cards, and that firmware integration enhances the value of a new camera (i.e., more sales from people who thus need the new cameras) instead of pushing money over to Eye-Fi that the makers would rather keep themselves.

Eye-Fi Adds Pro Card with RAW Uploads, Ad Hoc Transfer

iPhone in China Gets Wi-Fi-ectomy?

Widespread rumors say that Apple's release of an iPhone in China will strip out Wi-Fi. Why? I've already received emails from colleagues and reporters on this, and was even cited in a Slashdot story that I had nothing to do with because of my previous comments about WAPI, a Chinese-controlled proprietary security standard.

Why would Apple strip out Wi-Fi, which is the heart of the ubiquitous-access iPhone, which seamlessly moves among 2G, 2.5G, 3G, and Wi-Fi? It can't be cost. The Wi-Fi components are a few bucks of the total, and the engineering is already done. Removing Wi-Fi could cost more initially than including it. (For all I know, Apple will include the chip and disable functionality in firmware.)

The overt explanation appears to be that the Chinese government, which has highly intertwined interests with major corporations, wants to protect call revenue from VoIP. An iPhone with Wi-Fi could be used with a VoIP app like Skype, or, if restricted, could be jailbroken and used with VoIP programs over both Wi-Fi and 2G/3G systems. (China is far behind on 3G deployment due to years of conflict over homegrown standards and those used internationally.)

What's likely another contributing factor is that there's no way in the lord's little green valley that Steve Jobs and Apple will incorporate the WAPI spec into an iPhone. China tried to get WAPI made into an ISO standard, but was rejected because of the fundamental problem that the China Broadband Wireless IP Standard Group (the representative at ISO at the time) won't actually publish the full standard, and none of the cryptographic part. (You can read more that I've written about WAPI over the years.)

As long-time readers of this site know, I don't buy into security through obscurity. Nor do any credible security researchers that I know or follow. There's a good reason for this. Working in isolation is a great way to leave vectors for exploitation that exposure to light finds. But that's not really what's at work with WAPI.

WAPI is controlled by a number of companies that are controlled by and/or have investments in them by the military and government. This is typical in China, in which private firms aren't quite private. The military have extensive, separate investments and ownership separate from the main government, too.

A closed spec tied to firms tied to the government and military means only one thing: WAPI has backdoors designed to allow authorities to tap into datastreams when they please. The 802.11i spec as labeled WPA and WPA2 have no known backdoors nor vulnerabilities that would allow this. (There's one TKIP vulnerability for inserting a small number of short packets in particular circumstances that doesn't allow key recovery.)

The reason Apple won't buy into this, is that any company outside China that wants to conform to WAPI in order to release products with Wi-Fi--I'm unclear whether it's a strict requirement now, as that's come and gone--must partner with a Chinese firm which maintains control. As all firms outside China know, if you reveal your intellectual property to a Chinese firm, a few months or a year later, that firm now makes your product or incorporates your IP, and IP rights in China are extremely poorly enforced. Especially when a government or military controlled firm has just lifted your property.

By removing Wi-Fi, Apple gets to avoid a whole army of mess. The Chinese government gets to snoop on its easily monitored cell networks and maintain additional control--and preserve profit margins, too.

Canadian Spectrum for In-Flight Internet Awarded

Summer Time, and Wireless Fear Mongering Is in the Air

Vacation hacking, a new term invented in this article to scare folks: It's Fox News, yes, but this article needs to be stopped dead in its tracks. The article claims that you're going to be hacked because of "phony Wi-Fi hot spots" all over the place--"in airports, in hotels, and even aboard airliners."

This article recycles what is now a pretty dismantled myth that the Free Wi-Fi networks you see around are havens of hackers. They're not. Instead, it's Windows XP broadcasting a peer-to-peer network by that name that the user of the system once connected to in order to get free Wi-Fi (which didn't exist). Ad hoc networking in Wi-Fi under XP spreads names like viruses by advertising the names when the peer-to-peer networks aren't active. You can easily test this yourself if you have an XP box by creating an ad hoc network named Free Wi-Fi, turning it off, and leaving your XP system not associated with a regular (infrastructure) Wi-Fi network.

Here's a nice summary with details at an Aruba Networks blog. Note that Aruba sells technology infrastructure to corporations, which includes security elements, but doesn't sell security as a separate piece. Thus, the firm has a good place on which to dispel such a myth.

The folks from security companies are offering quite broad-stroked statements here that I don't buy as well. For instance, Symantec's "Internet safety advocate" is putting out the line that "hackers" are setting up shop in hotels, airplanes, and airports because there are Wi-Fi networks available. Think about that for a moment. Most people who use airports and hotels are passing through. It's hard to linger for too long without being a guest or passenger. So what this is really saying is that there are hackers traveling around who turn on scamming software whenever they're in a public place with lots of people. That's not an unreasonable speculation for some small number of people, but I also doubt this is happening on a large scale. I also think that thieves are exposing themselves to detection in places where they could be easily detained, which makes it less likely.

