The 1.3 by 3.0 inch Novatel Wireless V640, the first Express Card for the Verizon Wireless Broadband Access EV-DO network, performs on a par with much larger (2.1- by 3.4-inch) PC Card versions like the Editors’ Choice Kyocera KPC650. More important for many, it works in ExpressCard/34 slots such as those in new Apple, ASUS, Dell, HP, and Lenovo laptops. The card uses the same VZAccess Manager software as Verizon’s other EV-DO cards.

In an ASUS laptop, the V640 more than held its own against the KPC650 (installed in a Toshiba Qosmio) when the signal was moderate to strong. But for areas with a weak signal, you may want to pick up an external antenna. I was also easily able to install the V640 in a MacBook Pro after loading the drivers.

As the first EV-DO PC ExpressCard for laptops, the V640 represents a greatly needed upgrade option. Novatel Wireless is working to get the card out on Sprint. Dell sells an identical card, at the same price, for its laptops. But those who don’t own Dells can get online fast with the V640.

Skype is changing the world of communications by allowing users to talk from PC to PC for free using Internet telephony. Skype’s limitation is that users needed to be near a PC with an Internet connection.

NetGear is taking Skype to the next level with Skype WiFi Phone, which leverage wireless internet networks to allow users to make free calls to other Skype users anywhere in the world, anytime there is WiFi access, without a PC.

The phone’s display shows all of a user’s contacts who are currently online. And like other Skype phones, Netgear’s phone lets users make call to ordinary phones for just pennies a minute. Netgear is making true mobile wireless internet telephony a reality, especially as cities such as San Francisco move to Wi-Fi enable the entire city at no cost to end users.

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With its intuitive status icons, up-to-date security options, and stellar support, the Belkin N1 Wireless Router is on the path to 802.11n wireless networking stardom, but, like other Draft N devices, its performance fails to impress.

Like the Linksys WRT300N and Netgear WNR834B routers, the N1 uses the Draft N spec of the upcoming 802.11n Wi-Fi standard, which could be ratified early in 2007. Belkin’s router offers a mixed 802.11b/g/n mode instead of single-mode operation, however. This discrepancy makes direct performance comparisons impossible, although the N1 did trounce the Linksys and Netgear Draft N routers in mixed-mode and long-range (in mixed mode) throughput tests. Nonetheless, the N1’s overall performance, which was nowhere near the 300Mbps maximum throughput the 802.11n standard promises.

The N1 impressed in other ways, however. Belkin has given its Pre-N router design a makeover, replacing the slate-gray plastic with a slick silver-and-black exterior. Better still, Belkin replaced the standard LED lights with a top-mounted network-status display, which gives you a better handle on your network via icons representing each network element.

The router has all the standard wireless security options, including Wired Equivalent Privacy (WEP) and Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption, stateful packet inspection (SPI) and network address translation (NAT) firewalls, and Media Access Control (MAC) address filtering.

The Iomega’s StorCenter Wireless Network Storage 1TB is a 1-terabyte network-attached drive array that will have you sharing everything from printers to high-definition video pronto. The StorCenter includes a Gigabit Ethernet port, two USB 2.0 ports, and two screw-on antennas for wireless setup. A fan keeps things cool, though it particularly noisy.

Although some problems with Iomega’s Discovery Tool come with the CD, the software is supposed to scan and identify the StorCenter drives on your network. It also lets you arrange the StorCenter’s four 7,200rpm drives in a RAID 0 (striping), RAID 5 (striping with parity), or RAID 0+1 (mirroring and striping) array. Note that the drives are not user-replaceable.

StorCenter at its default setting of RAID 0 over an Ethernet connection, and it wrote 5GB test folder in just 19 minutes. It read back the same folder in 17 minutes and 32 seconds.

Sri Lanka telecom will partner with chipmaker Intel to launch WiMAX in Sri Lanka. WiMAX is a broadband wireless network that is based on the IEEE 802.16 standard which can give greater coverage than Wi-Fi technology. SLT is planning to deploy the WiMAX network across the island within a year once it gets regulatory approval. The WiMAX network will be launched in phases and the first phase will cover metropolitan areas including Colombo, Galle and Kandy and is estimated to cost about US $1 million.

Since WiFi offers the benefits of easy setup without wires and cables, it has proved to be very popular among net savvy users. The increase in the number of available access points is a testament to WiFi’s new found popularity. Easy connectivity, however, comes at a price - wireless networks have poor security compared to their wired counterparts. When you network two computers using a wireless connection, the data is sent via radio waves on a certain channel. Thus anyone with a receiver (a wireless card will do) can analyze the data being sent. This is called sniffing.

If you are running an open network, a cracker with a laptop can listen in and analyze everything that you are doing online - the websites you visit, the emails you send, even the user name and passwords you exchange with servers. After connecting to your network, he may be able to scan and connect to other machines as well. Sharing your WiFi by keeping your access point open is regarded as nice, but there are instances where you want to secure your data. Here’s how to protect your WiFi network:

SSID Cloaking
Wireless networks identify themselves by a SSID, which can be something like ‘mywireless’. Computers with a wireless card whose SSID is set to ‘mywireless’ can connect to each other. Access points send out periodic beacons which are meant to indicate their presence. These beacons also usually broadcast the respective SSID. Thus, anyone with a sniffer can find out that there is a network with a SSID and connect to that.

A basic form of security is to disable the broadcast of SSID. When this is done, the access point doesn’t identify itself when sending out its beacon packets. An intruder who doesn’t know the SSID won’t be able to connect to the network. The weaknesses of this method is that the network’s SSID is sent via other data packets as well. If you listen long enough to the communications between two networks, the SSID can be easily found, making connecting as easy as before.

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There’s never a good time to tell investors that you plan to spend about $3 billion on a new technology platform, but it’s really bad timing after a sisappointing quarter. That’s the take-away from Sprint Nextel’s Aug. 8 announcement that it will build a WiMax network with help from Intel, Samsung and Motorola. While Sprint Nextel’s announcement was big news in technology circles, those following the money had mixed reviews.

Among the do’s and don’ts cited by observers:

• Do undertake a big effort with major players riding shotgun. Wall Street analysts said Intel, Motorola and Samsung are high-quality partners that can lend credibility to Sprint’s attempts to build a new network, dubbed 4G, for those following the industry. Why does Sprint need big names behind it? “Sprint is currently being criticized for failure to establish the quality of its network in consumers’ minds and poor handset selection,” said Jeffrey Halpern, an analyst at New York-based Sanford Bernstein, in a research report.
• Do tell industry watchers about how WiMax can leapfrog the competition. That’s no small issue given doubts that Sprint Nextel can hang tough with the likes of Verizon Wireless and Cingular Wireless.

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