Mobile » Wi-Fi

Want better Wi-Fi? Five things you need

Laptops used to be the only devices on the company's wireless network. But Wi-Fi has become a ubiquitous standard used by a host of devices -- including desktop PCs, laptops, netbooks, tablets, smartphones, printers, storage devices, and projectors.

By Logan G. Harbaugh | 27 October, 2011 08:27

Tags: Business Center, firewalls, management, networking, Network management, network security, security, wireless, WLANs / Wi-Fi

What's next for Wi-Fi?

The recent formal approval of the IEEE 802.11n wireless standard marks not the end but the start of a wave of Wi-Fi innovation. In the next three to five years, the Wi-Fi experience will be very different from today.

By John Cox | 13 November, 2009 08:40

Tags: 802.11n, networking, wi-fi

802.11n set for final approval

Sometime on Friday, at the sprawling Hyatt Regency hotel in New Brunswick, N.J., an IEEE group called the Standards Board is expected to approve the 802.11n wireless LAN standard.

By John Cox | 11 September, 2009 06:07

Tags: 802.11n, wi-fi

On the road: Testing wireless voice and data on the highways

Marc Lefevre is the up-to-date, real-life equivalent of the "Can you hear me now?" guy from the Verizon Wireless TV ads that grew popular in 2004.

By Matt Hamblen | 08 September, 2009 08:14

Tags: verizon, wireless

The Wacky World of WiFi

In honor of the 802.11n WiFi standard getting close to arriving after wandering through the desert for 40 years, let's look at wireless. Our focus today is on helping you WiFi better, even if it means doing less WiFi.

By James E. Gaskin | 03 September, 2009 02:58

Tags: 802.11n, networking, wi-fi

Secrets of the best enterprise Wi-Fi networks revealed

A just released Aberdeen Group research report identifies the steps taken by best-in-class enterprise IT groups to create secure, pervasive, manageable, reliable, high-performance Wi-Fi networks.

By John Cox | 13 August, 2009 08:14

Tags: wi-fi, wlan

New technology guards food from feral animals

Two Queensland-based researchers have just finished working on an animal management system prototype, developed over the past six years, which uses computer software to tell the farming livestock from wild animals.

By Kathryn Edwards | 28 April, 2009 10:42

Tags: animal recognition technology, csiro, farming, RFID, solar power, webcams, agriculture

WLAN product blitz shows 802.11n more affordable, useable

A slew of new WLAN hardware and software suggests that 802.11n high-throughput WLANs are fast becoming more affordable and manageable across all industry segments.

By John Cox | 02 March, 2009 07:48

Tags: wlan

IT struggles to close the mobile phone gap

For a concept that's remarkably easy to reduce to a sound bite, bridging the gap between mobile phones and enterprise networks ("fixed-mobile convergence") remains stubbornly hard to implement.

By John Cox | 09 December, 2008 10:29

Tags: wi-fi

12 myths about how the Internet works

Thirty years have passed since the Internet Protocol was first described in a series of technical documents written by early experimenters. Since then, countless engineers have created systems and applications that rely on IP as the communications link between people and their computers.

By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 21 November, 2008 14:10

Tags: wireless lan

High-tech travel tips

Plenty of stories provide advice for elite mobile professionals. But what about you, the unproductive traveler? Maybe you're on vacation. Maybe you're trying to chill out before a day's worth of travel and business meetings. Point is, you need to pack a little smarter to entertain yourself, and that's what this week's column is all about. I have some great roadworthy games and a few ways to watch video--and, yeah, I'll even throw in some helpful, practical tips.

10 great Wi-Fi gadgets for work and play

You've done the hard work of optimizing your Wi-Fi network, and it reliably beams high-speed data to every nook and cranny of your home or office. Now, it's time to take it to the next level by connecting more than just computers.

By Brian Nadel | 25 September, 2008 10:16

Tags: consumer electronics, digital cameras, entertainment, peripherals, personal storage, printers, wireless, wlan

5 easy hacks for your PC and Wi-Fi network

Hacking isn't just for geeks anymore. In this era of ubiquitous gadgetry and free information, anyone with a screwdriver can do a little unauthorized tinkering. Sure, the word hacking has negative connotations. But hacking is really about being a do-it-yourselfer. That means opening a Web browser rather than your wallet to get more functionality from the products you own.

Deploying the iPhone 3G for business, part 2

In Part 1 of this series, I looked at the mechanisms available to IT staffers to activate, deploy and configure iPhones in business environments. But the biggest new business-oriented feature available on the iPhone, thanks to the iPhone 2.x firmware (included with the iPhone 3G and available for free to users of first-generation iPhones or for US$9.95 for iPod Touch users), is the addition of ActiveSync for accessing Microsoft Exchange.

By Ryan Faas | 18 September, 2008 09:52

Tags: iphone 3g, it management, smartphones

Plan rolling to improve vehicle-based Wi-Fi nets

You could think of this as the Tarzan protocol for Wi-Fi. The goal is to improve interactive Wi-Fi connections dramatically for moving vehicles.

Wireless LANs face huge scaling challenges

Philippe Hanset is wondering about the intersection of the Slingbox and the campuswide wireless LAN at University of Tennessee at Knoxville, where he's senior networking engineer.

20 crazy things people do to get Wi-Fi connections

In their quest to get Wi-Fi Internet connectivity, people have done some pretty desperate things over the years.

By Thomas Wailgum | 21 August, 2008 12:19

Tags: wi-fi

Wi-Fi tweaks for speed freaks

One thing you can depend on these days is that the claims made for wireless routers, like 300Mbit/sec. throughput and 1,000-foot range, are nothing more than digital pipe dreams. The plain and simple truth is that these speeds and distances just aren't going to happen in your home, office or any place on this planet.

By Brian Nadel | 21 August, 2008 11:29

Tags: antenna, repeater, router, wi-fi, wireless, wireless and wired network installations

Five great Wi-Fi Internet Radios

While Web-based music offerings from Apple (iTunes) and others have made it easy to turn a laptop or desktop into a music player, what if you want to listen without dragging around your PC? Enter the stand-alone Internet radio, which looks like a radio and has an antenna, but connects via Wi-Fi to the Internet and streams audio to speakers. We recently tried out five such devices. Check the slides to see what we thought.

Deploying the iPhone 3G for business, part 1

One of biggest stories behind the release of the iPhone 3G -- and the iPhone 2.0 firmware update for first-generation iPhones -- was the inclusion of features designed for use in business environments. While many analysts and enterprise users have argued in recent weeks about whether the iPhone can replace Research In Motion's BlackBerry as the prevailing smart phone for business, little has been said about the tools and processes that Apple offers systems administrators to actually deploy and manage iPhones at work.