Now, I always maintain you should use public Wi-Fi networks as if there were always someone sniffing and recording signals around you, but that's more of general advice. I don't believe that there are always hackers around, just that if there's a small statistical chance you should act as if the opportunity for loss of passwords or other data is 100 percent. I may be paranoid, but I'm not crazy, as the saying goes.

The Fox News article then dredges up a 2008 AirTight survey that looked into security at airports, both in airport operations and in user behavior and settings. The article gets it mostly wrong, including stating that "fake Wi-FI hots spots" had been set up by hackers. I found the original AirTight report, and it talks about the "Free Wi-Fi" locations in the same manner I do above. (I wrote about this report back in March 2008. You can disable this in XP by using wireless settings to turn off the ability to join ad hoc networks entirely. That's a great start.)

What AirTight actually discovered was a very low rate of use of VPNs by users (under 3 percent in its testing), and extremely poor operations security, with closed networks and WEP being used to prevent outside access to private networks. The Fox news article conflates VPNs and secure networks together, making a muddle.

I've talked to Rick Farina of AirTight before, I believe, and his quote in the Fox News article is too absurd to believe without it being taken out of context. He notes that people engage in "all sort[sic] of dangerous activity," but he includes banking and buying stock in that list. So long as you're not working with a bank or stock-trading firm that's stupid enough to not deploy extended-validation (EV) SSL/TLS security--the green bar in most browsers that shows a verified identity--your risk of being taken advantage of is essentially nil.

However, I do heavily recommend the use of VPNs, because it prevents two separate problems: first, if you're using a system that has a history of vulnerabilities to viruses (yes, I'm talking about Windows XP), being on a public network with other local users seeing you as an available node is a terrible increase in risk. If you have firewall software installed, it's possible that joining a wireless network will make the software think you're on a safe LAN if the local Wi-Fi network uses the same private IP address space, which is highly likely.

If your company doesn't offer (and require!) a VPN, you can use services from Witopia, AnchorFree, and others on subscription or ad-funded basis, depending on the firm. With a VPN active, if you connect to an evil twin (a malicious double of a real network) or an accidental ad hoc network, the VPN either won't connect properly (but won't reveal your login password or credentials either), letting you know something is wrong; or, it will connect securely, meaning that even if your traffic is being intercepted, it can't be deciphered!

The last part of this article has five tips for security from Symantec that aren't bad, but most don't relate to Wi-Fi security.

My advice? Don't join ad hoc networking, disabling that capability if you can, or using cues in Mac OS X or Vista to avoid them. Use a VPN.

Venice Unwires

Atlanta First Big Move for New Clearwire

Sure, Clearwire has Baltimore and Portland, but Atlanta eclipses those: The Clear network in Atlanta spans 1,200 sq mi and passes 3m people. Given the hideous commute and highway backups, I can see a ubiquitous network that's cheaper than and faster than 3G competitors being a windshield warrior and mobile work team must-have. Clearwire maintains that 4 to 6 Mbps downstream is typical, with an over 15 Mbps burst rate.

Clearwire pairs the Atlanta announcement with a laundry list of gear customers can use to connect, which has increased considerably in the last few months.

Wireless networks are always a chicken-and-egg problem. Wi-Fi insinuated itself into nearly every mobile device because there was no network lock in. You could install one hot spot and have one adapter and have all the freedom you needed to cut the cord. Wi-Fi became cheap to include in mobile devices years ago, and required no carrier or regulator relationship.

Cellular 3G and 4G networks have a harder row to hoe because every adapter will have both high cost and provider lock in. 3G cell modems are starting to become a standard feature on some netbooks and laptops, although it's a financial risk to the makers of these computers, as the underlying cost of mobile broadband modems remains high. If the user never activates the modem, or cancels within a short period, the buyer isn't bearing the full cost of that adapter based on the current model. (It's not clear whether carriers and/or modem makers absorb some of this risk to ship more adapters and gain more customers, too.)

For Clearwire, it's a bit different, because Motorola and Samsung are both major investors and principle equipment manufacturers. This can be awkward, because the two makers can't offer gear to Clearwire at cost, but neither do they have a motivation to extract every last dollar.

Clearwire notes in this release how many WiMax adapter are now available, and in what variety. For laptops, there's a $60 (or $5/mo) USB modem. This takes care of legacy laptops and even desktop computers. USB modems for 3G networks have multiplied and added features (such as having a microSD slot) because the ability to move the modem among multiple computers is desirable.

For home users, there's the Clear Residential Modem, which is $80 or $5/mo; voice calling requires an additional $15 adapter and a $25/mo calling plan (competitive with Vonage, and from half to one-third less than Comcast's).

