Your Guide To Wireless

Nokia Handset Hits the Wi-Fi Hotspot

Nokia showed off its first handset designed to allow a handover between a cellular and Wifi network. The Nokia 6136 phone, due to ship this summer, uses Unlicensed Mobile Access (UMA), a specification developed by operators and handset vendors to extend phone voice and data services over different wireless services. It means a phone using GSM cellular network can switch to Dab hander... the Trilogy TV-enabled handset Wifi when the user moves into a hotspot. Orange will be one of the first carriers to offer the handset, according to Nokia. The quad-band 6136 supports an email client, as well as support for attachments and push-to-talk capability. ‘The Nokia 6136 clearly demonstrates the complementary nature of cellular and IP-based networks,’ said Nokia’s Kai Oistamo. ‘By implementing UMA into this device, worldwide GSM coverage is combined with WLAN coverage for a seamless communications experience.’ Meanwhile Sony Ericsson announced a range of applications for its Wifi-enabled P990 UMTS smartphone, including a business-card scanner, new entertainment features and Blackberry-style push email. [tags]Nokia, 6136, Wi-Fi Phone, UMA [/tags]

Broadcom boasts first 11n kit

Rivalry between Wi-Fi chip providers reached new levels of confusion at 3GSM when Broadcom announced unofficially that it had the first chips to truly implement the next-generation IEEE 802.11n standard, which is still only in draft form. The announcement by chief technology officer Henry Samueli came during an impressive round of Broadcom product releases, including a new modular mobile platform called Cellairity. Technology analysts had warned companies to be cautious of buying products claiming to be 11n before the standard is ratified. But Samueli denied Broadcom was jumping the gun. He claimed: ‘The spec is all but nailed down, and we can be 99 per cent certain our implementation is the one that the IEEE will go with, and will be what the Wifi standard for multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) will become.’ His statement follows a year of obscure political wrangling among industry groups anxious to get their own pet design approved as the 11n standard. The argument became more heated after Airgo predicted that its technology would be adopted. The conflict continued when tests by a US website claimed an Airgo-based ‘pre-11n’ Netgear RM240 router could quash legacy 11g signals when using channel 6. Samueli said Airgo’s explanation that the problem was due to channel restrictions inherent in 11n was a ‘weak excuse’, and that it would not happen with a properly designed Mimo wireless. He also dismissed fears that the 11n’s enhanced range will make airwave congestion worse. ‘With dual-frequency Mimo, you can choose between 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands and just search for a free channel,’ Samueli claimed. ‘There will be plenty of free channels, even with the added range; and, more importantly, if the 11n design can’t find a free channel it will power back to avoid congestion.’

Wired, You’re Fired!

In tech products across the board, wires are being cut loose faster than The Donald can bark, “You’re fired!” Now beleaguered cables have gotten another pink slip: the Airgo Networks True MIMO Gen3 chipset. When the first two router/client card combinations (one from Linksys and one from Netgear) based on Airgo’s new hardware were tested, they are good impression. At short distances, both fling data through the air faster than the 100Mbps of wired Fast Ethernet! In fact, wireless throughput remains comparable at up to 60 feet. Even at 160 feet these new products are signficantly faster than any one that use previous wireless technologies. Airgo works its mojo primarily by turning a broadcast nemesis : multipath reflection into an ally. Signals that travel different routes interfere with each other if they arrive at one antenna that feeds into one radio and that’s the way current wireless products are set up. MIMO (multiple-input multiple-output) technology, used by Airgo (and others, soon), collects the echoes via multiple antenna/radio combinations and uses sophisticated processing to build a stronger, faster signal. Speed can be dangerous, though. The next wireless standard, 802.11n, hasn’t been ratified. Some of the technology in this pre-n hardware is sure to be in the products that come out after 802.11n approval, but the implemention will probably differ. The chances of pre-n products being upgradable are slim. Still, ratification may be as distant as sometime in 2007.

Good Wi-Fi Pair

Pair a NetGear RangeMax 240 Wireless router with its WPNT511 Card-Bus PC Card client and you’re in for quite a shock. The pair breaks wired networking’s lock on 100-Mbps transfers. On the tests, at distances up to 120 feet the two even beat the stunningly fast Linksys SRX 400 and its laptop adapter. The router/PC Card combination hits more than 103 Mbps at 10 feet, exceeding the throughput of wired Fast Ethernet. In fact, data transfer is a remarkable 95.3 Mbps at 60 feet—still on a par with Fast Ethernet. Even at 160 feet, throughput is 22.4 Mbps significantly faster than with any wireless technology. Netgear didn’t sacrifice ease of use or features for speed, though. The bundled software and the router’s Web-based configuration interface are both intuitive. And the hardware packs in all the features you would expect; port forwarding and triggering, VPN pass-through, dynamic DNS, service blocking, UPnP, and many more. The wireless security choices are the standard WEP, WPA, or WPA2 with preshared key. All that’s lacking as with the Linksys SRX 400, is effective parental controls. For anyone streaming multimedia simultaneously to several wireless clients (or engaging in other bandwidth hogging activities), this is the fastest and easiest to use wireless hardware currently available.

Troubleshooting WiFi Network Connections

You can't make a connection to your WiFi network because the wireless networking icon or properties dialog box does not appear. I'm offer you a few solutions: Windows XP Compatibility Your problem may be that your wireless network adapter is not compatible with Windows XP. To check whether it is compatible, check the Windows Hardware Compatibility List (HCL). When you get to the site, click See the Windows Catalog, then from the page that appears, click the Hardware tab. Next click Networ...

Google Wireless

Google Wireless provides mobile access to the full power of Google right from the PDA in your palm, the BlackBerry on your belt, or the cellphone in your pocket. Settle that "in like Flynn" versus "in like Flint" dinner-table argument without leaving your seat. Find quickie reviews and commentary on that Dustmeister 2000 vacuum before making the purchase. Figure out where you've seen that bit-part actor before without waiting for the credits at the end of the movie. And beyond searching, ...

10 Easy Steps to Configure Your Notebook for Wireless Internet Access

For Windows 2000/ XP users: Click on the Start button on the lower left corner of the taskbar. Select Setting, Control Panel Double click on the Network Connections icon, then select Wireless Network Connection In a new window, click on the Properties button Scroll down till you see Internet Protocol (TCP/IP), click on Properties button In the General tab, select Obtain an IP automatically as well as Obtain DNS server address automatically. Click on the OK button tw...