Apparently, this is the soft launch of Clearwire's Clear Spot, a Wi-Fi/WiMax gateway ($140), which is battery powered and requires a Clear USB modem. As I previously noted ("Clearwire Offers CradlePoint WiMax/Wi-Fi Hotspot," 31-March-2009), this is a Clearwire-enabled version of a product that CradlePoint has offered for some time. On the laptop side, Clearwire lists a variety of Dell, Fujitsu, Lenovo, Samsung, and Toshiba notebooks and netbooks. A Panasonic Toughbook is coming later this year.

An anticipated 3G/4G broadband modem is due "this summer," which will combine Sprint 3G with Clearwire WiMax, and start allowing business customers in Clear coverage areas to upgrade to have the benefit of a faster network at home and roaming while away, or in weak WiMax coverage areas.

Comcast Starts Offering Clearwire WiMax Service

Canadian Spectrum for In-Flight Internet Awarded

Two weeks ago, Canadian regulators accepted a winning C$5.1m bid from SkySurf Canada for air-ground spectrum for in-flight broadband: The Canadian firm bid a whopping C$3m above the second bidder, and only two firm ultimately submitted bids. SkySurf won 4 MHz of spectrum. The FCC awarded similar frequency back in June 2006 to Aircell (3 MHz) and JetBlue's LiveTV division (1 MHz) for $31m and $7m, respectively. The U.S. and Canadian bands are aligned.

In talking early this year with Aircell's CEO, the firm planned to create a partnership with the winning bidder. "Anybody who gets that license is doing so on the basis of forming a relationship with us where they operate the physical network in Canada," Jack Blumenstein said back in February. Blumenstein said that the rollout in Canada would likely be in 2010. He also noted that only 20 base stations would be required to serve all of content, because Aircell already had a number of near-border locations that could be turned north.

The bid price seems rather high, but that's clearly in expectation of the winner being part of a cross-border monopoly on this particular service by dint of owning the license. While Canada has a smaller population, there are plenty of aircraft crossing the country and traveling back and forth to the U.S.

Latest Version of Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network

Take Control Books has just released version 1.5 of my Take Control of Your 802.11n AirPort Network ebook: This release covers the simultaneous dual-band AirPort Extreme and Time Capsule, re-organizes the discussion of how to set up Wireless Distribution System (WDS) in the new and old methods, and has a new take on choosing bands and channels when you can have your cake (5 GHz) and eat it, too (2.4 GHz).

Readers of Wi-Fi Networking News can save $5 off the $15 cover price by using coupon code CPN007281031WNN at checkout. There are other bundle deals available as well.

Venice Unwires

Venice Unwires

Venice, Italy, installs Wi-Fi free for those who live and work there, and for-fee for visitors: The city of canals has launched one of the largest outdoor Wi-Fi networks in continental Europe. (The UK has a number of outdoor networks that may be as large.) The network is free for residents, and in September will be opened at no cost to people who work or study in the city. Also in September, visitors can pay €5 per day for access, although advance-purchase discounted passes are also available as part of a visitors' program.

Fabio Zambelli has an extensive photo gallery (and coverage in Italian) at setteB.it.

Service initially covers downtown, the Lido, and public parks in Mestre. Additional islands and parks will be added by the fall.

Firefox 3.5 Brings Geolocation to Mass Users

Eye-Fi Adds Pro Card with RAW Uploads, Ad Hoc Transfer

Eye-Fi has added a fifth member to its product matrix, the Pro which supports RAW format uploads, direct computer transfer: Eye-Fi's list of options is getting a little longer than makes sense for a simple product, but the distinction between Pro and the others is clear. If you need to upload anything but JPEGs, you need the Pro card (street $150, 4 GB, SDHD). Maybe professionals and plenty of amateur photographers prefer the loosely-defined RAW format (not a standard) in which the quirks of the image sensors aren't smoothed out. This allows better post-capture correction.

An additional feature found only in Pro is allowing transfers using the Wi-Fi ad hoc mode. All Wi-Fi base stations and some software found in operating systems or added on use infrastructure mode, which hub and spoke. Each station (a spoke) communicates via a coordinating access point (the hub). In ad hoc mode, however, all devices are equal players and there's no central coordinating point. (Ad hoc mode is also responsible for the ubiquitous Free WiFi networks you see at airports, because if you're not connected to a network and ever used an ad hoc network, you broadcast the ad hoc names under Windows XP and some other OS's.)

Ad hoc mode is useful for photographers, because it means they can transfer images directly to a laptop or computer they have with them without having to also have a gateway. Mac OS X offers both a software base station mode and ad hoc networking, but Windows only has ad hoc built in for direct transfers. One year of hotspot access is included at Wayport operated locations. (Eye-Fi says 10,000 hotspots, but given Wayport has merged into AT&T, does that mean that the 7,000 Starbucks and thousands of others are excluded?)

Eye-Fi also updated all its models to support Selective Transfer. With this new mode, any image marked as protected or locked (depending on camera firmware options) will be uploaded, while all other images will not. That's a clever way around the fact that only one high-end digital camera so far talks directly to the Eye-Fi card. I was really expecting at least one camera maker to integrate Eye-Fi as an offering, using the firmware as a way to enable more features. Ah, well; camera makers aren't known for understanding what users want out of image transferring over Wi-Fi.

Selective Transfer is available through a firmware update via the Eye-Fi Manager. Connect your Eye-Fi card via a USB card reader and run the update to get the new feature.

Eye-Fi has defined its featureset as seven items, all of which are part of Pro: JPEG uploads, online sharing, video uploads, geotagging, hotspot access, ad hoc transfers, and RAW uploads. As you move down through the matrix, fewer features are found, but the cards cost less, too. Cards start at $50 for transfers only to a networked computer (not via ad hoc) with the 2 GB Home model. You can upgrade cards that lack webshare, hotspot access, and geotagging for $10, $15, and $15 per year, respectively.

Comcast Starts Offering Clearwire WiMax Service

Comcast Starts Offering Clearwire WiMax Service

As expected, Comcast will resell Clearwire's WiMax service: The Comcast High-Speed 2Go brand will be powered by Clearwire, starting in Portland. Comcast is focused on the mobile part, of course, since the company has its own extensive residential and business fixed broadband portfolio. Comcast has invested in Clearwire, and has previously resold Sprint Nextel service, as well.

The company will offer a Metro plan and card that works only in the WiMax footprint area, and a Nationwide plan and card that offers 3G everywhere Sprint has it, and 4G within WiMax footprints.

Comcast is using the power of the bundle, where the reduced cost in presenting and collecting multiple bills results in savings for the company and the consumer, with a 12-month introductory rate. A $50/mo bundle pairs 12 Mbps home cable broadband with WiMax service; consumers can add national 3G service for another $20/mo. The rate after 12 months is $73/mo for WiMax and $93/mo for 3G+WiMax, or $30 to $50 above the current 12 Mbps broadband rate. You pay separately for a broadband dongle, likely under $100, but that information wasn't provided yet.

Clearwire charges $50/mo for unlimited consumer roaming, and has a variety of business plans for shared bandwidth among multiple accounts. Sprint has a combined 3G/4G plan that's $80/mo (with a 2-year contract) that includes 5 GB per month of 3G bandwidth and unlimited 4G bandwidth. Comcast appears to be following both firms' leads on that topic.

With either plan, it looks like a fairly enormous discount, especially during the introductory year, but also thereafter.

Firefox 3.5 Brings Geolocation to Mass Users

Firefox 3.5 Brings Geolocation to Mass Users

Firefox 3.5 has shipped with location finding turned on: The latest release of Firefox includes by default the option to use a computer's IP address and, if available, a scan of nearby wireless networks to provide a location to Web sites that use appropriate JavaScript to request a position. Users can opt out when asked, disable location requests for a site, or disable location requests entirely. However, "ask for permission" is on by default.

Firefox is using Google Location Services, which is a combination of cellular tower data that the company has assembled along with some unknown method of collecting and locating Wi-Fi hotspots, much as Skyhook Wireless has been doing for years. Likely, Google gathers this information as it drives the streets for Google Maps.

Venice Unwires

Venice, Italy, installs Wi-Fi free for those who live and work there, and for-fee for visitors: The city of canals has launched one of the largest outdoor Wi-Fi networks in continental Europe. (The UK has a number of outdoor networks that may be as large.) The network is free for residents, and in September will be opened at no cost to people who work or study in the city. Also in September, visitors can pay €5 per day for access, although advance-purchase discounted passes are also available as part of a visitors' program.

Fabio Zambelli has an extensive photo gallery (and coverage in Italian) at setteB.it.

Service initially covers downtown, the Lido, and public parks in Mestre. Additional islands and parks will be added by the fall.

Firefox 3.5 Brings Geolocation to Mass Users

Firefox 3.5 has shipped with location finding turned on: The latest release of Firefox includes by default the option to use a computer's IP address and, if available, a scan of nearby wireless networks to provide a location to Web sites that use appropriate JavaScript to request a position. Users can opt out when asked, disable location requests for a site, or disable location requests entirely. However, "ask for permission" is on by default.

Firefox is using Google Location Services, which is a combination of cellular tower data that the company has assembled along with some unknown method of collecting and locating Wi-Fi hotspots, much as Skyhook Wireless has been doing for years. Likely, Google gathers this information as it drives the streets for Google Maps.